Leaving Care

Each year about 14,000 young people aged between 16 and 19 leave the care of local authorities. Far from seeing themselves as on the threshold of adulthood, they are faced with a variety of problems - nowhere to live, little money and few friends or relatives to help them make the adjustment. Despite their predicament very little research has been done on the subject. This book concentrates on this neglected area. For two and a half years, Kate Carey and Mike Stein maintained contact with a group of young people who left care in 1982, and, unlike previous studies, their research included those leaving foster care and "home on trial". The book makes extensive use of detailed first-hand accounts to examine how the young people made the transition from care. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for policy, law and practice and offer a strong challenge to the developing consensus view of "independence training" as the main basis of leaving care policy. The book is aimed at those in contact with or concerned with young people in care.