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Voices of care leavers help to shape housing support for young people

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The voices of care leavers are helping Gloucestershire County Council to improve housing support for young people who have left care.

At the county council’s Care Leavers’ Housing Summit, the voices of young people who have left care provided guidance on what could have been improved from their personal experience.

The summit, which was held at Kingsholm Stadium in Gloucester on Monday, 18 May, saw partners come together to work to improve support for care leavers and improve outcomes around housing for young people leaving care. It aimed to shine a light on what is working well and what more needs to be done to successfully support care leavers on their journey to independent living.

Those in attendance included representatives from the county council, district councils and housing providers. There were also two Government guest speakers, from the Department for Education and the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government.

The event saw attendees discuss joint protocols to improve housing support for care leavers. These included:

  • A joint protocol for the provision of accommodation for care leavers in Gloucestershire
  • A joint working protocol to support 16-17-year-olds who are homeless in Gloucestershire

As part of the summit, the experiences of recent care leavers were shared to give first hand insight into what change is needed.

Cllr Ben Evans, Cabinet Member for Children's Safeguarding and Care at Gloucestershire County Council, said: “The Care Leavers’ Housing Summit was an important opportunity to meet with representatives from across the county to discuss how we can all work together to improve housing support for our care leavers, as we recognise it has to be a collective effort as a set of corporate parents.

“What really stood out from this summit was hearing directly from care leavers themselves. Their experiences are invaluable in helping us understand where we need to do better and how we can improve the support we offer, we want to make sure there are no gaps.

“By working closely with our partners and listening to young people, we’re taking important steps towards strengthening housing pathways and making sure care leavers in Gloucestershire have the stability and support they deserve as they move into independence.”

Watch a video from the event.