Many teenagers would relish the thought of getting a place of their own at the
age of 17, a chance to escape their tiresome parents. Of course, not many
do. But for some of Britain's most vulnerable young people, there is no
choice but to move out of what they know as home and into their own
accommodation.
They are children in care and for decades the state, their “corporate parent”,
has decided that they would be better off on their own by the time they are
18. That is the point when, by law, the local authority's “duty of care”
comes to an end. It is also when funding their place with a foster family
ceases.
Jim Bond, 59, has been looking after foster children for 14 years in his Essex
home. He has been looking after Aaron, 18, for 3 years, along with another
boy aged 14.
Aaron has flourished under his care, is completing a college course and
thinking about university, something of a rarity among children in care.
Only 1per cent get to university compared with 43 per cent in the general
population. Bond wants him to stay but, having given up his teaching career
to concentrate on fostering, he desperately needs the fees that stopped last
summer when Aaron turned 18.
“When his birthday was approaching, Aaron asked me if he could stay while he
finished his plumbing course. He was doing really well and was thinking
about going to university to study social work or journalism. I really
didn't want all the progress to be lost. I spoke to his social worker and
said that he isn't ready to move out yet and needs to concentrate on sorting
out his college course. But there was no way round the fact that my fees
would stop if he carried on living here,” Bond said.
He registered as a “supported lodging” but only only a fraction of what he got
before. “This is a decision that many foster carers face. Many of us have
given up work because we want to care for some of the most damaged children
in our society but we simply cannot afford to do it for nothing,” he said.
Before last summer, he got £11,620 a year for the first child in his care from
Essex County Council and £5,810 for the second, plus an allowance to cover
food, transport and pocket money for the children.
The problem is that, as foster children approach 16, a plan must be drawn up
for leaving care and, if they want to, they can then leave their foster
families or residential units. For many, that means being given a council
flat, a grant and getting on with it.
“I want Aaron to stay until he is ready to live independently but I am now
significantly out of pocket, which affects the other foster child too,” he
said. “Many children in the care system have delayed development, so even
when they are 21 they are more like 18 or 19-year-olds. The clock starts
ticking when the children are about 15. They are told to start thinking
about moving on so they can be ready to leave after 16 - right in the middle
of their GCSEs - and certainly there is nothing at all beyond 18.”
Aaron is grateful for the chance to stay put. “I would have hated to have gone
at 16 or even 17. Things are so much better now. I have a better
understanding of adult life, how to manage money, my cooking has improved
and I know about washing clothes and all that. I can care for myself. Even
the way I speak has improved. At 17, I had nowhere near a plan about
education or a job. Now I want to go to university.” Aaron is thinking about
leaving later this summer when he turns 19 and has started on his new
college course, although Jim Bond has told him that he can stay longer.
Experts say that social workers are under enormous pressure to hasten
departures because of tight budgets - foster care and all the accompanying
monitoring and handling of the placement costs far more than a council flat
- and to free up foster families for other children.
Young people, in turn, are often attracted to the idea of getting out of the
system because they are fed up with social workers and, perhaps, a series of
placements with foster carers that have not worked out. The prospect of a
flat and a leaving care allowance of a few hundred pounds, plus entitlement
to income support, makes it sound like an attractive package but in reality
they struggle to pay their bills and take care of themselves.
No one doubts this brutal and premature exit from the system is a contributing
factor to the appalling outcomes of children who have been through the care
system. A third end up homeless and half will be unemployed after two years.
Many end up in prison. Half of all those in jail aged under 25 were once in
care. Half the girls leaving care are single mothers within two years.
And while it is the judgment of the Government as “corporate parent” that
young people are perfectly capable of looking after themselves at 17, in the
real world children are staying at home for longer and longer: the average
age of moving out is now 24 years old. Even then, children move out
gradually with financial and emotional support continuing for far longer.
This cut-off point is hard to bear for many foster parents who have helped to
turn around the children in their care, and many fear that all the progress
will be undone when they move out.
They have no choice but to let their foster children go because all fees and
allowances stop. But some are not prepared to tolerate the situation and pay
for the children to stay on in their care.
Sue and Roly Baker have gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure they can
still look after their foster son, Andrew, when he turns 18 later this year.
He has turned his life around from a rebellious troublemaker who was
excluded from school, to become a head boy and a well-balanced, thoughtful
teenager. He is resitting his GCSEs and plans to take A levels, then go to
university.
He and his sister Tabatha have been with the family, who live in Surrey, for
four years, since he was 13 and she was 8. The couple are determined that
his education should not be disrupted when he turns 18 later this year.
“We have developed such a close relationship with Andrew that we feel a great
deal of responsibility. These children are so vulnerable, so much more
vulnerable than your own in so many ways, but they get such a raw deal
because the funding stops at 18. I would really worry about Andrew drifting
back to old friends and old places if he lived on his own. He has such focus
now on wanting to get to university and joining the RAF. I don't want
anything getting in the way of that motivation,” Sue Baker, 49, said.
She has decided to spend thousands of pounds converting her garage to make a
bedroom for Andrew to free up his existing bedroom so that they can foster
another child to keep the family finances on an even keel. “That means he
can stay as long as he needs to and we can have another child or sibling
group,” she said.
But not everyone is so lucky. One volunteer mentored a girl in Manchester who
was in care for ten years and said that she “despaired” when the girl was
given a flat of her own at 16: “Of course she was thrilled. She couldn't
wait to get away from social workers and a string of residential units and
foster carers who couldn't cope with her. But what did she do? Sold all the
furniture and bought drugs and booze. Eventually she was evicted and is now
staying with a selection of mates. It's hard to keep in touch with her. It's
very worrying.”
Ministers are aware of the problem. Their White Paper, Care Matters, published
last year, said that it should be possible for all children to stay with
foster carers until 21. But the only progress that has been made is a couple
of pilot projects.
Robert Tapsfield, chief executive of the Fostering Network charity, is
disappointed and believes that if the Government was really serious it would
simply make the change. He said: “You don't need to pilot something like
this, and the Government has acknowledged that there is a compelling case
for children to stay on with foster carers until they are 21. The reason
that they are piloting it with no plans for a roll-out is because they don't
want to fund it. But with only 3,000 or so children leaving foster care
every year, the costs would not be high.
“The cost to society is far higher if young people do not make a successful
transition from care to adulthood, in terms of unemployment and mental
health services, and we all know the figures in terms of prison. Nothing
magically changes when a child turns 18. If they are challenging to look
after, they will remain challenging. And life is very hard on a low income.
It is not surprising that so many care-leavers struggle on their own.”
How to foster
While almost anyone can apply, foster carers need special qualities and some
people will be more suited to it than others. Foster carers need to have the
time and energy to invest in a child or young person. That usually means
someone being around the house most of the time, although under some
circumstances fostering can be combined with part-time or even full-time work
You do not need to be a parent, or have any special qualifications to foster,
but you must be able to communicate effectively with children, and also with
social workers. Often, there will be contact with the child's birth family
You do not have to be married, in a relationship or heterosexual
You do not have to have a big house or even own your own home, but you do need
a spare bedroom, specifically allocated for a foster child
Contact your local fostering service via your local authority, which will help
you to make a formal application. It will then make a thorough assessment of
you and your household while you undergo a Skills to Foster course. After
the course, the Fostering Panel will recommend whether or not you can become
a foster carer
To find out more visit www.couldyoufoster.org.uk
