Care Leavers Local Offer

This is our promise to you as a Staffordshire care experienced young person. It details what you’re entitled to, how to access the support that’s on offer and who is going to work with you. 

There’s also additional information for young people who are parents, are unaccompanied asylum seekers, have had contact with the criminal justice system or people who may have additional needs/disabilities.

Working together is at the heart of what we do, this means that this offer is reviewed regularly as we are always looking for ways to improve. We have consulted with our children and young people through The Voice Project and local forums and this offer includes their ideas and suggestions.

Our corporate parenting principles

• To encourage children and young people to express their views, wishes, and feelings

• To take into account the views, wishes and feelings of children and young people

• To help children and young people gain access to and make the best use of services provided by the leaving care service and its relevant partners

• To promote high aspirations and to seek to secure the best outcomes for children and young people

• For children and young people to be safe, and for stability in their home lives relationships and education or work

• to prepare children and young people for adulthood and independent living

The legal stuff

Who is a care leaver?

You are eligible if  you are currently looked after; and aged 16 or 17; and you have been looked after for a period of 13 weeks (or periods amounting to 13 weeks) which began after you reached 14 and ended after you reached 16. 

You are a relevant care leaver if you are no longer looked after by the Local Authority but you have been Eligible’; and aged 16 or 17 years old; immediately before being detained or in hospital you were ‘Eligible’; or lived for continuous period of 6 months or more with a parent, someone with parental responsibility and where those arrangements break down.

You are a former relevant care leaver if you are aged 18 years or above, and either have been a Relevant or Eligible child when under 18 if at the age of 21 or before reaching the age of 25 you are in education or training, then you will remain a former relevant child until the end of the agreed programme. If after 21 years you inform us that you want to pursue or are pursuing a programme of education or training.

You are a qualifying care leaver if you are at least 16 but under 21; and you were looked after immediately prior to the making of a special guardianship order which was in force when you reached 18; or if at any time after reaching the age of 16, but before reaching the age of 18 you have been a looked after child, accommodated by or on behalf of a voluntary organisation, registered children’s home, or by a health authority or privately fostered.

As a Qualifying Care Leaver you are able to access advice and assistance based on a needs assessment completed by our leaving care service.

Your personal advisor (PA)

You will be supported by your PA and your social worker until you are 18, after that Your PA will work with you and the people you tell us are important to you to help you get ready to live independently. Your PA is there to offer advice, signposting and guidance about housing, finance, health and education.  The amount of support that you receive from your Personal Adviser will depend on what support you need and your circumstances.

They can help you with things like: 

• Moving on to independence 

• Training and employment opportunities 

• Developing your independence skills

• Finding somewhere suitable to live

• Managing your finances and claiming benefits

You will have personal advisor until you are 21. However, if you need to we will continue to offer this support until you’re 25. 

After 25, you can always contact us for advice via email: careleaverslocalofferteam@staffordshire.gov.uk

If you want to access your files then your PA can talk you through the process and liaise with our access to files team. They will help you understand if accessing your files is the best thing for you right now, and if it is – talk you through what happens next.

Your Pathway Plan is your plan that you’ve created and agreed with your PA – it outlines what you’d like to achieve, and what you’re going to do - along with the support that we are going to offer to help you get there. 

Your pathway plan will look at your; Education, Training, Employment, Health, Finances and Relationships; and will look at where you are living and where you want to live in the future.

We will review and write your Pathway Plan with you at a minimum of 6 monthly intervals or sooner if you have a change in your circumstances.

Your money

Just as parents would support their own children financially, we will offer support by:

• Making sure you've got two forms of ID, your National Insurance number and a bank account by your eighteenth birthday

• Helping you access a junior ISA or other savings account that you might have – such as a Child trust fund.

• Providing a setting up home grant (SUHG) to help you buy essential things when moving into your own home. This is £2,000 if your eighteenth birthday was before the 31 March 2023, or £3,000 if it was after.

• Providing a new home starter pack worth £50

• If you’re learning to drive, then we will pay £125 for lessons or test fees (or a combination) for car or motorcycle lessons.

• Help you claim exemptions for your council tax – and if you’re under 21, we’ll pay the bill that’s remaining.

• Providing a financial gift of £25 for your nineteenth and twentieth birthdays, and £50 for your twenty first birthday. In addition to £25 at Christmas or other celebrations following your eighteenth birthday until you’re 21.

