The Scottish Government

1. Local authorities have major responsibilities towards children whom they look after under the Act in preparing them for when they are no longer looked after and for supporting them at that time. Every year 1,000 - 1,200 young people over the age of sixteen cease to be looked after by local authorities in Scotland. The responsibilities under the Act in respect of these young people are assigned to local authorities. These are corporate responsibilities and although in many instances social work will be the key department, other departments, particularly education and housing, will have considerable contributions to make.

2. Throughcare is the process by which the local authority plans and prepares the young person they are looking after for the time when he or she will cease to be looked after. Aftercare is the provision of advice, guidance and assistance when a young person ceases to be looked after.

Statutory Provisions

3. The local authority has a duty to provide advice and assistance with a view to preparing a child for when he or she is no longer looked after by a local authority.

Section 17

4. Where it appears to a local authority that an appropriate person could be doing certain things to help in the exercise of any of their functions the local authority may specify their nature and request the help of that person. Appropriate persons are defined as other local authorities, Health Boards, NHS Trusts and any person authorised by the Secretary of State; and they are required to comply with such a request provided that it is compatible with their own statutory or other duties and obligations and does not unduly prejudice the discharge of any of their functions.

Section 21

5. A local authority may provide accommodation for any person within their area who is at least eighteen years of age but not yet twenty-one if they consider that to do so would safeguard or promote his or her welfare.

Section 25(3)

6. The specific duties and powers to provide aftercare apply where the child was being looked after at school leaving age or thereafter. The local authority has a duty unless they are satisfied that the young person's welfare does not require it, to advise, guide and assist such a young person in their area who is not yet nineteen years of age.

Section 29

Section 29(1)

7. The local authority is empowered to assist the same category of young people as set out in section 29(1) who are at least nineteen but less than twenty-one and who request assistance from the authority. The authority may provide assistance unless they are satisfied that their welfare does not require it.

Section 29(2)

8. Assistance may include assistance in kind or in cash.

Section 29(3)

9. Where either a person who is over school age ceases to be looked after by a local authority, or a person who is not yet nineteen who is receiving aftercare under section 29(1), proposes to move to the area of a different local authority, the first local authority is under a duty to inform the other local authority of the proposed move provided that the person consents to their doing so.

Section 29(4)

10. The local authority is empowered to give financial assistance towards the expenses of education or training of a young person under the age of twenty-one who at the time of ceasing to be of school age was being looked after by the local authority. Contributions can also be made to the cost of accommodation and maintenance of such a person in any place where he or she may be receiving such education or training. These powers are exerciseable until the young person reaches the age of twenty-one or, if over twenty-one, until he or she finishes the course of education or training. If after he or she has reached twenty-one, the course is interrupted, assistance may only be continued if he or she resumes the course as soon as practicable.

Section 30

11. Assistance may be granted to enable a young person under the age of twenty-one, who at the time of ceasing to be of school age was being looked after by the local authority, to meet expenses in respect of contributions to the accommodation and maintenance of the person in any place near his or her employment.

The discretions in this paragraph and in paragraph 10 are without prejudice to the existing general social welfare powers available to local authorities under section 12 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.

Section 30(1)

The Young People Concerned

12. Young people who are looked after by the local authority may be living in residential settings, in foster placements, with relatives or friends or may be living at home. Their needs will vary. Throughcare is particularly relevant for those young people living away from home who are returning to live with their family or to live independently. But those who are living at home will also have needs to be addressed when they cease to be looked after.

13. The preparation of a young person for the time when he or she ceases to be looked after should be an integral part of the care plan of that young person and should be considered before he or she begins to be looked after. It should be considered at successive care reviews whether the eventual move for the young person is to live with his or her family or to live independently.

14. The provision of care and support for young people by their parents does not generally cease at a particular age and may continue long after a young person has reached adulthood. It will change to meet the specific needs of the young person and will sometimes include the provision of accommodation, financial support and advice and assistance well into adulthood.

