Children's Commissioner calls for government to be "good parent" to care leavers

Anne Longfield, who grew up in Leeds, made the plea as, a Yorkshire Post exclusive on Saturday revealed, a major new Yorkshire report, which is urging the Government to substantially invest in all stages of the care journey to deliver stability and support to children when they most need it.

The new report from the University of Sheffield entitled: Journeying Through Care: Pathways to University, aims to challenge the stigma associated with young people who are care experienced and to promote support.

It will be put to government later this month, and claims that there is a real risk that if lessons are not learned, then vulnerable young people who currently face the most disadvantage will eventually pay the highest price and see the gap in life widen for them even further still.

Mrs Longfield, who has worked with vulnerable and disadvantaged children for more than 30 years, told The Yorkshire Post: “Children in care are in the care of the state, and what the state needs be is a good parent for that child and be able to offer everything that a parent would want for their own child.

“That is ensuring that they have all the things they need when they are growing up but also that actually, we are giving them the support and skills that they need to set them up to succeed in the future and that starts young, but it is something that never ends if you are a parent.

“You are forever thinking about the future and how you can help your child get to that point.

“You don’t stop being a parent at 18 and those can be some of the most stressful years for young people as they go through their late teens and early 20s.”

Mrs Longfield's call to action also comes as Northern education chiefs and charities warned of the widening life opportunities gap of the most vulnerable children facing added pressure and challenges due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

While acknowledging there has been some “important recognition” from the Government that children in care need support beyond the age of 18, including the introduction of ‘staying put’ arrangements introduced in 2013 that enables care leavers to remain with their former foster carers after they turn 18, Mrs Longfield called for the age of children remaining in the care of the state to be extended to 25 years old.

She said: “There has been some important recognition from government that children in care need support beyond the age of 18… But you need to go beyond that.

“One of the first reports I did as Children’s Commissioner actually said that children should remain in care in the broader sense until they are 25, and five and a half years on that still runs true to me.

“Obviously the care you offer a 22 year-old won’t be the care you offer a seven year old but actually the responsibility of the state for children in care should remain until 25, really to provide that springboard to be able to move through those difficult years into employment into training or into higher education.”

Across Yorkshire and the Humber 42 per cent of 19-21 year old care leavers are no longer in the education system and not working or being trained for work (NEET) - three per cent higher than the national 39 per cent, the Children’s Commissioner for England said.

While across the region just six per cent were in higher education - the same as the national figure.

Mrs Longfield warned that the “worryingly high” NEET figure will grow disproportionately for those most vulnerable across the region as a result of the pandemic.

She said: “What the pandemic has shown is the frailties in the system of support for vulnerable people and by definition children in care have been one of those groups.

“Not all care leavers will want to go onto university or it be the right thing for them but they will want to go on and get a good job, and they will want to go on and potentially get an apprenticeship, this is something we should see as absolute basics of our support as corporate parents, and being a good parent for those kids.”

At a time when the Government has been urged to make good on its commitment to undertake a review of the social care system, Mrs Longfield, said the need to improve the life chances of care leavers should be made a priority by the Government.

She said: “There needs to be a real change towards supporting care leavers to succeed and having high ambitions for care leavers and having the support but also the springboards in place that helps them to go on and achieve.”

Mrs Longfield added the Government needed to work more collaboratively with universities including introducing extra measures - such as free accommodation throughout the duration of university, compulsory bursary support for care leavers, and, for those that have the results they need at A-level - they should be able to have automatic entry for consideration onto their chosen course.

She said: “With higher education only six per cent of children in care are going into higher education - that figure simply isn’t good enough.

“I think the Government needs to set real targets there to get care leavers into higher education and to work collaboratively with universities around the country for them to meet that challenge.

“We should be doubly determined that children in care have the support to be able to get there.

“The emphasis should be on how universities can step-up to provide that support for care leavers.

“And also work with councils to raise awareness of that as an option for kids earlier and provide that kind of mentoring for children, as they go through their exam period and into A-levels that will help them get the stepping stone they need to be able to consider it as a real option.”

A special report by The Yorkshire Post revealed on the weekend:

- A new major report, by the University of Sheffield, entitled: Journeying Through Care: Pathways to University, which aims to shape government policy and challenge the stigma associated with young people who are care experienced and to promote support.

- There are fears a lack of investment in all stages of the care journey is stifling children’s ambitions and life prospects as an underfunded social care system, with a sudden cut-off from the age of 18.

- Across Yorkshire and the Humber there are 8,568 children in care following on from official figures released earlier this year which showed levels had reached a 10-year-high - with 78,150 children in care in England at the end of March 2019.

- North Yorkshire was the only area in the region to see a decrease in figures for children in care with 428 - a decrease of four per cent compared to 2015.

- Ahead of the delayed independent care review in England, Boris Johnson’s government are being urged to substantially invest in all stages of the care journey to deliver stability and support to children when they most need it.

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