Young People Leaving Care: Life After the Children Act 1989 - Softcover

A comprehensive, informed overview of the current situation with helpful guidance for the policy makers and those directly caring for care leavers. -- Foster Care Though it is not intended specifically as a practice guide, good practice is identified and recommendations are made to improve existing services. Of particular interest and value are the recommendations made by the young people involved in the schemes which were studied. -- Registered Homes and Services Although in recent years there has been a considerable growth in specialist services for care leavers, at least in part stimulated by the leaving care provisions of the Children's Act 1989, there exists no comparable national information on the nature and extent of this work. This book goes some way to filling this gap and is therefore to be welcomed. Despite these concerns, the wealth of descriptive material about project work with young people should prove helpful to practitioners in the field. In overall terms, the book offers a depiction of the current state of leaving care work and provides models for developing positive policy and practice in this area. It will therefore prove useful to practitioners and planners in the leaving care field. Stylistically, the use of too many lists tend to reduce it's readability and, perhaps, makes it more suitable as a work of reference. The inclusion of good author and subject indexes will certainly help in this respect. -- Adoption & Fostering The research candidly outlined its aims and the methodology employed and the data now held does justify the pragmatic approach adopted. The book makes a considerable contribution to the field of leaving care research, not least in its concluding comments suggesting ways forward. It is successful in providing a detailed overview of the scope and diversity of leaving care services and individual local authority policy and practice. It should prove to be an invauable resource not only for those practitioners working with, or intending to work with, young people leaving care but also for policy makers and those in the field of research. -- British Journal of Social Work This book catalogues the "lottery" facing some of our most vulnerable young people. For the specialist, it is an excellent review of the issues. For the generalist, it provides a revealing picture of just how much still needs to be done. -- Young People Now It was with a degree of scepticism that I began reading this book. My expectations were of an uninspiring piece of literature which merely illustrates the terrible lot of young people leaving care, ignoring any positives or possibilities. I am delighted to be proved wrong. -- Youth & Policy

What happens to young people when they leave care? Young care leavers are very over-represented in all the problem social policy areas (for example in the homelessness, young offenders institutions, begging and poverty statistics). Although there has been some progress in assisting care leavers with their transition to independence, the problems they present and face remain acute. This book contains extensive practice information, original research material and policy findings about young people leaving public care and the work of leaving care projects. It contains data on the circumstances of over 3000 young people leaving care, as well as the work of the leaving care projects across England and Wales which participated in the research, and provides an extensive analysis of national and local developments and the impact of the Children Act 1989. Each chapter contains good practice and policy examples, and the book concludes with a critical analysis of key practice, policy, and theoretical issues and discussion of ways of moving forward.