Young People Leaving Care - A Four Nations Perspective
Topic: Child protection, Corporate parenting, Foster care, Health and Wellbeing, Throughcare and aftercare
Author: The British Academy
The purpose of this Care Leavers’ Case Study is to explore the differences in approaches to policymaking around childhood taken by the governments of the four UK nations over the past 30 years.
The study summarises the policy priorities of the UK nations for care leavers, reviews outcomes, and discusses a number of areas where policy differences can be identified.
Over the last thirty years governments across the UK have introduced a succession of policy initiatives to improve these outcomes.These have included new data collections, performance indicators and targets, coupled with focused programmes, for example to allow young people to stay on with their foster carers after they turn 18, or to encourage local authorities (LAs) to do more to involve those with care experience in decisions about local services.