15. In discharging their duty of aftercare to those young people who were looked after by them at school leaving age - or beyond - local authorities are bound to determine the support most appropriate to each young person's needs after he or she ceases to be looked after. This should be derived from the care plan. While social work departments will take the lead role, they should take into account the contributions which can be made by other departments, agencies and organisations and seek their collaboration.

16. Placement stability, ongoing parental and wider family contact, continuity of educational experiences, good health care and monitoring and the ongoing preparation of a young person in the acquisition of skills for independent living will have beneficial effects for a young person no longer looked after by the local authority. A young person should not move on to independence too quickly. Research suggests that the age of sixteen for most young people is too young to make a successful transition. The family's role in the ongoing support of the young person should always be a prime consideration in any move or change for the young person. Many young people who are not able to live with their families will continue to need to be looked after by the local authority until they are eighteen years old and may require support and the provision of services beyond that age.

17. In discharging their duty to look after a young person the local authority is required to promote on a regular basis, personal relations and direct contact between him or her and any person with parental responsibilities, if this is practicable and appropriate. It is important for a young person moving to independence that ongoing contact with their extended family is maintained. This is often a time when a young person who does not live with his or her family will want to re-establish contact and renegotiate his or her role in the family. Without contact the young person may be isolated and more vulnerable emotionally, his or her main contacts often being only with social work staff.

Section 17(1)(c)

18. The young person's religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background will be important factors in maintaining a sense of personal identity and worth. Special consideration needs to be given to these matters in care planning and how his or her needs in relation to these factors are to be met when the young person is no longer looked after by the local authority.

Section 17(4)(c)

19. It is a consistent theme of the Act that children and young people should have the opportunity to express their views whenever decisions are being taken about their lives. They should be involved in planning aftercare. They should receive information about their rights and about the resources and services available, so that they can play a real part in planning and make informed decisions about their future. Advice, information and support should, if necessary, include housing, accommodation, living independently, employment and training, health and financial matters.

Policy and Planning

20. Children's services plans should set out policies and intended arrangements for throughcare and aftercare services. The social work department of local authorities have the lead responsibility, but in discharging it they should involve other relevant departments, agencies and organisations, making full use of the duty to collaborate set out in the Act.

21. The provision in the Act for local authorities to request co-operation from other local authorities, Health Boards and NHS Trusts is an opportunity for an authority to broaden the services available to young people who cease to be looked after and include them in children's services plans.

Section 21

22. Plans needs to take account of the diversity of needs that young people have, including the needs of those with learning and physical difficulties, those with particular cultural and religious needs, young parents and those with mental health difficulties. They should set out proposals to address young people's educational, training, accommodation and employment needs and their health needs.

23. Responsibility for throughcare and aftercare services needs to be at a senior level and one way of achieving effective management direction is to designate a senior officer in social work to be responsible for the development and maintenance of throughcare and aftercare services. Senior housing and education officers might also be designated with responsibility for housing and education contributions to the development of throughcare. Within housing, it would be helpful if the same officer had responsibility for housing and community care, and services for homeless people. Young people, their parents and carers should have the opportunity to contribute to the development and review of plans.

24. The development of an "Inter-agency, Throughcare and Aftercare" panel may be worth considering. Such a panel could have representatives from the social work department, education department, housing department, Scottish Children's Reporter Administration, careers service, Health Board, NHS Trust, police, Benefits Agency, youth/community services, appropriate local voluntary organisations and housing agencies, young people's groups eg Who Cares? Scotland and Scottish Homes. The panel could promote communication between agencies and help develop a common understanding of concepts and language used such as "vulnerable". It could also facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of services, recommend action to be taken by specific agencies and stimulate joint training initiatives.

Care Planning and Reviews

25. In ensuring that a young person moves smoothly and with a positive outcome from being looked after by a local authority to a return to their family or to independent living (or if appropriate to remaining at home), a social work department will need to work closely with the young person in order to formulate a clear care plan which will meet his or her needs.

26. The Arrangements to Look After Children (Scotland) Regulations 1996, require a local authority to produce a care plan for those young people looked after by them. The regulations lay down the matters to be considered in the care plan, and include the arrangements which need to be made for the time when the young person will no longer be looked after by the local authority. Developing a plan should not be a paper exercise but a dynamic process in working with the young person to assess needs, arrange services and review progress.

Regulation 4

27. The arrangements in the care plan should be agreed by the local authority and the young person, their parent or anyone with parental responsibility, so far as is reasonably practicable. Many young people will continue living or return to live with their parents, and in many cases the parents' role is a key one, even where the young person is not living with them, as they may have a substantial amount of support and assistance to offer. In the development of the plan the young person's welfare should remain the paramount consideration. Existing carers should normally be involved. The young person should be fully involved in the plans for their future and able to make their views clearly known. Young people at this point may have ambivalent views about their future. They may feel that they are grown up and should be able to care for themselves, but may not be sure that they are ready to do so. They may give messages that are confused and contradictory and they may need time to consider issues about their future. This can also be a difficult time for parents and they may benefit from the offer of additional help and support.

28. Work with young people at this point needs to be flexible to cope with mistakes or the breakdown of plans and the plan may have to be renegotiated frequently. Preparation for a young person moving to independence should be specifically addressed in the care plan of all young people over the age of fourteen years. A balance needs to be struck between ensuring that preparation starts early enough to have the required resources in place when needed but not too early to give the young person a feeling that they are being hurried through a process which must end with him or her moving on when he or she does not feel ready to do so.

29. If remaining or returning to live with his or her parents is not possible then it will be necessary to look at how more independent living can be achieved. This may not be possible for all and plans will need to address what level of independence is in the young person's best interests. For each young person this will be different. The age at which young people will be ready to move to independence and the pace at which this move should take will vary considerably. The first move may be different for each young person. For example, it may be to supported accommodation, to their own tenancy or may involve remaining with existing foster carers on a different financial basis.

30. Young people who are parents themselves may need particular support and assistance. Local authorities will need to consider how appropriate accommodation can be provided to meet their needs. Mainstream children's homes may not be the right place, although the young person concerned may still require the support of trained staff if living in a place without resident staff.

31. Some young people are living in chaotic circumstances subject to frequent changes. Care plans require in-built flexibility in order to respond to this and to potential crisis situations. The individual plans should deal explicitly with support needs which may include assistance to develop self care, hygiene, budgetary and other skills eg completion of forms and negotiations over the telephone.

32. Individual care plans should

• include a preliminary assessment of follow-on accommodation and support needs
• make specific proposals
• clarifying the objectives and responsibilities of social work staff and the potential role of other agencies
• ensure a young person's access to the information, support and preparation that he or she requires to make a positive transition to independence
• identify a designated key worker with overall responsibility for co-ordinating services, including follow-on accommodation, support and care management
• record the expected contributions of housing and education departments, (including careers and employment advice), housing associations, health and voluntary support agencies.

33. Preparation should include attention, if appropriate, to opportunities for further education, training for employment and developing skills for independent living. Consideration should be given to the young person's use of their social and leisure time, drawing upon the local authority's resources and facilities to encourage young people to maximise their full potential.

Young People with Special Needs

34. Many young people who are looked after will have special needs. These may be due to learning difficulties or physical disabilities. They may also have mental health difficulties or difficulties with alcohol and substance misuse. These young people will have particular needs over and above the needs of other young people who are being looked after and these special needs should be considered when preparing young people for the time when they cease to be looked after by the local authority and in the subsequent provision of aftercare. Health care needs should be assessed by health care staff and health services to meet the needs identified.

35. Local authorities should have information on special resources and services necessary to meet the needs of young people with special needs. Liaison should take place between social work, education departments and health services. Voluntary organisations often provide specialist services; good liaison and the development of service level agreements is needed with them. The local authority needs to take any steps necessary to ensure that the views of these young people about their needs, and the ways in which these can be met, are taken into account. This may necessitate the use of skilled communicators and communication support, for example, text telephones or interpreters for those with a hearing impairment.

36. Young people with special needs may also have special accommodation needs. Whether this accommodation is to be provided in supported accommodation or in other housing, social work departments should liaise with housing departments, housing associations, Scottish Homes and other providers on the planning of housing provision, as well as addressing the needs of individual young people. Arrangements should be in place for joint assessment of needs and for action to meet these needs in individual cases.

37. Many young people with special needs who have previously been looked after may continue to live with their foster carers but in adult fostering schemes. The transition in moving from these foster carers to independent living may take a considerable period of time.

38. Local authorities need to prepare young people for the transition from children's to adult services. This may involve an assessment for community care services. It may be sensible to combine the key worker and care manager role to ensure an integrated assessment of the young person's needs including their aftercare needs.

Young People's Relationships and Self-Esteem

39. Many young people who have been looked after by local authorities will require support and help in building and maintaining social and personal relationships and developing self-esteem.

40. The capacity to form satisfying relationships with others will help the young person to cope with the transition to adulthood and any difficulties associated with ceasing to be looked after. While being looked after, young people's personal development should be promoted and the following points taken into account

• changes in placements should be kept to the minimum consistent with the young person's welfare, thereby providing continuity of care and of relationships
• social workers and residential staff have important roles in helping young people to form rewarding relationships with other people
• foster carers can be encouraged to continue to take an interest in a young person even when a fostering placement has ended. This may include the young person returning to stay overnight or at weekends
• a young person's parents (and relatives generally) should be encouraged to stay in touch with him or her unless this would not be in the young person's best interests
• young people from ethnic minorities will need to have contact with adults and young people from their own cultural background and may benefit from practical suggestions eg to be put in touch with youth clubs or other organisations set up for people from their cultures
• young people with disabilities have particular needs, and it may be useful to refer them to voluntary organisations of, and for people with similar disabilities, to support them in finding friends and developing social skills
• young people with mental health difficulties may require specialist help and assistance. Services for young people with mental health needs are not widely available.

41. A local authority, in preparing a young person for the future, should also take account, where appropriate, of the need to enable the young person to relate better to his or her own family and of the part that they will be playing in the young person's future. Even if it is proved to be impracticable or undesirable for a young person to return to live with his family any improvement in relationships between a young person and his or her family that can be achieved is usually to be welcomed. Contact with family and friends should be promoted where consistent with a young person's welfare.

42. Sex education may be provided by the young person's school. Due to frequent moves of school some young people may miss out on sex education provided by schools. The provision of appropriate sex education is vital since sexual development is a powerful influence on young people in the transition from childhood to adulthood. The social work department should ensure that appropriate sex education has been provided.

43. Sex education will need to cover practical issues such as pregnancy, contraception and the prevention of the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. It should cover the emotional aspects of sexuality, such as the part that sexuality plays in the young person's sense of identity and the emotional implications of entering into a sexual relationship with another person. It should also cover the right to say "no" and the need to treat sexual partners with consideration. It should refer to the dangers of sexual exploitation. The emotional and practical implications of becoming a parent should be conveyed.

44. Young people with mental or physical disabilities have sexual needs and they should be provided with appropriate sex education. Young people who have been abused, or have been in touch with abused young people, may need special support if they are not to regard sexual feelings as a matter for shame or to regard sexual relationships as impersonal and exploitative. The needs and concerns of gay young men and women should be understood and addressed. Young people from minority ethnic cultural and religious backgrounds may have issues to explore about their own and their community's views on sexuality.

Aftercare Provision

45. Young people who are being looked after by the local authority and who will be moving on to independence need help and support in preparing for this move. Local authorities will need to determine in consultation with each young person what is required. Young people being looked after by the local authority should learn to cook, wash and clean for themselves, to manage their own money and to budget within a limited income. They should be encouraged to eat healthily and exercise regularly.

