4.11.3 Leaving Care Policy and Guidance

SCOPE OF THIS CHAPTER

This chapter should be read in conjunction with Leaving Care Procedure.

Aims and Objectives
Principles, Values and Aspirations
Statutory Responsibilities
Eligibility Criteria
Responsibility Levels
Financial Arrangements
Information

1. Aims and Objectives

This policy states the commitment of Luton Borough Council (hereafter referred to as 'The Council') to the philosophy, aims and objectives of the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 (hereafter referred to as 'The Act'). It forms part of an interlocking group of plans and policies that state the Council's commitment to modernisation and social inclusion. Specifically, it recognises that young people, as they leave care have a diversity of needs, based on background, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and any disability they may have. Those working with these young people, or advocating on their behalf, are expected to support pro-actively their human rights, including their right to equal opportunities, through anti-discriminatory practice.

The Council endorses and supports the main purpose of the Act, to improve the life chances of young people living in and leaving local authority care. It endorses and supports the main aims of the Act.

To delay young people's discharge from care until they are prepared and ready to leave.
To improve the assessment, preparation and planning for leaving care.
To provide better personal support for young people after leaving care.
To improve the financial arrangements for care leavers.

The Council's aims and objectives for children who are looked after, and those leaving care are as follows: -

To provide stable placements, continuity of carers and the maintenance, wherever possible, of positive links, whilst young people are looked after.
To look after young people until they are prepared and ready to leave care.
To promote and maintain relationships with carers and families, where possible, after young people leaving care.
To prepare young people gradually to be ready to leave care, paying attention to practical self-care needs - health, budgeting, domestic skills- and personal and relationship dimensions.
To enable young people leaving care to fulfil their potential in education, training and employment.
To ensure young people leaving care have access to a range of accommodation and the support and skills to maintain them in their accommodation.
To ensure that there is contingency provision to support care leavers in the event of a crisis, including arrangements for emergency short-term accommodation.
To provide or enable ongoing personal support, including support from the Luton 16+ Team , support by carers and social workers and support by locality based teams for children, young people and their families.
To ensure that where young people are entitled to claim welfare benefits, they receive their full entitlements.
To involve young people in all assessment, planning, reviews and decision-making arrangements, for leaving care.
To inform young people leaving care of the available services including provision of accessible leaving care guides and of their right to access their own records.
To monitor and evaluate the outcome of the above.

2. Principles, Values and Aspirations

The Council recognises that the needs of children as they leave care will not be met by support of single agencies working in isolation, and will depend upon good interagency liaison and practice. The Council ensure that professionals work in partnership in order to achieve better outcomes for all children and young people, including those who have been looked after. This ensures its services are in accordance with 'Every Child Matters' and the Children Act 2004 and The Young Persons Act 2008.

The Council affirms that young people will continue to be consulted via The Luton Young Persons Panel and involved in the design and review of all services for care leavers, including systems for emotional support, accommodation, finance, health, employment, training, education and recreational activities. Young people will be fully consulted in planning for their individual futures, and the services and support mechanisms to be provided. The decision making process will allow at all times for the full involvement and contribution from the young person, and take account of the pace of change and implementation appropriate to the young person.

The Council will continue to seek opportunities to consult the views of parents and carers of young people leaving care. They have a significant role to play in meeting the needs of care leavers, and will be consulted in every appropriate case when individual Pathway Plans are being drawn up.

The council will provide an accessible and easy to read guide for young people when they leave care, that will include information on services provided by the Council and by other agencies.

The council will undertake a major review of this policy within three years- that is by April 2012.

Disabled young people may well face more barriers than other young people who are being cared for or leaving care and may also have needs specifically related to impairment. These must be met in Pathway Plans and where appropriate referral to adult services.

The Children and Learning Directorate will take into account any transition plan drawn up under the SEN Code of Practice or Assessment made under s.140 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000, and co-ordinate planning around single multi-agency meetings as far as possible.

Disabled young people may have specific housing needs, which should be included in inter-agency liaison when they are preparing to leave care, in the context of housing authority obligations to give priority to vulnerable groups such as disabled young people.

Other relevant legislation is to be considered alongside the Act in planning for disabled care leavers. This includes the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representatives) Act 1986, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act 1996 and the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000.

