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.”
The charity Coram Voice will celebrate the awards ceremony of Voices 2021, its national creative writing competition for children in care and young care leavers, virtually again this year due to ongoing pandemic restrictions.
The ceremony will be streamed on the Coram Voice YouTube channel from 5pm tomorrow (14 July) and will be co-hosted by award-winning Scottish actor and former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi, a long-standing supporter of the competition, and Voices 2019 winner Sophia Hall.
It will also feature members of the competition judging panel announcing this year’s winners, including the children’s authors Abi Elphinstone and Cynthia Murphy, novelist Kirsty Capes and the poet Joelle Taylor.
Peter Capaldi said: “It is an honour to host the Voices awards ceremony again this year. The competition is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the creativity and talent of care-experienced young people and builds greater understanding around their lives and experiences.”
Sophia Hall said: “I am delighted to be co-hosting this year’s award ceremony with Peter. I’m a proud care experienced person, but that wasn’t always the case. I used to hide the fact I was in care, and never really spoke about it when I was a teenager.
“Today, after being encouraged by organisations such as Coram, my peers, and the wider community, I embrace my experience as an important and integral part of my identity. The Voices competition means a lot to me because it’s all about encouraging young people in care to use their voices, and encouraging non-care experienced people to listen”.
This year marks the sixth anniversary of the Voices competition, which is sponsored by UK management consultancy Cadence Innova.
The competition received over 250 entries on the theme of ‘What Makes Life Good’ submitted from across the country. Just 24 of these have been shortlisted over four age categories: primary (age 4-10), lower secondary (age 11-14), upper secondary (age 15-17) and care leavers (age 18-25).
Brigid Robinson, Managing Director of Coram Voice, said: “The uncertainty and disruption of the pandemic has made the past year incredibly challenging for many children and young people in and leaving the care system.
“But reading the competition entries, we have been so inspired by the stories and poems that show how children and young people are using their strength and creativity to deal with these difficult experiences. Their motivation and resilience is an inspiration to all.
“I want to congratulate all the young people who entered this year’s competition. This is your night, and we are delighted to be able to host the awards online so that we can all celebrate together and share the talents of every young person who took part.”
Gary Ashby, Founding Partner at Cadence Innova, the Headline Sponsor of Voices 2021, said: “It is our third year sponsoring the Voices competition and we are delighted to be working with Coram once again. The Voices Awards champion children’s creativity and development and we are immensely proud to be a part of this inspiring contest. We hope that the artistic exploration of this year’s topic – What makes life good – will not only help the participants explore their creative sides, but also grow their confidence for the future.”
To find out more about the Voices 2021 competition and how you can tune in on 14 July, please visit coramvoice.org.uk/voices.
Recommendations to improve support for care leavers at risk of homelessness have been welcomed by Housing Minister Kevin Stewart.
A working group, co-ordinated by the A Way Home Scotland coalition, has produced eight recommendations to make support for care leavers simpler and more consistent across Scotland.
A Way Home Scotland is a national coalition committed to ending youth homelessness in Scotland in ten years. The coalition was set-up and launched by the Rock Trust in 2017, and is funded by the Scottish Government.
It brings together organisations and professionals from across Scotland working in the fields of housing, homelessness, education, youth work, families, health and justice to create and implement plans to address youth homelessness in their localities.
Their report recommends:
• that existing legislation is better implemented for those with a legal duty of care to care leavers to help prevent them from experiencing homelessness at the point of leaving care and later
• that care leavers who experience homelessness are rapidly provided with support which is effectively tailored to their specific needs and circumstances
• that young people are prepared for and supported, with care and sensitivity, through the transition into adulthood
Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said: “This report provides an excellent set of recommendations that provides tangible guidance and solutions to the problems care leavers face finding and keeping a home.
“Young people leaving care are some of the most vulnerable people in our society and we should take all actions possible to prevent them from ever becoming homeless.
“It’s vital housing and children’s services work seamlessly with wider support services to ensure young people’s needs are met.
“We will ensure that we meet the ambitions set out in this report to improve young people’s housing outcomes.”
Tam Baillie, former Children and Young People Commissioner for Scotland and chair of the A Way Home Scotland Coalition, said: “No young person should be homeless and that particularly applies to care experienced young people for whom we have additional responsibilities with legal requirements.
“No parent wants their child to experience homelessness and so it should be for our children in care. We can and should deliver the very best start to their adult life and they have a right to expect we live up to our obligations. Time to make the step-change, here and now.”
Kate Polson from Rock Trust, which assists young people to avoid, survive and move on from homelessness, added: “Scotland has a history of progressive policy and legislation in relation to housing, homelessness and our care system. The recommendations in this report highlight how we implement all of this guidance to prevent young people from entering homelessness.
“The Rock Trust thanks all of the partners who joined us in the A Way Home coalition to write the report and drive forward our work to end youth homelessness in Scotland.”
