Leaving care

We want you to have all the chances in life that other young adults have and we will encourage you to develop your interests and get involved in positive activities. People can participate in their communities or in society in different ways and some people want to participate more than others.

We will do our best to find opportunities for you to participate in something that interests you or develop your interests, which you can then pursue independently. We will do this in the following ways:

• By providing information relating to community participation groups and events clubs you may wish to join
• Encouraging you to take part in the monthly Young person’s care council group as well as Care Experienced Young People's National movements and the National Care Leavers Week. This will allow you to directly influence service developments for you and other young people who are care experienced
• You will have the opportunity to feed into our Corporate Parenting Panel through our Young people care council to ensure that the voice of care experienced young people is heard
• If you help us with consultation, interviews, or other engagement activities you will be paid in the form of vouchers.
• We will help you take part in events and activities which are happening in Stoke and advertised through the newsletter.
• We will hold an annual Awards event
• We will inform  you about relevant awards, schemes and competitions you can enter, in line with your talents and interests
• Encouraging and helping you to enrol on the Electoral Register, so you can vote in elections
• Encouraging you to tell us how we are doing and any areas you think we can get better at through surveys written by care experienced young people
• Informing you about voluntary work that we think you may be interested in
• Giving you advice and helping you to challenge any discrimination you face as a care experienced young person
• Joining in with the Christmas meal and disco organised by Symmetrical North Staff’s Care leavers charity.
• Your PA can support you to access the Databank offer (free mobile data, texts and calls via a sim card
• National forums you can join, these forums provide young people with the opportunity to have a voice in shaping services and decisions making.

Visit the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum (NLCBF) website

Visit the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) website

There are lots of national organisations campaigning for better services for young people who have been in care. They run national consultation events, to hear your views. General advice regarding care leavers’ entitlements can be on the Become Charity website.

Birmingham care leavers helped us to design our offer and we will continue to listen to your views to make sure that the services we offer are what you need

If you are under 25 years of age and find yourself in a police station in the West Midlands, the police should ask you if you are a care leaver. If they don’t, please tell them so they can contact us. We will then contact you to offer you support. If you are a former relevant care leaver and in custody, we will continue to offer you support up to the age of 25yrs. If, however, you do not want to be supported after you are 21yrs, then please let your PA know. We have close working relationships with local prisons and resettlement officers. There is also financial support available for positive activities and to help you once you are released. See Section 10 - Your Money for more information. As you near release from custody we will explore with you your housing options. You will have a release plan that will be incorporated into your pathway plan so that everyone is clear what needs to happen to help you to make sure you can do well on your release.