Children in Care: Unregulated Accommodation

Baroness Bertin Excerpts

Tuesday 17th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, the local authority has the primary statutory duty to safeguard all young people in their area up until the age of 18, or beyond under certain initiatives. I pay tribute to the enormous amount of work that goes on in our children’s homes and by many foster carers, who work to improve the outcomes for these young people. We are clear that those under the age of 16 who need care, not just accommodation, should not be placed in these kinds of settings.

[Baroness Bertin (Con) [V]]

My Lords, only 12% of care leavers end up going to university compared with 42% of their peers. What are the Government doing to improve this situation?

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, last year we published the higher education principles for care leavers. We are delighted that 60 higher education institutions have signed the care leaver covenant and published their offer to care leavers. Local authorities give a £2,000 bursary to care leavers who go on to university. We are supporting the Fostering Network’s Tick the Box campaign so that any care leaver who applies through UCAS will be identified as such and the support they are entitled to will be signposted by that service. However, we agree with my noble friend: we want to see many more care leavers going into higher education.