The Voiceless Podcast Episode Two: We Are Failing Children In Care
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There is a lack of genuine care and support for young people leaving care – but from privatisation of services to inadequate housing, the care system fails children long before the age of 18. One in four young adults found themselves homeless once they turned 18, with 14% sleeping rough, we’d be asking where the hell their families were. But these figures are the reality for young care-leavers.
After they cease to be the official responsibility of their local authority on their 18th birthday, the risks they face as a result of having nowhere to call home include ill health, violence, sexual exploitation and early death. These are children who have been removed from their families precisely because they have suffered significant harm or are deemed to be at risk. So why do care-leavers so often end up without support, on the streets, camping out on friends’ floors and living insecure lives in unsuitable – and sometimes dangerous – accommodation? “It seems unbelievable that you could take the most vulnerable kids and put them into independent living without a package of support. But problems start stacking up long before someone ceases to be “looked after” by their council.
For example, because there aren’t enough foster carers across the country, local authorities end up unwillingly having to shunt children in care to “placements” hundreds of miles from home.
It’s directly contrary to statutory guidance, but it happens a lot. As a result, those children lose their links with siblings, school friends and wider family members, and the fundamental relationship-based support structures all young people need to lean on as they move towards independence are weakened or destroyed. This systemic failure in what is unattractively known as “corporate parenting” means vulnerable children become vulnerable adults.
Meanwhile, some local authorities expect children to be capable of living without a close family structure around them while still extraordinarily young; they can be placed in supported housing from the age of 16 onwards. Inevitably this has resulted in scandal when it has been discovered that children are illegally living on their own in unregulated accommodation such as caravans, tents or homeless on the streets.
Genuine Futures are a purpose driven and passionate group of people who are dedicated to real change and real growth empowering people and communities through proven programmes. We support individuals in our communities, who may have faced difficult obstacles and barriers in their lives which have prevented them from achieving their full potential. https://genuinefutures.co.uk/