ARU Accessible Summary

Care leavers’ experiences of support during the Covid-19 pandemic Support from services 73% of care leavers received some form of support from Leaving Care Services during the pandemic. 51% said their personal advisor/social worker supported them practically and emotionally: “My PA gave me weekly check- ins by email which were really nice.” (Q: Male, 21) However, 64% thought that the support from Leaving Care Services was very good before Covid-19, but during the pandemic this fell slightly to 59%: “Personal advisor and children’s social worker have supported me and helped me so much especially with my mental health.” (Q: Female, 24) Some tried to get support, but were not given it, often because their personal advisor/social worker was unavailable due to illness or leave: “Absolute nightmare… I was moving house and I needed help setting up my exemption for council tax. I was trying to get in touch for two weeks and couldn’t get in touch with anyone… The woman on the phone said the PA had left the job and I hadn’t been informed, and the new PA hadn’t introduced herself… She did call yesterday to ask how I was but up until that point I’d had nothing. There was no one even on the end of the phone not even in the general office...” (FG: Female, 20) Having someone to talk to was very important to care leavers and having someone checking in to see if they were okaywas hugely appreciated: “Ensuring that YP are being checked up on, all it needs to be is a text. It makes the world of difference to CLs to know that the LA actually care about them.” (Q: Female, 23) Involvement and participation teams, as well as charities working with care leavers also had an important role to play in providing support, for example by organising online meetups and generally staying in touch: “Involvement Team have been amazing always putting in effort to make sure all their young people where okay I think they are amazing I had a mental breakdown during this and they waschecking Iwasokayandget the right help…” (Q: Female, 25) In addition to services, 73% of care leavers received support from family and 70% from friends , while some also talked about their foster carers going above and beyond to support them during the pandemic: “My husband and friends are my lifeline.” (Q: Pangender, 21) “My family have been a big support as my support bubble.” (Q: Female, 18)