4 ways we're supporting children and young people in care

Each year, thousands of children and young people interact with the care system. And even more children and families rely on wider social care services – such as the support of social workers and family support services.

So, what are we doing to help children in care?

Every year around 30,000 children enter care and 30,000 leave care. We provide a range of support to 50,000 of these children and young people each year.

• We support at least 2,000 children in care through our direct targeted services. This ranges from fostering and children’s homes to youth housing support and independent visitors and advocacy.
• At least 20,000 more are provided with support at our children’s centres, family hubs, and youth support.

This year, we hope to support more children as we open new children’s homes, family hubs, and other services that reach children in care and children with care experience.

Children go into the care system for lots of reasons. Most often it’s because they’ve experienced abuse or neglect. Some children are victims of domestic abuse or have parents with mental health issues. Others may be unaccompanied migrant children. In 2022/23, there were 7,290 looked-after children who were unaccompanied child asylum seekers.

We have approximately 118 places for children in our family-style homes. And for all those we support, we know this setting best meets the needs of each child.

One of these places is home to 17-year-old Rhys. Rhys has been in care since he was 10 years old, and it hasn’t been easy. He'd moved through eight placements before arriving at our children’s home in Tan y Bryn. Life has changed a lot for Rhys since joining us – now he’s thriving.

We’ve launched a year-long partnership with the John Lewis Partnership to support their commitment to helping care experienced and looked after young people across the UK. With the help of this partnership, we can grow our expert services to:

• Support young people to build confidence and skills so they can thrive in education, training, and the workplace.
• Bolster our support for care leavers transitioning from being in care to independent living.

The children’s social care system faces huge challenges. We see this every day in areas such as:

• Early help:
  Each year, 60,000 children are referred to social care who were referred to social care the year before but weren’t offered any support. Children and families don’t get help soon enough.
• Quality of care:
  Too many children don’t get the safe and happy home they deserve. Instead, they’re placed far away from home, sometimes far from siblings, have unstable placements, or are placed in accommodation that’s badly run or unsuitable.
• Support for children and families when children leave care:
  When children and young people leave care, the support they rely on is often withdrawn. Because of this, care experienced young people are less likely to go onto further education, more likely to be unemployed, or more likely to interact with the criminal justice system.

At Action for Children, we know the support, care, and love these children need. Our small, family style homes are the perfect place to ensure this. Last year, we supported over 50,000 children in or leaving care. But we couldn't do this without the support of amazing people like you.