The Leaving Care Support Team is part of Newcastle Children's Services. We help you when you are thinking abut leaving care or when you have left.
When you leave care it will either be from a family placement or from a residential unit. Leaving care can be an exciting but also uncertain time as you may feel there is no-one to help you when you leave.
We will meet with you to talk about your future and to plan your after care support.
We normally talk about
- where you may live
- training and employment
- health
- money
- personal support and needs
We stay in contact with you until you are 21 years old or until you finish higher education (24 years old in special circumstances).
We believe that your future is important and that with help you can live a happy and successful life when you leave care.
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The Children (Leaving Care) Act came into effect in Octoer 2001. If you left care before 1st October 2001, the new law does not apply to you.
The new law does apply to you if, on, or after 1st October 2001
- you are 16 or 17, in care and
- you have bee in care for at least 13 weeks since you turned 14
We can help you if the new law applies to you. We will help you until you are at least 21 years of age whether you stay in care or leave.
Your social worker will tell us about you just before your 16th birthday. This is called a referral. We will then arrange a meeting with you to talk about your plans for the future.
After the first meeting we will write a 'pathway plan'. This is a plan that covers different parts of your life. It will include details of your ideas and plans for the future and how we will help you achieve them.
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The Leaving Care Support Team is experienced in working with young people who are both in and out of care. We can support you before and after you leave care and advise and help you until you are 21 years' of age, or until we all agree that you no longer need our services.
We can help you
- keep in touch with the people who cared for you
- sort out your problems
- in a crisis, for example, if you were having difficulties with people
- with plans that do not seem to be working out for you
We will
- treat you fairly and with respect
- listen to you and be sensitive to your needs
- be friendly and polite
- make appointments to see you
- give you easy to understand and useful information
- contact agencies and departments who may be able to help you
- deal with your complaints quickly and fairly
- help you plan your future
It is important that we plan things together so that we can give you the best possible service.
We can come to your home or you can come to our office for meetings. You decide what you want. You can come to group work sessions to help you prepare for your future.
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- we cannot provide a 24 hour, 7 days a week service
- we cannot be in the office all of the time but you can leave a message and we will get back to you
- we cannot give you a flat or a house, but we can help you with planned moves
- we cannot help you unless you come to meetings, answer phone calls and work with us on your plan
- we cannot solve all your problems at once but we will try to help you solve them one at a time
If you have any questions, please contact us.
Information about Leaving Care for young people in Newcastle (pdf 238Kb)