Postcode lottery for care leavers setting up home

Care leavers face a postcode lottery in support when they attempt to set up home, with local authority grants to ease the transition to independent living ranging from £750 to £2,500, an investigation by CYP Now has uncovered.

Councils have a legal duty to provide grants to help young people furnish their accommodation when leaving care. The Care Leavers’ Foundation says £2,500 is the “bare minimum” that young people need.

But a freedom of information request sent to all 152 councils and answered by 114, has uncovered massive variations in the amount paid to care leavers nationwide. The results have triggered fears that young people are being forced to choose between buying essential items such as a bed or a fridge.

 Slough, Nottingham City and Essex councils offer maximum leaving care grants of just £750, £784 and £850 respectively. But the City of London and Halton councils give care leavers up to £2,500, Milton Keynes up to £2,464.50 and Richmond upon Thames up to £2,274.

Janet Rich, trustee at The Care Leavers’ Foundation, argued that grants to care leavers should be standardised at between £2,500 and £3,000 across all local authorities.

“I am utterly bewildered at what people think care leavers should do,” she said. “The grant is based on the assumption that a young person is going into an unfurnished property for the first time, usually a council flat. Should they not have carpets on the floor and just have concrete? Should they choose between a fridge and a bed? Some people will say they can just pile their clothes on the floor, but what is that going to do to the self-esteem of a child leaving care?”

The maximum leaving care grant is set at £1,000 in 17 councils and stands between £1,100 and £1,500 in 56.

Only 24 councils offer a maximum setting up home grant of £2,000 or more to children leaving care.

But the actual amount young people receive is often much less. The average grant paid to care leavers last year ranged from £145 in one local authority to £2,274 in the most generous.

Of the 114 councils who responded to CYP Now’s request, 94 provided an average figure for the sum paid to care leavers over the past two financial years. Payments declined in 25 areas, remained static in 43 councils and rose in 26.

Grants provided by council

City of London £2,500
Halton £2,500
Milton Keynes £2,464.50
Richmond Upon Thames £2,274
Tower Hamlets £2,200
Wandsworth    £2,100
York City £2,100
Cheshire East £2,050
Cheshire West & Chester £2,050
Barnet £2,000
Bromley £2,000
Derby City £2,000
Doncaster £2,000
East Sussex £2,000
Medway £2,000
Norfolk £2,000
North East Lincolnshire £2,000
Oldham £2,000
South Gloucestershire £2,000
Staffordshire £2,000
Stockport £2,000
Surrey £2,000
Sutton £2,000
West Berkshire £2,000
Lancashire £1,950
Durham £1,819
Trafford £1,801.60
Hull City £1,800
Stockton-on-Tees £1,800
Bedford Borough £1,750
Gloucestershire £1,750
Reading £1,750
Liverpool £1,645.50
Leeds £1,600
Derbyshire County £1,550
Barking & Dagenham £1,500
Barnsley £1,500
Bath & NE Somerset £1,500
Bexley £1,500
Bournemouth £1,500
Bracknell Forest £1,500
Bristol City £1,500
Calderdale £1,500
Camden £1,500
Coventry £1,500
Darlington £1,500
Gateshead £1,500
Hammersmith & Fulham £1,500
Haringey £1,500
Harrow £1,500
Havering £1,500
Islington £1,500
Kensington & Chelsea £1,500
Lewisham £1,500
Middlesbrough £1,500
North Yorkshire £1,500
Northumberland £1,500
Peterborough £1,500
Poole £1,500
Rotherham £1,500
Shropshire £1,500
Solihull £1,500
St Helens £1,500
Walsall £1,500
Waltham Forest £1,500
West Sussex £1,500
Westminster £1,500
Windsor & Maidenhead £1,500
Wirral £1,500
Blackburn with Darwen £1,454.95
Northamptonshire £1,400
Rutland £1,400
Sandwell £1,400
Sunderland £1,400
Blackpool £1,350
Redcar and Cleveland £1,350
Birmingham £1,300
Lincolnshire £1,300
Newham £1,300
Southwark £1,300
Bradford £1,200
Bury £1,200
Merton £1,200
North Somerset £1,200
Salford £1,200
Somerset £1,200
Stoke-on-Trent £1,200
Suffolk £1,200
Thurrock £1,200
Bolton £1,150
Rochdale £1,125
Buckinghamshire £1,000
Cornwall £1,000
Croydon £1,000
Devon £1,000
Dudley £1,000
Ealing £1,000
Hampshire £1,000
Herefordshire £1,000
Hillingdon £1,000
Isle of Wight £1,000
Kent £1,000
Kingston upon Thames £1,000
Plymouth £1,000
Swindon £1,000
Torbay £1,000
Wiltshire £1,000
Worcestershire £1,000
Essex £850
Nottingham City £784
Slough £750

Cambridgeshire Needs led
Southampton Needs led
Isles of Scilly Cornwall issues on behalf

Information not supplied by following councils

Brent
Brighton & Hove  
Central Beds Council
Cumbria
Dorset
East Riding of Yorkshire
Enfield
Greenwich   
Hackney
Hartlepool
Hertfordshire   
Hounslow 
Kirklees
Knowsley  
Lambeth
Leicester City   
Leicestershire    
Luton
Manchester  
Newcastle upon Tyne
North Lincolnshire 
North Tyneside    
Nottinghamshire   
Oxfordshire County  
Portsmouth  
Redbridge  
Sefton   
Sheffield
South Tyneside  
Southend-on-Sea
Tameside  
Telford & Wrekin
Wakefield   
Warrington
Warwickshire
Wigan 
Wokingham   
Wolverhampton