What is Devon’s Local Offer to Care Leavers?

 

This page provides an overview of what Devon’s Local Offer to Care Leavers is all about. If you don’t know what some of the terms used on this page mean, please check out our handy list of definitions and explanations.

What is a Local Offer?

You might be wondering: what is a Local Offer? Well, to put it simply, a Local Offer explains the support and services that you can expect to receive as a care experienced young adult from Devon County Council and the other support agencies who are all a part of your corporate parenting partnership.

 

Who is a Care Leaver?

As you might have guessed, a care leaver is a young person who has previously been in care as a child. However, your rights to support can change depending on how long you were in care, so it’s important to understand which legal category applies to you.

The Leaving Care Act sets out four different categories of care leavers: Eligible; Relevant; Former Relevant; Qualifying.

Being sure which category is relevant to you can sometimes be a bit difficult to work out, particularly if you may not be sure on what date you entered care. Your social worker or Personal Advisor can help you understand which category is right for you. The Coram Voice website has helpful definitions and a handy tool that may also be helpful in working this out.

An eligible care leaver is a young person aged 16 or 17 who has been looked after for at least 13 weeks since the age of 14 and who is still being looked after by Children’s Services.
A relevant care leaver is a young person aged 16 or 17 who has been looked after for at least 13 weeks since the age of 14 and who has left care. This also includes young people who were detained (e.g. in custody or hospital) when they turned 16, and who were looked after immediately before being detained.
A former relevant care leaver is a young person over 18 who was previously 'eligible' or 'relevant'. Children’s Services must support this group until at least aged 21, or longer if they are in education or training.
A qualifying care leaver is any young person aged 16 - 21 who left care on or after their 16th birthday but had been in care for less than 13 weeks since their 14th birthday; or who were a “relevant,” young person who has returned home for six months or more. You would also be a qualifying care leaver if you were in care to a local authority at the point that you became subject to a Special Guardianship Order. Or you were a relevant child but returned home for a period of six months.

What these categories mean for you

To be able to get all of the support set out in this offer, you must be a former relevant child/young person/care leaver.

If you are a Qualifying Care Leaver, the good news is that we are still able and happy to offer a service to you. The minimum that you can expect is that:

  • We will contact you to keep in touch with you at least once a year so that you know that we are still able to support you.
  • We can give you advice and support.
  • We will help you find accommodation during college or university holidays if you study full time away from home until you turn 25.

We may also:

  • Support you with short term accommodation in exceptional circumstances.
  • Support you in exceptional circumstances by purchasing things that you need and provide some financial support to help with your education and welfare needs.

 

Our Local Offer 

We know that turning 18 is a big milestone for everyone. You become an adult, and this can be an exciting but also a bit of a daunting time. Although you have turned 18, your corporate parent hasn’t changed! We are still committed to you. We know that the thought of leaving care can be a worry for lots of our care experienced young people. Although you are leaving our care, we are not leaving you. We will stay on your journey with you, and like any good parent we will work with you to help you to be safe, to build and maintain strong relationships that are positive and matter to you, and to achieve in life.

If you are leaving care or are care experienced and you are between the ages of 16 and 25, we will always be here to provide support. From the age of 16 we will work with you to understand your needs, hopes and aspirations for adulthood. This will help us work out a “Pathway Plan,” together, that will consider and plan for your future as a young adult. We want this plan to focus on what you need so that you are confident when you start adulthood, that your well-being, aspirations, future housing needs, education or employment needs and relationships can be planned for. We want you to be able to feel safe and settled, and we will work with you to be sure that you have the opportunities, services, and support that you need to plan and achieve the things that are important to you.
So that it truly reflects your needs, our Local Offer to care leavers has been co-produced with care experienced young people from Devon. We will continue to listen to your views to make sure the services we provide are what you need. If there is something specific you need which is not in this Offer, please speak with your PA.

Our offer is divided into five main categories because these join up with our Corporate Parenting Strategy and the work that we are doing to develop your service. This is our plan to improve your service over the next few years.

Additionally, so that there is some consistency with neighbouring Local Authorities, we have also signed up to something called the Southwest Regional Offer. This is something that ensures that Councils in the Southwest of England provide all care leavers with a strong offer that has similar guarantees. Some of our care experienced young people have been involved in designing this core offer with other young people across the region. Head to the Graduating Care South West website to find out more about the core South West Regional Offer. Alternatively, you can download the Graduating Care South West app.
Rightly, the law says that we should support young people as they leave our care and says that we must do certain things to support our young people as they leave our care at least until the age the age of 21. These include:

Giving you a Personal Advisor (PA) who will provide you with advice and guidance and who will be there with you to celebrate your successes, and who will help out if life gets challenging. Keeping in touch with you. Providing a setting up home grant. Reviewing your pathway plan with you regularly. Providing financial assistance to you to help you with education or training. Paying a higher education bursary when you are at university.

We want to continue to work with you to ensure that you are safe and supported until you are 25 years old. We must offer you the above service until you are at least 21 years of age. When you turn 21 years old, you can choose not to have a service from us.
A Personal Advisor (PA) is a named person and/or a social worker who will remain with you throughout your time as a care leaver. This is the person who will build and review your pathway plan with you.

Your personal advisor is dedicated to building a relationship with you and anybody you identify as important to you. They will advise, support, challenge, and guide you to be the best person that you can possibly be. They will look out for you and advocate for you, they will also step in if you are in trouble or difficulty. You may not always agree with them, but that is ok, because they will always work with you to ensure that you are safe and supported.

We must provide you with a Personal Advisor and a full pathway planning service until you are 21 years of age. However, we want to be able to continue to support you until the age of 25, and to continue to offer you advice and guidance where you need it.
A Pathway Plan helps us to understand your future goals and needs and sets out the detail about how we will work together to make these things happen. The plan is created on or around your 16th birthday, and we will work with you to ensure that it truly reflects your needs.

A pathway plan has lots of areas of focus but as a minimum will include:
  • Helping you to develop your independence skill.
  • Your home and accommodation needs.
  • Your relationships and ensuring that you have a good support network.
  • Your education, employment, or training needs.
  • Any physical or emotional health need you may have.
  • Your financial needs and budgeting.

    • We will review your plan with you at least every six months or if you have a significant change in your circumstances. The plan will include the things that you, we or other professionals need to do to ensure that your needs are met.

    We may challenge you to do some things by a certain time so that plans move forward at the right pace for you to be successful – and you can challenge us to do the same!
    In Devon this is called the Permanence and Transitions Service (P+T) and is made up of team managers, social workers, personal advisors (PAs), Education Training and Employment (ETE) PAs and Housing Advisors.

    If you want to contact the service you can call 01392 383000 and ask for the Permanence and Transition Team in the area you require. If it is after 5pm or at a weekend, then ask for the Emergency Duty Team. We will call you back as this is not a ‘freephone’ number.

    Alternatively, you can call the numbers below: