How Bury Council housing scheme aims to help children in care
Children in care face "support dropping away overnight" when they turn 18, with some being taken to the homelessness department on their birthday, a charity has said.Become Charity has welcomed a move by Bury Council to ringfence homes specifically for care leavers as it said teenagers faced a "care cliff" when they transitioned into adulthood.Under the scheme, 44 flats or houses will be made available to care leavers on former council-owned sites across the borough.Katherine Sacks-Jones, Become's chief executive, said more local authorities should be following Bury Council's lead.
The local authority is believed to be one of the first councils in England to ringfence homes specifically for care leaves.A direct let and local lettings policy will be devised, meaning that a select number of homes within each development will be ringfenced for care leavers."Young people leaving care face a care cliff where support drops away overnight and they have to leave care and become independent," Ms Sacks-Jones said."That can often happen on their 18th birthday."We've heard of young people on their actual birthday being taken down to the homelessness department."We want to see an end to the care cliff so young people get the support they need to make that transition into adulthood at a time that's right for them in a managed way."
Councillor Lucy Smith said: "Starting your own home is always challenging and it can be especially difficult for our care leavers."Finding high-quality housing to help transition into adulthood is just one of the many improvements we have recently made for our care leavers."
University student Jessica-Rae Williamson is among those who would have benefited from a scheme like this had it been in place at the time.Ms Williamson, who moved out of her foster home the week before her 18th birthday, described the scheme as a "really good idea"."We all have the worry of our local authority just deciding not to support us anymore," she said."It's happened to me before and that was ripped away from me."So I think we all have the same worries that that support is going to be taken away before we were ready for it."
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