ARU Final Report

Full Report – March 2021 49 Covid-19, the research team emphasised that the recommendations from the research are for support and action that should be in place for care leavers all the time, and not just during the current or future pandemics. Therefore, the recommendations are for providing better support to care leavers during and beyond the pandemic. In summary, by considering our research findings in relation to the Care Leavers Charter focusing on better support for care leavers during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, our recommendations are: 1. To provide clear and up-to- date information on the range of support available across all corporate parent services responsible for supporting care leavers, and proactively share this with all care leavers. 2. To ensure that all care leavers are provided the same opportunities and level of practical, financial, and emotional support within their localauthoritythat responds to their particular needs and circumstances. 3. To provide additional support to care leavers with children, including providing them with keyworker status to allow their children to attend nursery or school if needed during lockdowns. 4. To make the provision of basic technology, including internet connection, a laptop, and a mobile phone, mandatory to enable care leavers to stay connected and engage with education, employment, and services. 5. To facilitate connection for care leavers, with others, for example by helping them to establish support bubbles, innovative use of technology, and face-to-face interaction where appropriate, especially for care leavers living on their own or recently independent. 6. 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. It is clear to see how these recommendations also align with the Corporate Parenting Principles (Department for Education, 2018) that local authorities must take into account when working with care leavers: • To act in the best interests, and promote the physical and mental health and wellbeing, of those children and young people.