Foster Care: Care Leavers

(asked on 2nd December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding his Department has allocated to local authorities for the delivery of the Staying Put programme in financial year 2021-22.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 10th December 2020

Since its introduction in 2014, the department has provided over £140 million to local authorities to support local implementation of Staying Put, including £33 million in 2020/21 (an increase of £9 million (40%) from 2019/20). This has helped thousands of young people to remain with their former foster carers for longer and make a more gradual transition to independence. Funding for Staying Put for the financial year 2021/22 will be confirmed once the department’s internal Spending Review discussions have concluded.

The latest data – for year ending March 2019 - show that 55% of eligible 18 year olds chose to Stay Put; and 31% of 19 year olds and 21% of 20 year olds were also still living with their former foster carers. Care leavers who Stay Put are twice as likely to go to university and half as likely to be not in education, employment or training compared to all care leavers.

The government does not believe that introducing a national minimum allowance for Staying Put carers is the right way forward. Unlike children in foster care, young people in Staying Put arrangements are adults, and may be in work, or claiming benefits (including housing benefit). These sources of income can be used to contribute to the cost of providing the Staying Put arrangement, in a similar way that young people who are still living at home with their parents may contribute to the costs of running the household. We therefore believe the level of financial support that Staying Put carers receive should be agreed on a case by case basis.

The department is aware of the need to update the Staying Put guidance that was published in 2013 and will endeavour to prioritise this work as soon as possible.

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