Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to reduce the proportion of care experienced young people who are not in education, employment or training.

Reducing the proportion of care experienced young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) is a priority for the department. The latest data for year ending March 2022 showed that 38% of care leavers aged 19 to 21 were NEET, down from 41% in 2021. The department will publish a detailed implementation strategy in response to the recommendations of The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in early 2023.

Through the Care Leaver Covenant we launched in 2018, over 350 businesses and higher education institutions are offering employment opportunities and tailored support to care leavers. NHS England, NHS Professionals and the John Lewis Partnership are among the latest organisations to sign the Covenant and between them will be offering over 1000 employment opportunities over the next three years.

In October 2021 the department launched a £3 million pilot in 30 local authorities to extend Pupil Premium Plus funding to looked-after children and care leavers in post-16 education. This initially ran until March 2022 and has been extended with an additional £5 million of funding now supporting a total of 58 local authorities in 2022/23.

There is also support for care leavers starting an apprenticeship, who are entitled to a £1,000 bursary and local authorities must provide a £2,000 bursary for care leavers who go to university.

The department established the Civil Service care leaver internship scheme in 2014, which has led to over 800 care leavers taking up paid jobs across government.