46. Some young people may have had limited opportunity to learn skills. They should - like any other young people - start to learn these skills when entering their teens and should be well advanced in them by the time they move to live independently. Some young people may require more support than others and individually tailored programmes should be developed in order to meet specific needs. For example, a young person with hearing difficulties who does not "sign", but wants to learn to, should be given access to appropriate courses.

47. Those young people who spend a considerable time in residential schools may miss out on particular learning opportunities and consideration should be given in these settings to the preparation which they require. Schools should give young people a range of relevant experiences and this should be addressed at care reviews.

Provision of Services

48. Most young people will continue to need some help after they cease to be looked after by the local authority. This may include any or all of the following

• advice and information
• a continued interest in their welfare, possibly from a person specified to advise and befriend the young person
• assistance in cash or in kind
• return to being looked after, if necessary
• education and training
• accommodation
• health needs
• contact with their family.

The provision of services will need to be from across a range of local authority provision not just from the social work department.

49. If a young person has been fostered, his or her foster carers may continue to give advice, support and friendship after the end of the foster placement. Foster carers often continue to offer such support and should not be financially disadvantaged by doing this. They may continue to provide accommodation or services on a paid basis.

50. Young people may move to a different part of the country after leaving care and they should receive support if they require it. The local authority that has been helping them must inform the local authority into whose area they have moved unless the young person does not wish them to do so. The local authority should seek to ascertain the young person's views about this. The second local authority will then assume the relevant powers and duties.

Section 29(4)

51. In discharging its duties and powers of aftercare a local authority may wish to provide some services in conjunction with voluntary agencies. Smaller local authorities may wish to make joint arrangements for the provision of services.

Specialist aftercare services

52. The range and level of aftercare services is a matter for each local authority to decide in accordance with their policy and resource priorities. Some young people may require extensive forms of support; others will be capable of more independent living with less support and some will remain living at home. Each authority should have in place ways of dealing with breakdowns of young people's arrangements in emergencies. To help young people avoid drifting into crisis situations, they should be encouraged to develop wider networks of support which reach beyond public authorities. These may involve contacts with voluntary organisations, particularly those providing specialist youth services where the opportunity to form relationships and obtain support will help the young people to build their confidence and to take control of their own lives.

53. A keyworker should be identified to co-ordinate services, to review individual needs and objectives and to monitor outcomes. The keyworker could be drawn from a number of different agencies which are directly involved in assisting the young person and wherever possible the young person should have a say in determining who this co-ordinator might be. This person could, but need not, be a social worker. He or she could be a housing worker, youth or support worker, criminal justice worker or mental health professional and could be employed by either a statutory or non-statutory agency. Co-ordinating should involve

• focusing on immediate practical problems and accommodation and financial matters
• planning to respond to support needs, in consultation with the young person and relevant agencies
• reviewing needs and plans in consultation with the young person
• ensuring that specialist resources are in place when required.

The nominated keyworker should retain responsibility for reviewing arrangements for the individual young person.

Advice and "drop-in" services

54. The experience of statutory bodies and many other agencies who work with vulnerable and homeless young people reinforces the importance of developing easily accessible advice services, recognising that often young people do not feel comfortable with or confident in gaining an appropriate response from services designed for adults.

55. Young people should be assisted through advice and advocacy to secure their entitlement to welfare benefits, as well as access to housing, support and health services. Established advice and support services, particularly housing and homelessness advice services, may have a part to play. Collaboration between local authority staff should help young people to get consistent advice when they approach different departments.

56. Outreach services in the community can often help young people who are out of contact with mainstream services; these may cover those sleeping rough, in bed and breakfast, in hospital, in prison or other offenders' establishments and those with mental health difficulties or involved in alcohol or substance misuse.