Direct Payments can play a useful part in preparing a disabled 16 or 17 year old for the responsibilities of adulthood and can continue after the age of 18 under the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act 1996. In appropriate cases the case responsible person will work with the Luton Direct Payments Scheme to facilitate this.

The preparation of young people for leaving care will be achieved by the comprehensive use of the Integrated Children System and driven by a strong safeguarding service. Practitioners working with children who are looked after are expected to focus on the three broad aspects of preparation for leaving care.

Young people should be enabled to build and maintain relationships with others, both general and sexual relationships. When a young person leaves care, he or she should have a supportive network of friends, many of who will be from outside the care system.

Young people should be enabled to develop their self-esteem. Young people should know about their family background and cultural identity, and the reasons they came to be looked after and able to accept themselves intellectually and emotionally.

Young people should be encouraged to develop the practical skills and knowledge, to be able to look after themselves as they move towards independence.

There is an expectation that this policy will result in greater stability of placements for young people over sixteen, who are looked after, and an increase in the average age at which young people leave care after sixteen.

Every young person aged sixteen or over who is looked after by the local authority will have a Pathway Plan, drawn up to guidelines that are consistent with regulations. The Pathway Plan will be based on a needs assessment and on a full consultation with the young person.

The needs assessment for a young person aged 16 or over, who is in care or has left care, will be commissioned at a Statutory Review, and will be completed within three months of a young person becoming an eligible or relevant child, whether he or she does so on turning sixteen or later. The needs assessment will be led by the young person's social worker, and will be based on the ICS 'Pathway Plan'. The young person should normally be consulted, using 'My Pathway Planning Meeting' along with family, carers and all agencies involved in the young person's care. The assessment will be recorded and discussed at a Pathway Planning Meeting where the plan will be agreed.

Leaving Care Services in Luton will continue to be provided primarily by the Luton 16+Team. Overall planning and review, and budgetary arrangements for care leavers will continue to be the responsibility of the Children and Learning Directorate and delegated to the Luton 16+ Team for managing cases of relevant and former relevant children.

Financial provision and support to care leavers will be provided in accordance with Regulations, and will be based on principles of welfare rights, minimum standards of income maintenance, and accommodation costs, and incentives for those who take up training or non-compulsory education places.

As they leave care young people should have a choice in the type and location of their accommodation, and an expectation that it will meet minimum standards. This will be achieved by agreements with local authority landlords, private landlords, and agreements with hostel type providers of young people's accommodation.

Pathway plans will meet the requirement to keep in touch with the young person through having a named person who will be responsible. Normally this will be the case responsible person. Plans should consider the quality of the contact. It is not enough for young people just to be seen. It is accepted that many care leavers, as they become settled and established in adult life, may find contact intrusive, and plans must therefore agree the method of keeping in touch. It is not acceptable to lose touch with those care leavers who may be hard to engage, as it is this group that is likely to be vulnerable and most in need of the protection afforded by the requirement to keep in touch.

Representations and complaints will be met in accordance with Regulations. All young people will have access to an advocate to help them formulate and present their complaint.

Good practice in working with care leavers will be based on established principles of the Children Act 1989, including sound assessment, robust planning and review mechanisms, listening to the views of young people, consulting young people, supporting families and working jointly across agency boundaries to provide a needs led service, with flexible provision by a trained workforce.

3. Statutory Responsibilities

For any young person who is, for the purposes of the Act, an eligible, relevant or former child, and where the last authority to look after him or her is Luton, then Luton will continue to have responsibility for leaving care provision, regardless of where that young person moves to in England or Wales. In appropriate cases and only by agreement, Luton may discharge this responsibility by providing funding to another local authority to act on our behalf.

For any child or young person who is looked after, it is the duty of the Council to advise, assist and befriend him with a view to promoting his welfare when the Council has ceased to look after him. This duty applies whether they are in care because of a care order or are accommodated by the Council in the exercise of its social services functions, such as those under section 20 on the Children Act.

The Council has a duty to provide all eligible children with:-

An assessment of his/ her needs while they are still looking after him/ her, and after they cease to look after him/ her.
A Pathway Plan, which is kept under regular review.
A young person's advisor
All the provisions of the looked after system.

The Council has a duty towards all relevant children (for definition see Section 4, Eligibility Criteria) to provide:

A needs assessment
A Pathway Plan, which is kept under regular review
A young person's advisor
Suitable accommodation and maintenance
Assistance to achieve the aims in the Pathway Plan, and to keep in touch.

The Council has a duty towards all former relevant children to provide: -

A Pathway Plan which is kept under regular review (up to age 21)
A young person's advisor (up to age 21)
Assistance with education, training and employment (up to age 21, or until the young person has completed a programme of education or training agreed in the Pathway Plan, if later.
Vacation accommodation, or the funds to secure it, for higher education, or for residential further education, if needed (up to age 24)
Assistance in general, and to keep in touch (up to age 21, or longer if the young person is still being helped with education or training
Assistance with education and training (up to age 25). Update from the C.Y.P.A. 2008 Section 22 Assistance to Pursue Education or Training.

This amends s 23b of T.C.A. 1989, this extends the duty of the L.A. to appoint a P.A. to a former relevant young person who informs the L.A. that he /she is or intends to pursue a programme of Education/Training but to whom the L.A. would not normally hold a duty as they are aged 21 or over, and has completed or abandoned a programme of education set out in the original Pathway Plan. In relation to an individual aged under 25 the LA must also carry out an assessment of needs, prepare a Pathway Plan, and provide such assistance as the person's education and training needs require.

Section 23, also amends the s23d of T.C.A. 1989, and extends the upper end of the age to which the L.A. have the power to provide assistance towards expenses incurred by a young person in Education or Training to the age of 25.

The Council has a duty to qualifying children to provide: -

Advice and assistance, in cash or kind where the child was previously looked after by the Council or by a voluntary organization. For other qualifying children this is a power but not a duty.
Vacation accommodation, or the funds to secure it, for higher education, or residential further education, if needed.

The Council is required by regulations to prepare a written statement, which is available to the child and those with caring responsibilities, on how the needs of eligible and relevant children will be assessed this is the Pathway plan.

The Council has a duty to ensure this policy is easily comprehensible to young people, their parents and carers.

The Council is required by Regulations to prepare Pathway Plans, which address the following matters.

The nature and level of personal support
Accommodation
Education and Training
Employment, where relevant
Support to enable maintenance of appropriate family and social relationships
Meeting health and mental health needs
Contingency Plans

The Council has a duty to arrange for eligible, and relevant children to have a young person's advisor within Luton this will be a qualified Social Worker, once they become former relevant this role can be completed by a Personal advisor. They will be appropriately trained in relation to this area of practice.

The Council is required by Regulations to provide a Representations and Complaints System consistent with guidance from the Dept of Health.

In the cases of relevant and former relevant children who are the responsibility of other local authorities and are now living in Luton, short term assistance may be provided under Section 17 Children Act 1989, and arrangements made with the responsible authority to deliver the plan on their behalf.

4. Eligibility Criteria

An 'eligible child' is a young person who will go on to become a 'care leaver' when they cease to be looked after. They will be aged 16 or 17 and currently looked after either under a Care Order or by agreement with those having parental responsibility. They will have been looked after for a period, or periods, totalling at least thirteen weeks since their 14th birthday. Children who are the subject of 'respite' or 'shared care' arrangements are not eligible. A sixteen or seventeen year old who is subject to a care order will remain eligible until their 18th birthday unless the order is discharged sooner.

A 'relevant child' is a young person aged 16 or 17 who was previously an 'eligible child' and has now left care. They will cease to be a relevant child only if they successfully return for at least six months to the care of a parent, or a person who had parental responsibility or a residence order before they were looked after. Where a family placement breaks down before the child is 18 and the child ceases to live with the person concerned, the child is to be treated as a relevant child. Additional groups of relevant children are those who would have been relevant children but for the fact that on their sixteenth birthday were detained through the criminal justice system or in hospital

A 'former relevant child' is a young person aged 18-21, or up to 24 if in full time further or higher education, who has left care, having been on their eighteenth birthday either eligible or relevant.

