This week is National Care Leavers Week and the UK’s community bank, Metro Bank, is supporting the Care Leaver Covenant – a joint promise made by the private, public and voluntary sectors to provide support for care leavers aged 16-25 to help them to live independently.
Around 11,000 young people (aged 16 – 18) leave care each year and the aim of the Care Leaver Covenant is to provide them with additional support. The Covenant centres around five key areas – independent living; education, employment and training; finance; safety and security; mental and physical health.
Since signing the Covenant, Metro Bank has started to deliver new bespoke Money Zone sessions for young adult care leavers. Money Zone is a series of financial education lessons about budgeting, saving and banking that Metro Bank has already delivered to over 203,000 UK school children.
Metro Bank has also introduced a special identification and verification process for care home residents and care leavers to make it easier for them to open bank accounts and become financially independent.
In addition, the Bank has worked with its recruitment team and the Care Leaver Covenant to communicate its “hire for attitude and train for skills” ethos by promoting roles that are available and suitable for young adults across the business.
“We are committed to supporting young adults leaving the care system,” explains Kat Robinson, director of customer experience at Metro Bank. “We are helping them take their first independent steps towards managing their personal finances.”
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