Care Leavers Local Offer

Your identity

We understand that moving into adulthood involves understanding your care journey, learning more about yourself and thinking about how you want the world to see you.

If you want to access your files, your Personal Advisor can talk you through the process. They will help you understand if looking at your files is the best thing for you right now.

Memory Box

You have your own virtual memory box, which will have photos, videos, voice recordings, drawings or letters. When you leave care, the information in your virtual memory box will be given to you.

Sexuality and gender

We will support you to express your identity freely. We understand that can be difficult for some young people, so we’ll help you find extra advice and support if you need it.

Your social worker or Personal Advisor can also help you find sexual health services in your community.

Your personal advisor

Your Personal Advisor (PA) and social worker will support you until you are 18 years old. After that, your PA will work with you, and the people you tell us are important to you, to support you into adulthood.

Your PA will give you advice and guidance. The amount of support you get from them depends on what you need.

They can help you with things like training and getting a job, developing skills to be independent, finding somewhere suitable to live, managing your money and claiming benefits.

You will have a PA until you are 21 years old. But we can keep supporting you until you’re 25 years old, if you need us to. After 25, you can still get in touch for advice. Just email careleaverslocalofferteam@staffordshire.gov.uk

Your pathway plan

Your Pathway Plan is a plan that you write with your Personal Advisor (PA). It shows what you want to achieve, what you’re going to do and how we’ll support you to get there.

Your Pathway Plan has information about your education, training, employment, health, money and relationships. It includes where you currently live and where you want to live in the future.

Your PA will write your Pathway Plan with you, and you’ll check it together at least every six months. This could be sooner, if your circumstances change.

Your health and wellbeing

Being healthy and getting the right support for your physical and mental wellbeing is important.

We will:

Give you a health passport, which is a summary of your health information and history up to your 18th birthday
Support you to register with a GP, optician and dentist
Help with transport costs to get to health appointments if you need it
Support you with the cost of eye care
Help you get free period products
Support you to get dental treatment

Eye care

We’ll give you vouchers for a free eye test at Specsavers and up to £70 towards glasses. Please speak to your social worker or PA for more information.

Dental treatment

You can get priority dental treatment if you live in

Butt Lane
Chesterton
Cross Health
Holditch
Kidsgrove
Knutton
Newcastle town
Ravencliffe
Talke

You will need to complete a referral form.

Emotional wellbeing

Stay Well

Staffordshire’s Stay Well service offers emotional wellbeing and mental health support.

For details about how to use Stay Well, please speak to your social worker or PA.

Staffordshire Health App Finder

Staffordshire Health App Finder can help you find free apps to manage stress, handle your emotions or learn more about mental health.

View the Staffordshire Health App Finder.

Other support

Your social worker or PA can help you find other support, including community mental health services or the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

Your home

There are different options for where you might live.

Foster care

You might decide to stay with your foster carers until you’re 21 years old.

Shared lives / adult placement

Accommodations for young people who have had a care act assessment and meet the need for ongoing care in a home environment. It’s a bit like foster care, but for adults.

Supported accommodation

This could be a self-contained flat, shared house or hostel.

Supported lodgings

Living in someone’s home until you’re 21. They will give you a safe and supportive place to live and help you to prepare to live independently.

The House Project

When you’re 16 to 17, if it is right for you, you might get involved in The House Project. This is an exciting programme that will help you develop the skills you need to run a home, make friends and be part of a community.

Your own tenancy

You might live in somewhere private rented, or you might live in a council or social housing property. We’ll support you to apply.

Whichever option is best for you

We can support you by:

Making sure you get priority banding for housing applications in all Staffordshire districts, and challenging decisions if we think they're wrong.
Helping you claim Housing Benefit or Universal Credit.
Helping you to understand the bills you'll have when living in your own home.
Referring you to our specialist housing PA if you are homeless or are at risk of homelessness.

Your relationship and place in society

We will help you become part of society and make long-lasting connections.

Connecting with other care leavers

We arrange trips for care leavers throughout the year, including to Alton Towers and outdoor activity centres. There’s also a National Care Leavers’ Month celebration and a group Christmas dinner.

Family and friends

We’ll support you to have good relationships or reconnect with family, friends and people who are important to you.

The Hive

The Hive is a drop-in hub where you can meet new people, use the washing and drying machines, watch TV, use the computers, take part in activities or just sit in a safe, quiet space.

Ask your PA for details of The Hive in your area.

The Voice Project

The Voice Project is a way for you to share your thoughts and experiences with us. The team will always listen, and they want to hear about your experiences so we can keep improving.

The Voice Project is open to children and young people from 8 to 25, who are in care or have been in care.

Voting

We’ll help you to enrol on the Electoral Register so you can vote in local and national elections.

