Young care-leavers in Croydon can now see how the council plans to support them as they transition into adulthood, making sure they are safe, well and accessing every opportunity the borough has to offer.
Croydon Council has published its draft ‘local offer’ for young people who have been in care, setting out how it will offer them help and advice from age 16 up until 25. It can be viewed here.
Every young care-leaver is offered a personal advisor, who will support them as they move into independent living and help them get to grips with the responsibilities of adulthood. This include helps with finding somewhere to live, managing their finances, staying in further education or securing a job and taking care of their physical and mental health.
The local offer helps young people talk to their personal adviser about what available services can help them on their journey. The local offer document is aimed at young people and written in an accessible style, so they can clearly see what help is available to them. It will be available online, with audio narrative and hyperlinks to videos.
It will go before the council’s cabinet for approval at their meeting next Monday.
“As anyone with children will know, a parent’s responsibilities do not end when their child turns 18 or when they leave home. As corporate parents, we are ambitious for our care-leavers and our local offer is our promise to them – we will continue to support them, not just to make sure they are ok, but to help them be the best they can be.”
Councillor Alisa Flemming, cabinet member for children, young people and learning
Care-leaver Ashley Searle said: “I’m glad we have a document that lets us know what support we are entitled to and what services are out there. Now that we have a local offer in place we have a foundation to build on so that one day we can have an even stronger offer for young people leaving care.”
Also this month the council approved its package to help more young people ‘stay put’ with their foster carers for longer, up until the age of 21.
Councillor Flemming said: “Not every young person is ready for independent living at the age of 18 and we want to encourage foster carers to offer young people a home for longer if they want it.”
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