I was sorry to read that Dr. Roger Morgan (the Children’s Rights Director) has recently found that nearly 50% of looked after children and young people say they have to leave care too early. A similar proportion was found to believe that they had been badly or very badly prepared for leaving care.
The survey found that some young people were leaving care as young as 16 years old. Shockingly one said: 'As a 16 year old I have gone from a children’s home to a women’s refuge. I have gone from having lots of support to having none.'
There is no clearer example of a resource shortfall. Young people are not being forced to leave care too early, or being badly prepared, because someone thinks that’s the right thing to do. Nobody believes that abandoning sixteen years olds is justified. The only reason this is happening is because there are not the funds to care for these young people properly. That is shocking in a so-called ‘advanced economy’.
