Urgent Review of Setting up Home Grants for Care Leavers needed

3rd April 2009

A new report published today by the Care Leavers’ Foundation shows that local authorities in England do not provide sufficient funds for children to set up home when they take on their first full tenancy. In the UK children as young as 16 have to leave local authority care and take on the responsibilities of adult life. Many receive a high quality of after care and support to establish themselves as young householders and may be able to live in supported tenancies or housing projects before attaining full independence. Others are forced to live in hostels, B & B, or other temporary arrangements whilst waiting for a permanent tenancy. Nearly a quarter of all children leaving care left at age 16 in the year ending 31st March 2008.

Once allocated a permanent tenancy, care leavers are entitled to receive a leaving care or setting up home grant to ensure that they have all the basic essentials to enable them to live alone. They are a vulnerable group and most have no access the kind of family support and assistance that most young people leaving home for the first time take for granted.

The survey conducted by the Care Leavers’ Foundation showed that in today’s prices, the cost of purchasing the most basic furnishings and essentials in order to begin life as an independent householder in a one bedroom flat is £2,556. Eight care leavers across England and Wales undertook shopping surveys to find out what the shopping list of essentials actually cost. The selected items were based on lists from 4 local authorities which set out what they believed a young person needed for their first home.

Young people conducting the research used their local knowledge to hunt for bargains and generally had low expectations of what they might expect to be given. One participant stated she would like to have cooker: “I know it’s a lot to ask but I think I could be more healthy and save more money in the long run” and others felt that some kind of floor covering was important. Young mums in particular came up with comments such as “the baby will be crawling soon and I don’t want him to hurt himself on the concrete floor”. Others referred to uncarpeted flats as cold, and resulting in higher heating bills and possible depression.

As part of the study, Children and Young People Now magazine also surveyed local authorities to find out how much they were actually providing. Whilst a number of authorities said the grant was ‘needs led’, of those who had a fixed or maximum figure just 9% provided over £2,000 and only one out of 150 came close to the £2,500 recommended by The Care Leavers’ Foundation. Just over a quarter paid between £1600 and £1950 and one authority allocated just £500 to kit out an unfurnished flat from scratch.

The study was conducted following the research undertaken for the Foundation by QA Research for National Care Leavers’ Week which indicated that too many care leavers are still struggling to start out in life as a result of chronically poor housing conditions. This includes being placed in unsuitable accommodation which is either run down or in high risk areas, however the problems of poor quality housing are exacerbated by a lack of basic essentials for daily living and out report showed that care leavers felt poor quality living standards impacted on other areas such as mental health, depression, education and employment.

The Care Leavers’ Foundation is calling for a set minimum amount to be determined by national Government for leaving care grants and an end to the postcode lottery which means that a care leavers chances in life are largely determined by local policy and result in high levels of inequality across this vulnerable population.

Spokesperson Janet Rich said that the Foundation received many grant applications from young care leavers who simply had no means of purchasing basic items for their flats. Rich said: “There is a huge gap between Government aspiration for this group and delivery on the ground. Care leavers are already highly vulnerable because they have to start out in independence so much younger than young people leaving their family home and basic things like having no curtains or sleeping on a mattress on the floor deprive them of personal dignity and make it very difficult for them to focus on achieving and progressing in their lives.”

The 2007 White Paper ‘Time for Change’ stated “Any good parent will continue to offer love and support to their children well beyond 18, giving them the greatest head start in life that they can. The Government expects no less for children in care.”

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