How employers can better support care leavers
By Gemma Raw
The Care Leaver Friendly Employment Charter sets out principles and key goals for employers to ensure care leavers are supported in finding work.
Local authorities have a statutory duty to support young people leaving care to enable them to achieve their aspirations and make a successful transition to adulthood. In many cases, finding appropriate education and training opportunities may be relatively straightforward. However, when it comes to helping care leavers find employment, frontline social workers and others working in social care jobs may face greater challenges. It's not just about identifying employment opportunities. It's also about being able to rely on the goodwill and proactive support of employers to ensure that care leavers can take advantage of those opportunities.
In October 2021, the then Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi launched the Care Leaver Friendly Employer Charter. Developed by the Care Leaver Covenant in collaboration with recruitment specialists Penna, it was to created give organisations a set of behaviours to work towards to support care leavers to thrive in the world of work.
"In my humble opinion, there should be no reason why any employer wouldn't want to be a signatory," said Penna Managing Director Julie Towers. "Not only is signing up the absolute right thing to do from a corporate parent and corporate social responsibility perspective to help these young people make their way into the world of work, but also because our economy, our skills and our future rely on attracting and developing the very best diverse talent."
Principles of the Charter
The Charter sets out nine principles for employers to adopt in recruitment, tracking and development, ensuring that care leavers are identified and supported. These include:
Working with the Covenant team to promote appropriate opportunities to the care leaver community through targeted means, including the Covenant app, website and social media channels.
Creating a tick box or similar mechanic within application forms or ATS in order to track progress of care leaver applicants or manually recording applicants from the care leaver community to track progress of care leaver applicants.
Assigning a workplace buddy for care leaver employees to provide informal support and guidance, and help in navigating the organisation.
Guidance for social workers
Personal advisors (PAs) are there to support young people leaving care up to the age of 25. However, until the young person reaches 18, PAs work alongside social workers. To help those in frontline social care roles help their clients successfully navigate this difficult period in their lives, the British Association of Social Workers has published a briefing paper on support for care leavers. It provides general background on the development of government policies to support care leavers, as well as existing support available in key areas such as social services, housing, education and training, health services and the social security system.