• If you’re going to university then our corporate parenting grant pays £2,000 per year for three years up to the age of 25. If you start a course and realise that you made the wrong choice, we will let you start over so long as you change courses within your first year. In addition, we will cover your UCAS application fees.

• Providing new parents with a baby box containing some essentials such as a bodysuits, nappies and shampoos to get you started, as well as a gift of £25.

• For young people who are in custody we will pay £10 per week to your prison account for each full week you are in prison.

• Offering Free prescriptions up to 25 years

• Offering Free eye tests up to 25 years

• Covering deposit and rent advance costs

• Offering Free membership to gyms

• Paying the cost of one years broadband connection

• Ask Jan / Two adults mental health membership.

• Helping you access the leisure allowance of £30 per month for any activity that helps promote your physical or mental health.

Your health and wellbeing

Being healthy and getting the right support for your mental and physical health is as important as any other aspect of your life. We can help in the following ways:

• Provide a health passport prior to your eighteenth birthday, which is a summary of your health information and history.

• Help you manage your emotional wellbeing by signposting or supporting you to access to other agencies (or supporting you to access), this includes Action for Children, CAHMS or community mental health services.

• Give information on getting help to pay for prescriptions.

• Support you to register with a GP, optician and dentist.

• Give you help with transport costs when attending health appointments if there’s a specific reason that you can’t attend. This is needs led. We can sometimes help with costs. 

Identity and sexuality

We understand that part of moving into adulthood is discovering more about yourself, your care journey and how you want the world to see you. Your PA can help signpost you to support or advice groups if you need them to.  

Your PA can help you locate sexual health services in the community.

We don’t want money to be a barrier to you purchasing period products – speak to your PA if you’d like to access support.

Your home

As you approach 18 your social worker and personal advisor will talk to you to understand where you want to live when you leave care.

There are many options and you’ll be supported to access whichever is right for you, your local housing district and your PA can support you apply for:

• Supported Accommodation (this could be, self-contained flats and shared houses or hostel type accommodation).

• Private rented accommodation

• Social housing (sometimes called council housing) is provided by government agencies or non-profit organisations.

Although you may feel like you should be given your own property when you leave care, as your corporate parents we need to be confident that you are ready to take on a tenancy. If you’re not ready then there are other options. These could include:

• Staying put with your foster carers until you are 21.

• Supported lodgings until you are 21– this is where you live in someone’s home, they provide a safe and supportive place to live; the supported lodgings host will offer emotional and practical support, like, cooking, budgeting to help prepare you to live independently.

You might decide to move back in with family.

If you are homeless or at risk of homelessness we will also arrange a referral to our specialist housing PA.

Whichever option is best for you, they can support you by:

• Supporting you to get priority banding for housing applications in all Staffordshire districts and challenging decisions if we think they have been made incorrectly.

• Helping you to claim housing benefit/universal credit.

• Helping you understand the bills that you will have to pay to run your own home.

• Support and advice to access your setting up home grant – if applicable.

• Supporting you if you have a housing crisis, including helping if you are threatened with homelessness or lose a tenancy.

• Paying your council tax until your twenty first birthday, wherever you live

Education, employment and training opportunities

We want to make sure every young person leaving care has the support to achieve their goals in life.

Education

Our Virtual School can offer you:

• Support and advice from until you finish your post 16 education. We will support you through the Personal Education Plan (PEP) process until the end of your time in year 13. The Virtual School Post 16 Team can offer advice and support to you and your personal advisor.

• Post 16 Peps to ensure you are getting the support you require to achieve your education goals. This is to support your transition from Further Education to Higher Education through regular reviews.

• We will help you to complete your UCAS application and pay the fees. We will provide a supporting letter to confirm your care experienced status to  make sure that you get everything that you’re entitled to at university from day one.

• If you’re going to university then we will give you a corporate parenting grant of £2,000 for each year of your three-year course. If you start a course and realise that you made the wrong choice, we will let you start over once providing you make the changes before the start of your second year. Please note: this will only be done once. 

• If you need support to attend a university open day, talk to your PA and we will see how we can help you.

• If you need to find somewhere to stay during university vacations we can help you to pay for this.

Employment and training

We can offer you:

• Foundations to Employment project (F2E) offer a work placement to young people who are care experienced and are not employed or in education/training. You will be paid a financial incentive of £20 a day for attending and engaging in your work placement, up to 5 days a week. In addition, we will pay you £25 at the end of the placement, and up to £50 for protective clothing if the employer requires it. This will give you real world experience to put on your CV and talk about at interview and can even lead to paid employment.

