Your personal advisor
You will be allocated a personal adviser, who will work alongside your social worker to help you make the transition to independent living.
Your personal adviser will continue working with you until you turn 21 or up to the age of 25 if you wish.
Take me to Your pathway plan ↘ Keeping in touch ↘
Redbridge Council will provide you with a Personal Advisor until you are 21. However, you can choose to keep seeing your Personal Advisor until you are 25 if you wish. If you are in education your Personal Advisor will automatically continue to support you until you are 25.
You will be allocated a Personal Advisor before your 18th birthday, so that you can get to know them before they become your main point of contact at age 18. Up until you turn 18, you will continue to have a Social Worker. Your Social Worker, Carer or Keyworker and Personal Advisor will help you transition into adulthood.
Your Personal Advisor will help you with:
- moving on to independence
- training and employment opportunities
- developing your independence skills
- finding somewhere suitable to live
- managing your finances and claiming benefits
Your pathway plan
By the time you turn 16, your Social Worker will have worked with you and your wider support network to prepare a plan with you for independence. This is your own individual plan about your needs, views and future goals and how we can help you in your successful move on to adult life. This is called your Pathway Plan.
Your Social Worker or Personal Advisor will review your Pathway Plan with you at least every six months when you transfer to the Leaving Care Team. With your agreement we will seek the views of partner agencies. This may include housing, education, training, health services and any other services or people that are important to you. This is to ensure we all work together to provide you with clear and consistent advice and support.
The Leaving Care Team will also consider what extra support you may need. You may need extra support because:
- you have a disability. Visit our extra support pages
- you are an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child (UASC) and your immigration status is unclear. Visit our extra support pages
- you are leaving custody or you have contact with the criminal justice system. Visit our extra support pages
- you are a young parent Visit our extra support pages
Your Personal Advisor will assess any additional support needs with you.
Keeping in touch
You are not alone. We can support you to feel confident and in control of your life.
Your Personal Adviser will keep in touch with you as often as you would like. Even if you no longer have a Personal Adviser, you can ask for the Leaving Care team to be in touch with you.
We can also link you in with local community groups and youth services. Find out more by accessing the online Redbridge Youth Hub.
Please consult the Health and Wellbeing Directory for more information about services you can access.
