The move towards adulthood is a significant period in any young person’s life. However, for a young person leaving care, it can involve changes to their home, relationships and professional support, sometimes happening at the same time. We know that the way we support them through this period can have a lasting impact.

We welcome the report from Ashely-John Baptiste and Claire Chamberlain ‘You really are on your own’: A study into the early deaths of care leavers. A heartbreaking report where acute loneliness for our care leavers features repeatedly; with some young people having no trusted adult to help and support with major difficulties or indeed the day to day matters of life.

Over the last year, we have been making some changes in Suffolk to our children in care and care leaving services. This report is timely as our corporate parenting partnership is now asking, have we done enough on the transitions experienced by children in care and care-experienced young adults?

In Suffolk, as with the national picture, we acknowledge the need to do everything we can to improve transitions, address cliff edges and strengthen support for care leavers. We must do this whilst also tackling the complex challenges associated with accommodation, practical support and access to mental health support.

Suffolk Cares, the result of our transformation of care and leaving care services, is part of our response. We have already invested in our Personal Adviser workforce and introduced earlier allocation, enabling Advisers to work alongside social workers. Suffolk Cares takes the next step in strengthening this support. Rather than continuing with a traditional “16+” model, social workers from our new Next Steps service will become involved from the age of 14. This means that planning during a crucial period in a young person’s life can be informed by professionals who know them well and who always ensure their child or young person is the top priority.

This should also help to reduce the number of service changes experienced by children who enter care during adolescence; a growing cohort within our care population. For these young people in particular, having familiar professionals around them can provide valuable continuity at a time when other aspects of their lives may already be changing.

Most importantly, we want to move away from treating “independence” as a cliff edge. Preparing for adulthood should not be determined by a service boundary or begin only when a young person reaches a particular age. It should happen at each young person’s own pace, supported by trusted relationships, practical help and a strong sense of belonging. A continuous focus on lifelong links, identifying enduring relationships with children long before they turn 18, safely reconnecting them where possible with family and friends, former carers and other trusted adults, chosen by them.

However, improving outcomes also means looking beyond the immediate transition from care and considering the opportunities available to care-experienced young adults as they build their futures.

Our Family Business programme works closely with regional partners, educational providers, and employers to identify local opportunities. Importantly, the programme also puts the right support in place, including counselling, to help care-experienced young adults successfully sustain their employment. Creating an opportunity is important, but it is only the first step. Young adults may also need consistent and practical support to help them remain in employment and manage the challenges they encounter along the way.

We have also looked carefully at Staying Put, another way we know we can support better transitions for young people leaving the care system. Over the last year, we have worked closely with foster carers and care-experienced young adults to understand the barriers to the take-up of Staying Put locally. As a consequence, we have ambitiously redesigned our offer to enable more young adults to benefit from Staying Put and to promote arrangements that last longer.

We also welcome the continued focus on tried and tested models of support. Suffolk has had Staying Close since taking part in a pilot in 2017, helping young adults maintain support as they move on from care.

My reflection is that preparing for adulthood should never be seen as a single event or a handover between services. It is a journey that requires time, consistency and people who know the young person well.

Our responsibility is not simply to help young people become independent. It is to make sure that trusted relationships, practical support and a sense of belonging remain firmly in place as they take each step. By investing earlier, building on approaches that work and listening to care-experienced young adults and foster carers, we want to create transitions that happen at each young person’s pace rather than according to the boundaries of our services.

Back to the question, are we doing enough? My answer is clear, we can never do enough, we need to be relentless in our drive to ensure that Lifelong Links provide a way to make someone reliably present and an intended outcome for our children in care and care experienced adults, not leaving this to be a matter of chance. We collectively hold such privileged positions in our roles as systems leaders, for our children and young adults, let’s be less corporate and more parent and strive for the very best for them. In our family, no one should be or feel on their own.