Accommodation

57. If a young person becomes homeless, the local authority should offer assistance to tackle this problem and to minimise the risk of it recurring. While some young people may simply require a house, others may require varying levels of support to obtain a tenancy, and then to maintain themselves in one. There should be arrangements in place between social work, housing, health, and other agencies to ensure appropriate housing and support is provided, in an integrated manner under relevant housing, social work or other legislation as well as the Act.

Health Care

58. Whilst a young person has been looked after, the local authority will have drawn up a care plan which should ensure that they receive health care including any necessary medical, psychiatric, psychological, dental or ophthalmic attention. Young people's needs can change rapidly and when a young person ceases to be looked after, an assessment should be made of their health needs and clarification of whether any special services need to be in place for them. Social work and health services should agree arrangements to cover the transition of a young person into independence and address how their health needs will be met within services for adults.

59. Some young people may have more complex long term health needs. For example young people with serious mental health difficulties need skilled support provided jointly by health and social work professionals. They may present as a very challenging group who are difficult to keep contact with and present many practical problems in living independently. This may also apply to young people who misuse drugs and alcohol. Identification of such issues prior to a young person ceasing to be looked after and the delivery of aftercare services needs a multi-disciplinary approach.

60. Carers and residential staff should help young people whilst being looked after to see the importance of looking after their health and encourage them to take responsibility for their own health care. They should provide information about their rights to confidential treatment. When moving to live independently a young person should be encouraged to become familiar with the range of services and advice which the primary health care team can offer.

Young People, the Children's Hearings and the Criminal Justice System

61. Young people may be looked after as a consequence of their offending and if offending continues beyond their sixteenth birthday, they are liable to be dealt with in the criminal courts. Where a young person of sixteen or seventeen is still subject to a supervision requirement and appears in court under criminal justice provisions, the case may, in certain circumstances, be referred to the Principal Reporter so that advice can be provided by a children's hearing. Depending on this advice, the court may either deal with the case itself or remit the young person to a children's hearing for disposal. In addition the court may remit the case of any young person not within six months of attaining the age of eighteen whether or not they have been under supervision.

62. To make best use of these flexible provisions in the law, local authority children's and criminal justice services should be co-ordinated. ¹

63. Where a young person is still being looked after or where a social worker with child care responsibilities still has an active interest in the young person's aftercare, consideration should be given to whether the child's social worker should prepare any social enquiry report which the court may request. If the case is dealt with by the court and a probation order made, this social worker may be the best person to supervise the order.

64. Where a young person who is being or has been looked after is committed to custody and children's services are actively involved, the key worker should contact the prison if he or she has concerns about the young person's vulnerability and if he or she wishes to be involved in planning for release.

Role of Voluntary Sector

65. Some voluntary organisations are commissioned by local authorities to deliver aspects of their throughcare services for them, others deliver them independently. Such services are often viewed by young people positively as not being stigmatising in the way they feel social work services are. Voluntary organisations can play a particularly important role in the development of drop-in services, independent advocacy services, counselling services and advice and information services. They also provide specialist services targeted at groups of young people such as single or young parents and young people with disabilities.

66. Relevant voluntary organisations should be consulted in the development of children's service plans for throughcare and in any interagency throughcare arrangements that are developed.

Role of Housing Agencies

67. Research shows that young people who have been looked after are over-represented among young homeless people. If they have physical or learning difficulties their vulnerability may be even greater. There may be a need to consider not only housing but also support from social work or housing to help them sustain any tenancies which they take on. ²

68. Housing departments of local authorities have the primary responsibility for assessing the housing needs of their areas and for drawing up plans to meet those needs either directly or through using their enabling powers. Liaison between social work departments and housing departments may be achieved through the establishment of formal arrangements and protocols and through designated senior officers as suggested in paragraph 23. When appropriate, social work should be involved in the assessment of housing needs, and vice versa for social work assessments, though the scale of this involvement will depend on the circumstances of each case. Housing departments should make clear what priority they can give to young people ceasing to be looked after and specifically to those with special needs. Young people recently looked after by local authorities who are homeless may well be in priority need under the homelessness legislation, and some will also be in priority need because of disabilities or for other reasons.

