Transitions UK works with care leavers through our Attain Programme – in 2021 we are supporting just under 100 young people across Bucks, Milton Keynes. Central Beds and Birmingham.

These young people are especially vulnerable and many have been passed around the care system for years, and may have had many temporary care placements, of varying suitability. As a group they have huge potential but very much lower attainments simply because of the lack of consistency, care and support that other young people enjoy.

Care leavers are three times as likely to be NEET (not in employment, education or training) and up to 60 times more likely to be sent to a youth offending institution (yes 60!) partly because they are too easily exploited and lack other positive support networks so are easily drawn into unhelpful ones.

We all need to feel we belong, that we are significant and that we are cared about. If we can’t find those things in the right places we will seek to satisfy their unmet needs in places that may not be beneficial.

A new change in the law is coming which will allow 16 year-olds to be placed into unsupported accommodation. That’s clearly about resource and accommodation availability – and cost. What it will do is make more vulnerable still, those who are already struggling to transition positively to independence. It will lead to more exploitation and will ask them to act as adults and make judgements about where they live and who they live with that they are often not equipped to make.

By supporting Transitions UK you can help some of the most vulnerable young people in our communities. They didn’t ask to be born into situations or have experiences which put them into care. And they are our children, collectively as a society, because they are nobody else’s. We provide a two year wrap around service of personal development and support which genuinely changes lives and futures.

Would you like to help? As a mentor, an hour or two per week will change their lives and support a better future. Or perhaps you would like to raise some funds or get involved in a challenge or event, or consider being a regular donor.