Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of support provided to care leavers transitioning to independent living (a) in general and (b) housed outside their home local authority.

The move to independence is a critical milestone in any young person’s life. Care leavers should expect the same level of care and support that others would expect from a parent.

The local authority responsible for their care should make sure they have the skills, confidence, support and opportunities to thrive. This includes offering them more than one chance as they grapple with the responsibilities of adulthood.

Ofsted is responsible for assessing the adequacy of support for care leavers in each local authority and, as part of its inspection of local authority children’s services, has a specific remit to set out the key strengths and areas for improvement on the experiences and progress of care leavers.

We recognise the additional challenges faced by young people who are placed into care outside their home local authority area. This can leave them with few local connections to either the area they are currently living in, or the area they are expected to return to, and has restricted their access to social housing upon leaving care. We have introduced an exemption to address this so that, as of July 2025, the local area connection test no longer applies to care leavers.