DEPARTMENT FOR
CHILDREN, SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES News Release (2007/0176) issued by
The Government News Network on 4 October 2007
The Government
today pledged to stamp out the poor practice of asking children to
leave care at the age of 16, before they are ready to live independently.
Eleven pilot projects across the country, costing an estimated
£6m over three years, will explore how best to plan care around
the needs of young people and give them a greater say over whether
they stay in care until they are 18, or move out into independent
flats or hostels.
Kevin Brennan, Minister for Children and Families said:
"We want to transform the lives of children in care, improve
their educational attainment and give them the same chance in life
as other children. As part of this we want to see them given more
choice about their placements and to be in charge of when they
leave care.
"Not all children are ready to live independently at the age
of 16 - especially if they want to do A levels and consider going
to university. However, whatever their future plans we know that
stable placements and good care planning around the needs of the
young person leads to better outcomes such as a reduction in these
young people becoming NEET (not in education, employment, or
training) which benefits society as a whole."
Local Authorities taking part in the pilots are: Bournemouth,
Barnet, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Merton, North Tyneside, Oxfordshire,
South Gloucestershire, Plymouth, Tower Hamlets and Warwickshire.
The Right2bCared4 pilot programme was first proposed in Care
Matters, the Government's Green Paper for children in care
and then, after receiving overwhelming support, the pilot was
confirmed in the White Paper, Care Matters: Time for Change. The
programme will start in October 2007 and run for three years.
Lessons learnt will then be shared with other local authorities to
aid their planning for young people in care.
The amount of funding allocated to each authority varies
according to factors such as the number of young people in care
and the focus of each recommended pilot site. Some authorities are
planning to allocate a significant amount of the funding to
placement costs, whilst others are focussing more on the
management and coordination of the care planning process for
example by providing additional resources to support Independent
Reviewing Officers and independent advocacy services.
NOTES TO EDITORS
These pilots were first set up in the Care Matters Green Paper
and later confirmed in the White Paper, Care Matters: Time for Change.
The Government is determined to improve the experiences of
children in care. Despite efforts to support them, there remains a
significant gap between the quality of life of young people in
care and those raised in supportive families.
Bridging this gap requires urgent, sustained action across
central and local government, from practitioners in all aspects of
children and young people's lives, and from their carers,
friends and family.
The Care Matters: Time for Change White Paper sets out the steps
the Department will take, together with local delivery partners,
to improve outcomes for children and young people in care. It
builds on responses to the Green Paper Care Matters: Transforming
the Lives of Children and Young People in Care and the conclusions
of four working groups established to investigate best practice in
supporting those in care. The document is available from http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/timeforchange/
Three of the pilot authorities are also running the Virtual
School Head pilots: Bournemouth; Merton and Warwickshire.
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