Care Leavers' Compact

The London Care Leavers' Compact will provide a framework for a consistent and high-quality offer across the capital. The project is sponsored by Lambeth and the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA), working to the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services (ALDCS), and has secured £110,000 of Department of Education funding to help delivery.  Key leadership partners include the London Children in Care Council, Partnership for Young London, and the GLA.

It is a duty under the Children and Social Work Act 2017 that England Local Authorities must publish information about the services offered for care leavers.  Each London borough therefore has a care leaver offer, but these are individual to each area and do not provide a consistent and shared offer for our care leavers.  Care leavers do not always live in the borough responsible for them, which poses further challenges with the variation in offers.   It is also important that the offer to care leavers reaches beyond services provided by Local Authorities.  Partners such as health, education and transport have important roles to play, as do the private and voluntary sectors.

This project builds on successful work undertaken in Greater Manchester to develop an agreed care leavers compact.  We will also build on a substantial body of existing good practice and development work in London.  Due to the make-up and geography of the London boroughs, there are many cross-cutting public services, business and commissioning frameworks that can be utilised to build an offer that spans all London boroughs.  Delivering the compact will have the added benefit of developing new ways of working across leaving care services to strengthen our regional approach and establish a better infrastructure for collaboration.

By adopting a common core offer, with cross border collaboration and multi-agency working, we will improve outcomes for our care leavers and reduce risk for young people, which in turn reduces demand on the local system.

Partnership Working

Securing support and agreement across these multiple areas requires a strong and wide-reaching partnership.  A Care Leavers Trust Board has been brought together to oversee the work.  This is led by Merlin Joseph, Lambeth DCS, with DCS representation from all four sub-regions, the London Children in Care Council, Partnership for Young London, LIIA, and the GLA.   Mark Riddell, the National Care Leavers Advisor advises the Board and brings both experience of the Manchester agreement and the ability to advocate across London and nationally.  An existing Care Leavers Network (bringing together care leaving representation from the LA’s) will be the reference group for delivery.  Political support for the agreement will be critical and both young people and officers working on the project will look for engagement, advice and support from Members, Chief Officers, City Hall, and national government. 

Structure of the Compact