Your money

We will support you by:

Making sure you’ve got two forms of ID by your eighteenth birthday – your National Insurance number and a bank account
Helping you access any money you might have in savings, like a junior ISA or child trust fund
Giving you a setting up home grant to help you buy essential things when you move into your own home – this is £2,000 if your eighteenth birthday was before 31 March 2023, or £3,000 if it was after
Giving you a new home starter pack worth £50 when you move into your own home
Give you up to £125 to pay for your theory or practical driving test, or compulsory bike training
Paying for 10 driving lessons if you need a driving licence to support job or training opportunities
Helping you claim exemptions for your council tax, and paying the rest of the bill until you are 25 years old
Giving you a gift of £25 for your nineteenth and twentieth birthdays, and £50 for your twenty first
Giving you a gift of £25 for Christmas or another religious festival or celebration
Paying a third of your rent if you get a job while you’re living in supported accommodation and you can’t claim the higher rate of housing benefit
Paying a deposit for your rent if you can’t pay it yourself, or can’t use a discretionary housing payment or local rent deposit scheme to cover it
Giving you free household items at our recycling centres
Supporting you to get a free membership to Pure Gyms
Giving you an unlimited data SIM card for up to two years
Giving you a leisure allowance of £30 per month to pay for any activity that helps your physical or mental health
Giving you access to Vivup, which is a benefits platform that offers lots of discounts
Giving you two £65 household support fund vouchers
Giving you bus fare to attend voluntary work

Your education, employment and training

We will make sure every young person leaving care has the support to reach their goals.

Education

Care leaver bursary fund

The care leaver bursary fund was created to help you into employment and further education.

Grants from the bursary will help to cover costs like training, driving lessons, topping up university fees, and even setting up your own business.

If you want to apply for a grant from the care leaver bursary fund, speak to your PA and they can help you.

Staffordshire Virtual School

You can get support and advice from our virtual school until you finish your post-16 education.

They will make sure you have a Personal Education Plan (PEP) until the end of your time in year 13.

University

If you want to go to university, your PA can help you complete your Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) application and pay the fees. We’ll send a supporting letter to confirm that you’re a care leaver, to make sure you get all the right support.

When you go to university, we’ll give you a corporate parenting grant of £2,000 for each year of your three-year course up to the age of 25.

If you need support to go to a university open day, talk to your PA. And if you need to find somewhere to stay during holidays, we can help you pay for this.

Employment and training

We can:

Help you find a place on the Foundations to Employment (F2E) programme
Support you to complete pre-employability skills sessions
Help you complete the employability skills programme and pay you £25 when you finish.
Help you find a work experience placement.

Work experience training

We’ll pay you £20 a day for attending a work placement, up to five days a week, for ten weeks. We’ll also pay up to £50 for protective clothing, if it’s needed. Please remember, this applies to Foundations 2 Employment (F2E) placements only.

Directory of opportunities

The Directory of Opportunities was created to help you find work experience, taster days, apprenticeships and job opportunities in the council, with one of our partners, or in a local business.

Your PA can help you get started with this.

Careers and participation service

Our careers and participation service offers:

Career guidance for young people aged 16 to 21 not in education, employment or training.
Career guidance for young people up to 25 who have learning difficulties or disabilities.
A guidance interview with young people who want to return to learning after 21
Financial support with travel, clothes and equipment when starting work, if you work coach can’t help you
Free dry-cleaning services through Timpson’s to help you prepare for an interview

Starting your own family

If you’re pregnant or have a baby, there’s lots of support available to you.

Family hubs

Our family hubs will support you to get the help you need. There are eight family hubs across Staffordshire that you can visit, and you can get help and support online.

You can get support from a family hub if you are:

A parent or carer of a child aged 0-19
A parent or carer of a child with special educational needs or a disability
Pregnant

Find your local family hub.

Bump to toddler pathway

Visit our Bump to Toddler Pathway for lots of helpful information and useful links, including:

What to expect during pregnancy and as a new parent
What to do if your baby is ill
Support for your family
Keeping your baby safe and free from harm.

Visit the bump to toddler pathway.

Hungry Little Minds

Our Hungry Little Minds emails explain how your baby’s brain will develop and what you can do to help them.

If you live in Staffordshire and have a baby up to two-years-old, you can sign up and get two personalised emails a month from Hungry Little Minds.

Each email will give you guidance about easy activities to try at home, details of events near you, reminders when your baby’s health checks are due and news about other services that can help you.

Help and support

If you're a new parent, we will:

Give you a baby box, which will have some essentials like body suits, nappies and shampoos
Give you a gift to the value of £25
Help you to apply for any benefits you may be entitled to as a new parent
Support you to apply for the Sure Start maternity grant of £500

If you’re struggling to look after your baby and you’re being supported by an early help practitioner or social worker, your PA can come to meetings with you.

People with disabilities or other needs

If you have a disability or diagnosed neurodiversity, your PA can help you get all the support you need.

We will:

Make sure you are referred for a Care Act Assessment
Work with our partners to make sure you get ongoing social or mental health support, if that's the outcome of your assessment
Put you in touch with our benefits welfare team who can help you apply for any benefits you may be entitled to

Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC)

If you arrive in the UK under 18-years-old and you don’t have a parent or someone with parental responsibility with you, we’ll look after you.

