Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to support care leavers with their move into employment.
The latest data for the year ending March 2023 shows that 38% of care leavers aged 19 to 21 are not in education, employment or training, compared to 13% of their peers in the general population.
Improving care leavers’ outcomes is a government priority and the department has established a care leaver Ministerial Board, co-chaired by the Secretaries of State from the Department for Education and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and including Ministers from 12 other departments, to consider what more can be done collectively to improve care leavers’ outcomes.
The department’s broader ambitions for reform of children’s social care are set out in the response to the independent review carried out by Josh MacAlister, which is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/642460653d885d000fdade73/Children_s_social_care_stable_homes_consultation_February_2023.pdf.
In relation to supporting care leavers to engage and succeed in education, employment and training, the department has: