3.This Act implements the proposals set out in the consultation document Me, Survive, Out There? – New Arrangements for Young People Living in and Leaving Care published in July 1999. The consultation document set out detailed proposals for improving the life chances of young people living in and leaving local authority care. It followed up the White Paper Modernising Social Services (Cm 4169) and The Government’s Response to the Children’s Safeguards Review (Cm 4105), both published in November 1998. These documents both included a commitment to legislate when Parliamentary time allowed to create new and stronger duties on local authorities to support care leavers up to at least 18.
4.The provisions of the Act except section 6 (exclusion from welfare benefits) extend to England and Wales. Sections 6 and 8 also extend to Scotland.
5.The Act’s main purpose is to help young people who have been looked after by a local authority move from care into living independently in as stable a fashion as possible. To do this it amends the Children Act (c.41) to place a duty on local authorities to assess and meet need. The responsible local authority is to be under a duty to assess and meet the care and support needs of eligible and relevant children and young people and to assist former relevant children, in particular in respect of their employment, education and training. Key features and definitions are:
Summary and Background