Young people to be allowed to remain in foster care until age 21

Education minister Edward Timpson explained it was crucial for younger men and women in foster care to be offered sufficient time to prepare for lifestyle afterwards. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Kids and youthful men and women brought up by foster carers in England will be permitted to continue to be with households right up until they are 21 if they pick to below a new legal duty for councils, ministers will announce on Wednesday.

Charities have prolonged argued for a modify in the law, which presently forces many younger individuals to live on their personal at 18. The government has set aside £40m for local authorities in excess of the up coming 3 many years to put help arrangements in location.

The determination marks a U-flip for ministers, who had previously resisted calls to broaden Labour’s pilot Staying Place programme – a scheme that gives younger people the option to stay with foster households until finally they are 21.

The Labour scheme had been piloted in eleven English neighborhood authorities because 2008 and evaluations showed that younger people who stayed on with foster carers have been twice as very likely to be in total time education at 19 as people who did not.

Schooling minister Edward Timpson, whose own mom fostered 90 children, stated: “I know from the many foster youngsters I grew up with how critical it is for them to be given enough time to prepare for daily life soon after care.

“A developing variety of local authorities currently provide young folks the selection to remain, but with tiny monetary support it can be demanding for their foster households. This is a additional reform to our significantly wider package deal of help for care leavers, including much higher monetary help for youthful individuals leaving care at 18.”

The government will now place forward an amendment at the third reading through of the children and families bill in January.

Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network, which campaigned on the issue, stated: “This adjust in the law will make a massive distinction to the lives of this and potential generations of care leavers in England. This concern has, however, not been resolved for young folks in Wales and Scotland. We will proceed to campaign for this modify in the law to be replicated”.

Presently, nearby authorities in England fund the price of children in foster care until finally they attain 18. At that level, help varies across the nation. In many locations, youngsters are forced to reside by themselves at an age when other people would remain at residence. Statistics from the Division for Schooling exposed only ten much more young folks stayed with their foster carers right after the age of 18 in 2012-13 than in 2011-twelve.

Natasha Finlayson, chief executive of the Who Cares? Trust, which supports children in care, mentioned: “This represents the most significant reform to the help youngsters in care are offered in a generation.

“Time and once more we hear from youthful people who are very anxious about obtaining to leave their carers when they turn 18 and effectively no longer possessing somewhere they can get in touch with property, specifically when the common age for young folks who are not in care to ultimately depart home is (at least) 24.”

Councils stated that they would “need to make certain the income required does not come out of previously tough-pressed council budgets, but is fully funded by central government”. David Simmonds, chairman of the Regional Government Association’s kids and younger people board, stated: “Councils are working to make certain every thing possible is carried out so that children in care have access to the identical opportunities and daily life odds as their peers.”

Young people to be allowed to remain in foster care until age 21