Government should develop National Care Offer for consistent standard of financial and housing support for care leavers, MPs say

In a report published today (10 July), the committee makes a number of recommendations on issues affecting all types of care. These include a call for the development of a National Care Offer, to provide a consistent standard of financial and housing support for care leavers from local authorities. 

Across England, the number of looked-after children stood at 83,630 in 2024 – an increase of over 20% since 2014.

The report highlights that outcomes for young people who leave the care system are poor, with 39% of care leavers aged 19–21 not in education, training or employment, and a third of care leavers becoming homeless within two years of leaving care. 

It notes: “The rising level of demand on local authority children’s services departments has been attributed to rising poverty, cost of living pressures, and a decrease in funding for early intervention programmes.” 

To establish better support for care leavers, the Education Committee recommended the Government:

• develop a National Care Offer
• exempt care leavers from plans to reduce Universal Credit for those aged under 22 and ensure care leavers are prioritised for access to support through the Youth Guarantee. 
• ensure the DfE is engaging with care-experienced young people in all areas of its work on children's social care and encourage local authorities to do the same. 

Looking at kinship care, the report highlights the benefits in comparison to other forms of care, observing children experiencing lower rates of placement breakdown, higher satisfaction, and better educational, health and employment outcomes than children in local authority care.

Kinship care is defined by the Department for Education as any situation in which a child is being raised in the care of a friend or family member who is not their parent.

The report however warns of the many difficulties faced by kinship carers, particularly financial difficulties, and the “lack of parity in support with other forms of care”.

It points to research by charity Kinship, which showed that kinship carers were four times more likely than other UK adults to have had a bill they were unable to pay in the last month, and more than twice as likely to be using food banks.

Making recommendations in this area, the report recommends the government ensure that the financial support available in its forthcoming kinship allowance pilot is “on a par” with that given to foster carers, and to legislate for entitlements to kinship leave “at the earliest opportunity”. 

Meanwhile, the committee shared its concern over a “severe shortage” of placements for children, and the use of barges and caravans to accommodate teenagers.

It said: “The Committee agrees with [the] DfE that residential care should be a last port of call, but it is concerned by the poor quality and supply of children’s homes and the low quality of some supported accommodation for 16 and 17-year-olds. Reports of children being placed in barges and caravans with little or no support are unacceptable.”

The report recommended the Government develop “universal standards of care” that apply to all homes, including supported accommodation, and publish a national sufficiency strategy for children's social care - requiring all local authorities to develop and publish strategies for reducing the number of out-of-area placements.

More generally, the Committee called on the Government to issue a “comprehensive response” to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, which was published over three years ago.

It said: “This should set out which recommendations have already been taken forward and a timeline and funding estimate for those which have not. It must evaluate the impact of the pilot programmes which have already taken place and set out how it plans to scale up those which prove to be effective.”

Responding to the report, Cllr Tim Oliver, Chair of the County Councils Network, said: “The County Councils Network (CCN) welcomes this timely report, which highlights many of the major challenges which our authorities are facing up and down the country – particularly the sufficiency of care placements and their dramatically accelerating costs caused by market dysfunction.

“Whilst the findings of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care have led to the right direction of reform to focus more on prevention, the committee is correct to highlight the need for more progress, and quicker. Whilst this government has committed to reform, the money allocated to support change has fallen woefully short of the £2.6bn recommended by the independent review. 

“Without this scale of investment local authorities will not be able to make the step changes the committee identifies as key to improving the experience and outcomes of our most vulnerable children – notably a shift towards earlier intervention and prevention to reduce the numbers in the care system overall.

“As such the CCN fully supports the committee’s call for the government to provide a ‘comprehensive response’ to the independent review, including detail of which recommendations have already been taken forward, and a timeline and funding estimates for those which have not yet been implemented so far.”

Minister for Children and Families Janet Daby said: “The children’s social care system has faced years of drift and neglect, leading to a vicious cycle of late intervention and children falling through the cracks.

“One of the worst symptoms of this is when some of the most vulnerable young people in society are shunted from pillar to post - traumatised by shameful illegal homes, while some private companies rack up ludicrous profits. 

“Through our Plan for Change and our Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, this government is enabling every child to achieve and thrive by investing in the places children need, cracking down on profiteering with new laws, and rebuilding family support services so parents and carers get the help they need to keep their children happy and safe in loving homes.” 

Lottie Winson