If you don’t have any documents to prove who you are or we’re not sure about your age, we might do an age assessment. This isn’t something to worry about, and we’ll explain everything to you as we go along.

When you come into our care, we will

Give you somewhere safe to live
Help you to use health and dental services
Help you to complete education or training

We know that as someone who is seeking safety in a new country, you might have some needs that haven’t already been mentioned in this local offer.

That’s why we’ll make sure that:

You have a clothing allowance of up to £220
You’re supported to learn English
You have vaccines that you might not have had in your home country
You can travel to places of worship and specialist food shops, and we’ll help you buy books or equipment, like a prayer mat or religious clothing
You’re supported to make a claim for asylum, and you get legal support from a solicitor
You can contact your family, and if you’re not in touch with them we’ll give you the details of an agency who could help you find them
You’re supported to learn about English laws and cultures
You’re introduced to the Amity Hub, which is a place where you can meet young people, make friends, have fun, learn, get support and advice, and feel part of the community

Some legal information

You will become a Child in Care under S20 of the Children Act.

If you stay in our care for more than 13 weeks and you’re over the age of 16, you will become an ‘eligible child’. When you turn 18, you will become a ‘former relevant care leaver’.

This means you’re entitled to everything in this local offer that is available to an eligible and former relevant child.

Disclaimer

In some situations, we might have to stop the support you get from us because of your immigration status.

If you’re not able to stay in the UK and don’t have any appeals left, we’ll help you to complete a Human Rights Assessment.

We have to do this because immigration laws tell us that we can’t continue to support people who aren’t allowed to stay in the UK, unless ending our support would breach their human rights.

Custody or involvement with the criminal justice system

We’ll work with our youth offending and probation teams to help you if we know you’re at risk of being involved in criminal offences or exploitation.

If you’re in custody, your PA will visit you at least every eight weeks and will keep in touch by letter or email. They’ll also get regular updates from your offender manager.

We’ll pay £5 each week into your prison account if you’re in custody. We’ll also pay an extra £5 per week if you’re working or studying through the Education, Employment and Training (EET) service.

We’ll work with the youth justice and probation teams, your offender manager and our housing teams to plan for your release.

When you’re released from prison, we’ll help you settle into your new home.

Advocacy

An advocate is someone who:

Will listen to you
Will help you to be heard
Can go to meetings with you, or go for you
Will help you understand your rights
Can help you make a complaint
Is independent - this means they're not part of other services like social care, education or health
Won't tell you what to do
Can see you at home, school, college or wherever you feel most comfortable.

The advocacy service in Staffordshire is called Change, Grow, Live. It’s confidential and free.

Call: 07912 120 158

Email: SSCRS@cgl.org.uk

View the Change Grow Live website for more information.

Corporate parents

Corporate parents are people who want the best for you. They want you to be healthy and happy. They want you to do well at school and enjoy making friends. And when you become an adult, they want you to be independent enough to have a good job and safe home.

From the moment you came into care, Staffordshire County Council became your corporate parent. This means you now have thousands of people on your side, rooting for you to succeed.

We have a duty of care for children and young people. We work alongside our partners, including health services, the police, education and housing, to share this responsibility.

How corporate parents will help you

We will:

Support you with your physical and mental wellbeing
Find creative ways for you to express yourself
Encourage and support you in your education
Learn from each other
Celebrate your successes
Make sure you have a good place to live
Support you to live independently

The legal stuff

Eligible child

You are an eligible child if you are:

Currently looked after
Aged 16 or 17
You have been looked after for a period of 13 weeks (in one go or at different times), which started after you reached 14 and ended after you reached 16.

Relevant care leaver

You are a relevant care leaver if you are no longer looked after by the local authority, but you were an eligible child.

Former relevant care leaver

You are a former relevant care leaver if you are 18 or above and you have been an eligible child or relevant care leaver.

Qualifying care leaver

You are a qualifying care leaver if you are in care for at least one day between 16 and 25-years-old, but not for 13 weeks or more.

Useful contacts

Leaving Care Team

Burton and Tamworth: 01827 782555

Lichfield and Cannock: 01543 510 100

Newcastle and Moorlands: 01538 483 129

Stafford and South Staffs: 01785 276 800

Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC): 01785 276 800

Change, Grow, Live: 07471 543 607

Email: careleaversofferteam@staffordshire.gov.uk

National advice, guidance and support for care leavers

Become

Become is a national charity that supports every child and young person with experience of the care system.

Call: 0207 251 3117

Email: hello@becomecharity.org.uk

View Become website

Care Leaver Covenant

The Care Leaver Covenant works with more than 600 organisations across the county to help you find opportunities in education, work, wellbeing, money and housing.

Call: 0800 077 3557

Email: info@mycovenant.org.uk

Visit My Covenant website