• Directory of opportunities which showcases opportunities for work, work experience, apprenticeships and taster days within the County Council. these opportunities could lead into employment.

Ring-fenced apprenticeships

Our Careers and participation service can offer you:

• Careers guidance for young people 16 to 21 not in education, employment or training, or up to age 25 for young people with learning difficulties and disabilities.

• A guidance interview with young people who meet the required criteria and want to return to learning post 21 years of age.

• You may be able to get financial support with travel, clothes and equipment when starting work if your work coach cannot help you – there are different routes to this depending on your circumstances. Your PA will let you know if you’re eligible and how to access support.

• You can access free dry-cleaning services through Timpson’s to help you to prepare for an interview. 

Relationships and participation in society

We recognise that we have a role to play in helping you become a part of society and make long lasting connections.

We arrange a lot of activities and support and offer:

• The Voice Project – a social and feedback group for care experienced young people to feed back their experiences to us. 

• The Hive – These are properties in the Stafford and Cannock areas where you can drop in and have access to washing and drying facilities, a quiet area, TV and computer access along with activities, or you can just drop in to socialise and meet new people!

• Access to mentoring.

• Help to maintain or regain contact with people important to you.

• A National care leavers week celebration event that you are all welcome to attend.

• Support to help you to re-connect or maintain relationships with your family – this could include covering the cost of two trips per year for you to see family or friends.

• Trips throughout the year such as Alton Towers, outdoor activity centres as well as a group Christmas dinner.

• Advice to help you enrol on the Electoral Register, so you can vote in elections.

Advocacy and information

Custody or contact with the criminal justice system.

If you are at risk of involved in offending behaviour are at risk of criminal exploitation we will work with Youth Offending colleagues to try to help you.

If you’re in custody your personal advisor will visit you at least every 8 weeks and will keep in touch by letter or email. They will ask your offender manager for updates on your progress. We will work with Youth Offending, Probation, your offender manager and housing colleagues to best plan for your release and resettlement. On release from custody, we will meet you to help you to settle in to your new accommodation.

Support for young parents

For parents we have a network of children’s centres where you can get practical support on what to expect during pregnancy and as a new parent you can get lots of support. Look on our website for our ‘bump to baby scheme’. For new parents we will provide you with a baby box containing some essentials such as a bodysuits, nappies and shampoos to get you started, as well as a gift on becoming a parent. 

People with disabilities or other needs

If you have a disability or a diagnosed neurodiversity your PA can help ensure that you’re getting all the support you need from us, including working with other professionals involved in supporting you.

We have an in-house benefits welfare officer who can help you ensure that you’re getting all of the financial and practical support that you are entitled to, and if you have other professionals involved then your PA will work with them.

Get in touch

Duty contact numbers for where you live.

Stafford and South Staffordshire: 01785 276800

Burton and Tamworth: 01827 78255

Lichfield and Cannock: 01543 510100

Newcastle and Moorlands: 01538 483129

Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers: 01785 276800

CGL: 07471 543607

Email: careleaverofferteam@staffordshire.gov.uk

Useful contacts

Here are some useful contacts that we want you to have on hand.

• Coram Voice - an online tool to find out what your Leaving Care status is and gives more information about the support you receive. 

• Rees Foundation - Offers help and advice to care experienced individuals about any concerns and are always there to listen.

• Care Leavers Covenant - A national inclusions programme that supports care experienced young people and provides lots of information about opportunities for young people and provides lots of information about opportunities for young people.

• Become - A charity that can offer advice and guidance to care experienced young people.

Housing links

• Staffordshire County Council

• Stafford Borough Council

• Newcastle Under Lyme Borough Council

• Staffordshire Moorlands District Council

• East Staffordshire Borough Council

• Cannock District Council

• Lichfield District Council

• Tamworth Borough Council

• South Staffordshire District Council

• Shelter

Finance

• Citizen's Advice

• The Trussell Trust - The Trussell Trust run and enable community projects that combat poverty and exclusion including provision of food banks across the county. 

• Entitledto is an independent and accurate online benefit entitlement checker. 

Education and training

• Adult and Community Learning for aged 19+
     
• Nova training 
     
• PM Training 
     
• National Apprenticeships 

Health and wellbeing

• PAPYRUS is the national charity dedicated to the prevention of young suicide
     
• Young Minds are a national charity supporting young people with mental health support to enable them to have the resilience to overcome life’s difficulties. 
    
• Changes YP is a peer support service promoting the recovery of young people in mental distress throughout Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire.