Why Care Leavers’ Month Matters: Celebrating Resilience and Rewriting the Narrative

Every November, during what is now Care Leavers’ Month, we have the opportunity to celebrate and champion our care leavers nationally, as the determined and resilient young people we know they can be. It is a time to shine a light on the experiences, challenges, and triumphs of young people moving on from the care system and to try to change public perception. For the thousands of care leavers across the country, this month is their platform too.

Too often, care leavers are portrayed through a deficit lens, defined by what they lack rather than what they offer. Care Leavers’ Month flips that narrative. It highlights potential over pity, strength over struggle, and ambition over adversity. It reminds everyone that care-experienced young people are not statistics – they are individuals with dreams, talents, and the right to thrive.

We all know that leaving care is not just a change in living arrangements – it’s a life shift, often without the safety net many of their peers take for granted. Whilst we try to smooth the path to adulthood, recognising the additional challenges from the trauma they have experienced, most care leavers still navigate adulthood feeling less supported than their peers. Some thrive but for others they battle through a cascade of challenges: housing instability, financial insecurity, mental health struggles, and barriers to education and employment.

Yet, despite these hurdles, I have seen so many care leavers demonstrate extraordinary resilience and I’m sure you have too. Their stories can be awe-inspiring both for their personal strengths but also for those people that stuck at it and provided the love our children needed, however tough it got. Siblings, foster carers, that one residential worker, the social worker, the school dinner lady – the list goes on and on.

Care Leavers’ Month gives us, as leaders, a focused opportunity to galvanise action – to get our political leaders, large and small employers, and local communities to reflect on how they support care leavers – not just in November, but year-round. Are we providing safe, stable housing? Are we ensuring access to mental health services? Are we creating the right pathways to education and employment? Our parenting role is to get these foundation stones right so our care leavers can be confident that they will get the right support, at the right time, far into adulthood.

This year’s theme, “Rising as Me,” captures the essence of what Care Leavers’ Month is all about: identity, growth, and self-determination. It’s about recognising that care leavers are not defined by their past, but by their potential. It’s about creating space for them to rise – not in spite of their experiences, but because of the strength they’ve gained through them.

In celebrating Care Leavers’ Month, it’s a reminder that with the right support, care leavers can and do succeed. And when they rise, we all rise with them.