Rotherham Council’s Cabinet approved further support for young people leaving care at the Cabinet meeting on Monday 18 November.
Cabinet members will be asked to approve the new Leaving Care Strategy and receive a progress report about the Looked After Children and Care Leavers Sufficiency Strategy when it next meets in November.
A Care Leaver is a young person aged between 16 and 25 who has previously been in the care of a Council or local authority. Although a young person is considered to be a Care Leaver when they reach 16 years old, they may not yet have left the care of the Council.
In total, there are currently 357 Care Leavers open to the Leaving Care service in Rotherham.
The Leaving Care Strategy sets out the Council’s priorities and commitments for Care Leavers over the next three years.
This will include plans on how partners across Rotherham will work together to ensure the needs of Care Leavers are met, focusing on six priority areas of development, including family and connections; safe and affordable homes; education, training and employment, health and wellbeing; unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people; and engagement and participation.
Cabinet also approved a new addenum for the Looked After Children and Care Leavers Sufficiency Strategy 2023-2028 to include further information on the opportunities to support Care Leaves.
The strategy, which was approved by Cabinet in October 2022, outlined four phases of the development to deliver 20 residential beds and two emergency beds across 11 registered settings for Looked After Children.
So far, the programme has delivered ten residential beds and one emergency bed across six registered settings, providing esstential support for young children and their families.
Rotherham’s Cabinet Member for Children’s and Young Peoples Services, Cllr Victoria Cusworth, said: “It is vital that those leaving care receive the best support they can so that they are able to fulfill their potential. The Leaving Care Strategy and Looked After Children and Care Leavers Sufficiency Strategy outlines some of the fantastic work the Council already does to support young people in the Council’s care, and how we can further expand on this so that they are able to access more opportunities after leaving care.”
For further information about Care Leavers or support available for families in Rotherham, visit the website.
You can read the reports to Cabinet on the Council’s website.