Care Leavers - Our offer to our care leavers

We don’t stop caring about you just because you are leaving care or have left care.

Our offer to our care leavers

Our local care leaver offer is for young people leaving care in Doncaster. It is designed to provide you with all the information about the services and support, in one place, to help you to achieve your future goals and dreams. It also sets out the support you will receive from our Inspiring Futures Leaving Care service.

Leaving care can be a difficult and confusing time. Your Personal Adviser (PA) will talk to you about the information in this offer and, if you have any further questions or if you feel you need something different, you can just ask them.

The Inspiring Futures and Children in Care teams are here to provide you with the types of support that families provide – helping you with the support you need as an individual to manage your money and live independently.

As individuals, you will have differing needs and differing abilities to manage a budget. Some young people may already have income of their own, such as a training allowance or wages from employment. This means that for each of you we will agree the support you need and this will be recorded in your pathway plan.

The links below give more information about the support that you can receive to help you in your early journey into adulthood:

Our commitment to you

We will: 

  • involve you in all decisions made about your future 
  • offer you opportunities to be involved in shaping the services you receive 
  • support your personal advisor to have a long term relationship with you 
  • support you in improving your physical and emotional wellbeing 
  • support you to stay in touch with the people who are important to you 
  • make sure other agencies have a good understanding of your views, wishes and feelings 
  • work with all different housing providers to find you suitable accommodation, and support you to feel safe and secure in that accommodation 
  • work hard to support you into education, training and employment 
  • make sure the support you receive is tailored to your needs as an individual 
  • make sure that all team members within the Inspiring Futures Leaving Care Service and the Children in Care Service know the local offer well so that they can offer the support and advice you need.  

Legislative framework for leaving care

The Children Act 1989 places duties on Local Authorities towards ‘looked after’ and previously ‘looked after’ children as they exit the care system.

The Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 introduced financial arrangements for care leavers and made clear that the responsible authority will normally be the young person’s primary source of income.

The Children & Young Persons Act in 2008 enacts commitments made in Care Matters requiring legislative change. The main aims of the Leaving Care regulations and the related Guidance is to ensure care leavers are provided with comprehensive personal support in order that they can make a successful transition to adulthood.

Volume 3: Planning Transition to Adulthood provides information for local authorities and now Trusts so they are able to meet the requirements of the Care Leavers (England) Regulations 2010.

The Children’s Homes and Looked after Children Regulations 2013 also confirmed that any decision to cease looking after a 16 or 17 year old had to be approved by the Director of Children’s Services or Chief Operating Officer of the Trust.

The Children and Families Act 2014 included information on ‘Staying Put’ which encourages statutory agencies to consider schemes that enable young people aged 18 and above to remain living with their foster carers.

The Children & Social Work Act 2017, gave you the right to ask to have support from your personal adviser up to the age of 25 whether you are in education or training or not. This is to try to make sure care leavers receive similar support to young adults who live with their families. The duty commences from 1 April 2018.

Further information about local agencies

Further information about national agencies

There are a number of places where you can look to find out about, and get support with, care leavers’ rights. Please see the links below:

Ask Us a Question

Want to know more about our Care Leavers' Offer? Get in touch with us by emailing IFTLocalOfferQuestion@doncaster.gov.uk (Please note, emails to this inbox are monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm).

Email us 

Our offer to you

Last updated: 31 August 2022 22:21:35

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