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<p>All care leavers receive support from a personal adviser until age 21; this extends
to age 25 if a care leaver remains engaged in education or training. All care leavers
also receive a leaving care grant to help with the costs of setting up home; and those
attending further and higher education receive financial support to meet the costs
associated with engaging in education in the form of further education and higher
education bursaries. Each care leaver has a pathway plan setting out the support they
will receive from the local authority in order to meet their goals.</p><p> </p><p>
</p><p> </p><p>The department recognises that the transition into adulthood can often
be difficult for care leavers because they may not receive the same level of support
as young people who live with their families. This is what prompted us to introduce
the ‘staying put’ duty in 2014, which requires local authorities to support young
people to continue living with their former foster carers up to age 21, if both they
and their foster carer are happy with this arrangement.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Our
statutory guidance makes clear that local authorities should have a range of semi-independent
and independent accommodation options for all those leaving care. The government is
also looking at what more can be done to improve support for care leavers, building
on the first ever cross-government care leaver strategy which was introduced in October
2013, with the aim of giving all care leavers, whatever their care experience, a good
start to adulthood.</p><p> </p>
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