69. Scottish Homes are involved in local joint planning for community care and other initiatives. As landlords they can make housing available and through funding housing associations and private sector initiatives, increase the stock available for young people.

70. The statutory responsibility for tackling homelessness rests with local housing authorities who have a duty to provide accommodation for unintentionally homeless people in priority need. The Scottish Office is now considering comments on the draft of a new Code replacing the 1991 Code. It proposes to add to the statutory homelessness priority groups homeless young people aged under nineteen who were looked after by a local authority at the time they ceased to be of school age or later; thus matching local authorities' statutory duties under the 1995 Act to provide advice, guidance and assistance for this group. This proposal does not prevent other young people previously looked after being given priority under the homelessness legislation.

Section 29(1)

71. The housing department may provide supported housing, or specialist housing eg for those with physical disabilities; either from its own stock or through nomination arrangements with housing associations or Scottish Homes. It may also be able to advise on other possibilities, including the private rented sector or owner occupation if the young person has funds from an inheritance or other source.

72. In planning for the aftercare of young people local authorities should consider

• the ability of the young people to live self reliantly and address their own needs
• the extent to which some supervision may still be necessary and, if so, by whom
• the personal preferences of the young people
• arrangements for a private interview with a housing officer for any young person applying for assistance with accommodation
• the need to inform clearly any such young person of the address of the housing department as soon as possible
• how best to provide advice and assistance on housing
• the use of homecare/family aides in assisting young people
• the contribution which can be made by other housing agencies, including Scottish Homes, housing associations, voluntary organisations and supportive landlords in the private rental sector
• special facilities for homeless young people who may be sleeping rough.

73. In planning to meet the housing needs of young people housing and social work departments will also wish to consider

• the provision of some supported housing
• the provision of a reasonable quality and range of accommodation
• the provision, where necessary, of housing adapted to meet the needs of disabled young people
• the need for enhanced housing management services, for example, help with claiming benefits or settling disputes with neighbours
• a regular and simple system of rent collection
• a system to select and match the tenants of shared properties
• clear tenancy agreements
• training for housing personnel in the special needs of young people who have ceased to be looked after who may well be younger than most local authority tenants and less used to looking after themselves. Training for the staff of supported or halfway housing is particularly necessary.

Education, Training and Employment

74. Social work departments and education departments should work together to ensure that young people who are looked after achieve their maximum potential within the education system. Young people moving into adulthood are often hampered by a lack of formal academic qualifications. Good links between social workers and schools guidance staff and senior schools staff will allow young people's progress and attainments to be monitored and encouraged.

75. Disruption to a young person's schooling should be minimised. Where appropriate young people should be encouraged to stay in education beyond the minimum school leaving age and support should be given to enable a young person to develop his or her abilities to the full.

76 .A young person will receive careers education and guidance at school. Schools should provide advice on employment and training opportunities to young people who are looked after.

77. Continuing education, training and employment can help young people establish themselves as successful and competent adults. Too many young people who have been looked after underachieve at school and many do not move on to employment. Further education colleges in conjunction with local authorities can provide courses and training appropriate to the needs of young people moving to live independently.

Information for Young People

78. Local authorities should produce information for young people who are no longer looked after by them. This could be in the form of a guide with information about resources and services available to the young person from the local authority and elsewhere; practical information on benefits, training opportunities, leisure and recreation facilities; information concerning health matters, for instance registering with a GP, where to go for advice on contraception, availability of advice and counselling and drugs and alcohol services. The possibility of making information available in different formats should be considered eg written, audio, video, different languages.

79. Local authorities should provide information about financial assistance when a young person is setting up independently. It should cover assistance to meet expenses connected with education or training. Systems should be flexible in order to respond sensitively to variations in individual needs. Community Care Grants may be available to some young people from the Benefits Agency.