Other young people qualifying for advice or assistance are those aged 16-21 or up to 24 if in full time further or higher education, who have been looked after over the age of 16 and are no longer looked after. This includes those accommodated for a consecutive period of three months in any residential care home, mental nursing home, health service accommodation, and those who have been privately fostered. It includes children who were formerly looked after before coming under Special Guardianship. It also includes young people who were previously eligible or relevant but have now successfully returned home.

5. Responsibility Levels

The designated officer in the Social Care Services, responsible for ensuring that the council fulfils its responsibilities under the Act, is the Head of Children and Learning.

Leaving Care Services are provided through the Luton 16+ Team.

Services to children looked after are delivered by social workers based in specialist locality teams.

The decision to complete a needs assessment to inform pathway planning will be made at a statutory review, chaired by an Independent Reviewing Officer.

The young person's allocated social worker is responsible for the completion of the needs assessment.

The Pathway Plan will be written by the social worker following a Pathway Planning Meeting, which will normally be chaired by the social worker. It will be endorsed at the next statutory review. The social worker is responsible for ensuring that all agencies named in the Pathway Plan receive a copy of the whole plan, or the relevant sections.

The delivery of the Pathway Plan to an eligible child is the responsibility of the allocated social worker within the Luton 16+ Team working with the young person and the agencies named in the plan.

The delivery of the Pathway Plan to a relevant child is the responsibility of the allocated social worker within the Luton 16+ Team working with the young person and the agencies named in the plan.

The delivery of the Pathway Plan for former relevant children is the responsibility of the young person's advisor/ Social Worker.

Reviews of the Pathway Plans of all care leavers are chaired by an independent reviewing officer. The chair is responsible for ensuring that all agencies named in the Pathway Plan receive a copy of the review decisions.

Where a representation or complaint has been received from the young person or their family, the Social Care Manager is responsible for putting the complaint in writing and for informal resolution and if this is unsuccessful the Complaints Manager is responsible to investigate. This responsibility applies in the case of eligible, relevant and former relevant children, and children qualifying for assistance.

Those young people qualifying for advice and assistance under Section 24 of T.C.A. 1989 will be assessed to see what level of advise and support is appropriate, these services will be provided by the Luton 16+ Team.

6. Financial Arrangements

The Leaving Care budget will meet the cost of services to children both in care and leaving care, which are required by the Act, taking into account any exceptional benefit entitlement if the young person is a lone parent, sick or disabled. This will include: -

Accommodation and maintenance for eligible and relevant children and some former relevant children.
General assistance for relevant and former relevant children and children qualifying for assistance.
Help with employment up to the age of 21
Help with education and training until the completion of an agreed programme.

In order to ensure that prudent management of the budget is achieved the following strategies have been put in place: -

Clear methods of recording and tracking expenditure for audit purposes.
Detailed procedural guidance regarding the financial arrangements.
Register of payments from the L.C.G.

7. Information

The Act is based on the proposals in the consultation document 'Me, Survive, Out There? - New Arrangements for Young People living in and Leaving Care' (July 1999, Social Exclusion Unit). It enacts commitment made within the White Paper 'Modernising Social Services' (1998) and 'The Government's Response to the Children's Safeguards Review' (1998)

Detailed provisions regarding the legislation are available in the DfES 'Regulations and Guidance' (2001)

The Act is summarised and explained in the Local Government Association 'Get In On The Act' (2001)

This policy incorporates the evidence informed practice recommendations of 'Young People's View on Leaving Care' (Office of the Children's Rights Director, 2006) 'Going to University From Care' (Institute of Education 2005), 'There's no Place Like Home' (A National Voice, 2006) and 'Tell Them Not To Forget About Us' (NCB 2006)

The following documents provide detailed procedural and good practice guidance for staff: -

Leaving Care Procedures
Sorted
Financial Procedures
My Pathway Planning Meeting
National Protocol: Inter-Authority Arrangements for Care Leavers

Pathway plans are to be recorded using the ICS 'Pathway Plan' and will be updated following each review.

All eligible and relevant children will receive a copy of the Council's information booklet. This provides an easy to read guide to the services and support that are provided under the Act. For young people whose preferred language is other than English, translation will be provided on request, and for young people with sensory disability the booklet will be provided in Braille, or on tape, or in large print version, on request.

End