Manchester-based charity the Together Trust is urging the public to show they care by supporting the campaign to extend care for vulnerable 16- and 17-year-olds.
Since 2022, the government has banned children aged 15 and under from being placed in ‘careless’ settings – accommodation that has extremely limited support. This ban has not been extended to 16- and 17-year-olds, despite 34 children dying while living in these places over the last six years.
In careless settings, children can live in a shared environment with adults without staff present – creating a major safeguarding risk. Rebekah Pierre, a campaigner, social worker and Trustee for the Together Trust, experienced this herself when she was placed in ‘careless’ accommodation at age 16.
“Despite my benefits and the job I did alongside school, I could not afford food and electricity – let alone books, school trips, or clothes. I once wrote an essay with a candle in one hand and a pen in the other. But the lack of human connection hurt most,” explains Rebekah.
“It is arbitrary and cruel that a 15-year-old can be in a loving foster home until 11.59pm on the eve of their 16th birthday, but once the clock strikes midnight, they could end up in a hostel with offenders, gangs and vulnerable adults.”
The prevailing rationale for careless (known as ‘semi-independent’) accommodation is that some children are ‘ready for independence’ at a young age. However, as the care crisis continues, careless placements are being used more and more as a cheaper alternative – and it’s putting vulnerable young people at a much higher risk.
Many children living in ‘careless’ accommodation should be living in foster care or children’s residential care. Instead, they are living in bedsits and caravans because it’s the only available placement in their area,” says Lucy Croxton, Campaigns Manager at the Together Trust.
The percentage of young people living in these settings increased by a staggering 89% between March 2010 and 2020. Throughout National Care Leavers Week, the Together Trust charity is asking the public to support the campaign by writing to their MPs, urging them to push for change.
Lucy adds: “We believe that all children in the care system should have safe and loving homes and receive care where they live until at least age 18.
“We’ve been fighting this as part of the Keep Caring to 18 campaign for years, and every month that goes on, more and more teenagers are being put at risk. That’s why we need people to stand up, now, for children in care.”
More information about the campaign and details on how to get involved is available here: togethertrust.org.uk/care
