Help celebrate care leavers and raise awareness of the challenges that young people leaving care face.
Why is it important!
Suffolk County Council supports approximately 550 care leavers aged 18-21 (or up to 24 with an additional need).
And, there are about 900 children aged 0-17 currently in care in Suffolk.
That’s a lot of children and young people who are, and will become, care leavers that will face many challenges.
What is a care leaver and what challenges do care leavers experience?
For children who have grown up in the care system, the process of leaving home can be more difficult because of the unique challenges they face.
From the age of 16, a young person in care has the option to leave care but is not legally obliged to. But, by the age of 18, the young person is no longer the legal responsibility of the UK Government. Some will move out of their foster home or care home that they were living in and find their own accommodation. In doing so, they become known as a care leaver.
For teens in care, this process can be complicated and alarming. They may feel abandoned or alone, as the support system that they have known and relied on throughout their upbringing in care (comprised of social workers and carers) no longer have any legal responsibility to look after them.
Losing their support network can make it challenging for them to:
- Move on to higher education,
- Find emotional wellbeing support,
- Get into employment,
- Housing support,
- Financial support.
Beside all of these challenges, our Suffolk care leavers are resilient, empowering and inspirational to us all.
You can hear the voices of our Care leavers and how they are helping to support other children in care via our C2C page.
How do I help raise awareness?
The theme for Care Leavers Month is about: Rising as Me: Overcoming challenges, transforming, and finding your identity.
For out more about Care Leavers Month
The reality of leaving care
The below video we created with care leaver Steph, who wrote a poem about her experiences being in and leaving care…
Care Leavers in Suffolk Achieving Big Things
Care Leaver Steph, wrote a song ‘Don’t call me on a Monday’ written alongside members of our C2C group which won a National Coram Voices Award earlier this year. The song lyrics below capture the emotional rollercoaster of life in the care system…
Don’t call me on a Monday
Don’t call me on a Monday
When I’m clueless to what to say
When I’m calming down from anger
But I’m not feeling any better
Why can’t you just pick up the phone
Maybe at a time when I feel the most alone
When I need somebody to try and save me
As I feel the worse on a Saturday evening
God I need you by my side
God I don’t even feel alive
God I want you to help me thrive
But I need you after you finish at five
Don’t call me on a Monday
I needed you before but now I’m non verbal
My head was twisted, making me feel sick
I wanted to call but you won’t be available
But I’m feeling so depressed
I can not help but to stress
The pain is eating me inside
To the point I wanna die
I wanna try and cry for help
Its hard to do it by myself
I need someone to hold my hand
listen and to understand
God I need you by my side
God I don’t even feel alive
God I want you to help me thrive
But I need you after you finish at five
So for heaven’s sake
So for heavens sake
Call me on a weekend
Call me on a weekend.
Empowering our Care Leavers to have their say
Our Care Leaver Natly, one of the co-chairs of our C2C group presented the C2C annual report to the cabinet members. This is the first time that Natly has presented on her own at a big corporate event. She did an exceptional job in front of a large audience and public screening too. You can watch her speech here on YoutTube(at 11.07 minutes)
From Care to Cap!
We interviewed Holly back in August about her recent graduation from university with a 2:1 in Criminology and Sociology. In this video Holly talks about her foster carers influence and the support they received and how she would like to inspire other young children and young people in care who may be thinking of going to university.
Leon and his experiences…
The Family Business
The Family Business is Suffolk’s commitment to care leavers, providing meaningful employment opportunities to care leavers who are often poorly placed to access work opportunities. The Family Business solves this problem by linking the community of employers with care leavers seeking work.
Leaving Care ‘Infoplot’- Allotment Project
‘Infoplot’ is an allotment in Ipswich used to engage young care leavers, aged 16-25 into a green social space where they can grow a variety of vegetables and herbs such as potatoes, beetroot, marrow, courgettes, corn, tomatoes, mint, onions and carrots.
The space lets care leavers let off some steam, have good conversations, and be creative (a few have reused old wooden pallets and transformed them into garden beds). The young people who work on the allotment find it a supportive place to cope with the challenges they face like homelessness, mental health and other factors. To find out more about the allotment contact: [email protected]
Get involved in National Care Leavers’ Month 2025
Are you a care-experienced young person? Do you work with children in care or care leavers? You might be interested in the below information.
Find out about C2C – Suffolk’s Children in Care Council – C2C is a group for children and young people who are in care or leaving care who meet to discuss what it’s like to be in care in Suffolk and help improve support for others.
In care or going into care advice and support – What you need to know!
#WatchYourWords Campaign – It’s a campaign to raise awareness of terms or words that are often used by professionals, that can unintentionally make a young person who is in care or care experienced feel uncomfortable and stigmatised.
Ideal Worker Poster – What young people told us, makes an ideal children’s worker
Skills For Life – Bootcamps to help young people’s skills for employability.