ARU Final Report

48 Care leavers’ experiences of support during the Covid-19 pandemic “More support!! More phone calls. Being told I mattered and not left to just fend for myself on minimal money.” (Q: Female, 22) Care leavers acknowledged the high caseload of personal advisors and the high turnover of staff, but they pointed out the need for a system to be put in place so they had someone to contact when their personal advisor/social worker wasn’t available because of annual leave, illness, or anything else, such as a buddy system between personal advisors where they each had some knowledge of all cases between them so care leavers do not have to constantly revisit their case with someone new: “Ensuring that PAs don’t just disappear without a word and actually make sure that care leavers are getting the support they need.” (Q: Female, 21) “To ensure every young person has at least 1 member of staff to speak to, keep in regular contact, even if it’s a text every week, just so they know that they have people to talk to if needed.” (Q: Female, 20) In addition, they felt that services should be pro- actively reaching out to them so that they did not feel so alone and before they reached “crisis point”. “Stay in touch and not leave it until it’s crisis point and it’s really bad when people are on the edge. Offer the support in the first place… [otherwise] it’s just a cycle where they let everyone get to breaking point. You want to feel a tiny bit important. It’s like “You’re currently not our priority at the moment, can you call another time”, which is understandable but it feels like every time you talk to them they’re always busy.” (FG: Female, 18) “[T]o support care experienced people through the pandemic would require social care to actively seek out and ask what we need, it would also require funding that is never there.” (Q: Pangender, 21) Having someone to listen to them was clearly a priority for the care leavers who took part in this research. As such, the recommendation around listening to care leavers is: To proactively reach out to care leavers and make sure they consistently have someone in Leaving Care Services, independent to their case/care, to talk to about their experiences and the support that they need. 5.5 Recommendations and action Some care leavers were already facing significant challenges around practical issues, mental health and wellbeing, social connection and loneliness, and receiving support; for most care leavers who participated in this research, these challenges have been perpetuated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Although this research was instigated by