Higher Education: Care Leavers

(asked on 4th December 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what provisions are in place to help care leavers find accommodation when entering university.


Answered by
Edward Timpson Portrait
Edward Timpson
This question was answered on 10th December 2014

The statutory guidance, ‘Planning Transition to Adulthood for Care Leavers’, clearly sets out the responsibilities of local authorities to support their care leavers who are about to, or are attending university, including during vacations. In addition to the higher education bursary of £2,000 which local authorities have a duty to pay their care leavers who pursue a higher education course, individual packages of support are expected to be put in place in line with the needs identified within a care leaver’s pathway plan.

The Department for Education has worked closely with Ofsted on their revised inspection framework, which now has a specific judgement on the quality of support provided to care leavers. Local authorities will be judged on the accommodation they provide to all care leavers, including those attending university, and will only receive a ‘good’ judgement if they can demonstrate they provide accommodation that “is appropriate for each young person to safely develop their independence skills” and where they “are safe and feel safe.”

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