Supporting your relationships
We will support you to develop good relationships with people who are important to you, whether that's family members, foster carers, friends or teachers.
You are not alone. We want you to feel part of your community and to access practical and emotional support. As well as support from your Social Worker and/or Personal Advisor, we may be able to offer you other support, for example:
- linking you up with a mentor just for you who can be there to listen and give encouragement and support
- helping you to maintain or regain contact with people who were special to you or who cared for you in the past, like former foster carers, children’s home staff and Social Workers
- helping you to form and keep healthy relationships with your friends and family
We can arrange meetings with people who are important to you like family members and friends to talk about how everyone can work together to support you in the best way.
Keeping in touch with loved ones
We want to help you to keep in touch with people who are important to you.
Clothing - If you are living independently, you could receive support for clothing for interviews or employment.
Exceptional circumstances – If you are living independently, you could access support for exceptional circumstances; for example, for attending a wedding or funeral of someone close to you.
Storage – We can help you with storage provision for a short period of time in an emergency. Your Personal Advisor can assist with this. However, we cannot keep goods in storage outside of emergency situations.
Moving – We can support you to move into your permanent accommodation, including the use of a removal van.
Supporting you to reconnect with your family – Speak to your PA and we will have discussion on case-by-case basis.
Identification
We will help fund all care leavers with their application for their first passport.
If for any reason you can’t get a passport, we will help fund and support you to apply for another form of photographic ID e.g. a provisional or full driving license.
If you lose your I.D. or birth certificate we will support you with the cost of one replacement.
Support with finances
We will support you to:
- make a budget plan
- open a bank account and give you advice on savings
- Setting Up Home – Leaving Care grant of up to £3000
- provide money management advice
We can also help you with making a claim for benefits. There are dedicated advisers within the Jobcentre Plus who work with care leavers (these are called Single Points of Contact or SPOCs).
A claim for Universal Credit can be made up to 21 days in advance of your 18th birthday if you are a care leaver. Your personal adviser will help you with this.
Watch a video about Universal Credit claims
Contacts
You can find out more about student finance on the GOV.UK website
You can also learn about and apply for benefits on the GOV.UK website
