Care Leavers

There are 83,000 children looked after by local authorities in the UK, with 73% in foster care.  53% of care leavers leave care with no qualifications with only 7% of care leavers going on to university.

We want employers to pledge that not one single young person leaving care will be left behind.

"Young people and education is our industry. It is important we are involved in programmes such as this." 

We need to find solutions that narrow the gap between care leavers and their peers by raising their aspirations, offering high quality work experience and creating long lasting employment opportunities.

Many of those leaving the care system will not succeed in building successful working lives without the proactive intervention of business, alongside the voluntary sector, to build their motivation, confidence and experience of the world of work.

• Every year, more than 6,500 young people formally leave the care of local authorities in England
• 29% of boys & 44% of girls in young offender institutions (YOIs) have previously been ‘looked after’ by their local authority, while further representing 27% of the total prison population.    

We want you to be the pioneers, the business leaders that really make the difference.

Business has a vital role to play to engage, support and enable young care leavers to achieve their goals.

Would you be happy to invite care leavers into  your business? Could you inspire young people by hosting world of work sessions, offer work experience placements, provide access to apprenticeship schemes and employment for care leavers? 

Call us on 0207 566 8733 and work with us to ensure that care leavers have a positive experience of the world of work.

What is happening so far?

We have been piloting The RISE Programme with local businesses in Nottingham and Bradford who offer a wide variety of opportunities for young care leavers in the area.  From inviting care leavers into their businesses to see what the world of work is all about, offering work placements that give the young person the chance to build their knowledge of the workplace, develop new skills, gain valuable work experience; through to supporting the young person with a role model and mentoring.  By working collaboratively we are seeing some fantastic and life changing results happening for the care leavers being supported by the RISE Programme. 

"I'm looking forward to my work placement on Monday. I just want to get in the work environment and get on with my life." Young person