No job or school for teens leaving care

Almost half of teenagers leaving local authority care in Lincolnshire are not in education, employment or training, members of the county council heard.

A report to committee members says 53.1 per cent of care leavers in the county have found a role in one of the three options.

“This measure remains below target but is slowly improving, despite fluctuations.

“The Leaving Care Service continues to monitor every single young person who is not in EET,” the report adds.

The county’s corporate parenting panel, which met last Monday (July 7), discussed the latest statistics.

A survey has been carried out with every care leaver not in EET and the main barriers reported back are poor mental health, lack of qualifications and substance misuse problems. The service has appointed an Aspirations Worker who is focusing on supporting young people back into employment.

A new role of Wellbeing Worker is also being created to help the situation.

“A further piece of work is being undertaken to fully understand the lived experiences of these young people in EET and fully appreciate why they are in EET and develop individual plans,” members of the committee were told.

Members were also told about the number of 16 and 17-year-olds in care who are participating in learning.

“The performance for this quarter is below the lower target tolerance for this performance indicator by four per cent. All of our 16 and 17-year-olds are supported by the Virtual School through the Personal Education Planning process (PEP).

“This brings social workers, carers and providers together to focus on educational need and ensures that our young people are supported appropriately while participating in learning,” the report adds.

The same report also showed the percentage of children in care who have received an up-to-date dental check continues to fall short of the 95 per cent target figure.

The figure rose to 71.5 per cent from 65.1 per cent in the preceding quarter.

“Access to NHS dentistry is a national issue and the availability of dentists across the county continues to impact on our ability to ensure that all children in care have regular checks,” the report said.

The number of children in care with up-to-date routine immunisations is 76.2 per cent with the majority of those overdue being teenage boosters usually done in school.

The county is ahead of target in terms of children in care living in a family environment and in the length of time between placing a child and matching with an adoptive family.