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Care leavers local offer

Care Leavers Local Offer

Read our 'local offer' for care leavers, below, for details of where to find services and support in your local area.

  • To be able to get the help and support in the Local Offer for care leavers (PDF document) you must have been in care for at least 13 weeks between the ages of 14 and 16 (including your 16th birthday) or for 13 weeks after your 16th birthday. If you’re not sure, your social worker or personal advisor can help you work this out
  • If you’ve lived or are living with a family member, relative or friend, under a Special Guardianship Order, you’ll also receive our support 
  • If you were adopted and you’ve come back into care for at least 13 weeks you’ll also receive our support
  • Or if you’ve been looked after by Wokingham Borough Council as an unaccompanied asylum seeking child, you’ll also receive our support. In some cases this may be up until the age of 25

 

Your Personal Advisor can advise and support you with:

  • Information on healthy living
  • Registering with a GP (General Practitioner or Doctor) and Dentist
  • Moving on from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) to adult services
  • Accessing other mental health support in the area
  • Providing you information about counselling services that are available in your area
  • Provide information about health drop-in centers and sexual health clinics
  • Provide information and support in relation to LGTBQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) matters

 

  • You’ve come into care for a reason which would have involved some loss and difficult times. You could be finding day to day life difficult as your past experience can still have an effect on you as you become a young adult
  • This means the relationships you have with yourself and with others could look different to what you may see on other young people‘s Instagram and Facebook feeds
  • As your Personal Advisor gets to know you better they’ll be able to not only support you emotionally but also point you in the right direction for getting the right help at the right time
  • We’ll be patient and supportive, but also gently challenge you and share how you can change your relationships with yourself and others for the better

  

  • We’ll encourage and support you to be able to study, train or work. 
  • We can help you seek career’s advice, prepare a CV (Curriculum Vitae) and find a job and we offer monthly drop-in sessions with ‘Elevate’- a service to help you find a job, training or an apprenticeship
  • If you’ve got the dream to go to University we’ll help you with University fees, travel and make sure you have some where to live both at University and during the holidays
  • We’ll help you build the confidence to be able to attend job interviews or start a new course

 


  • £60 personal allowance can be paid whilst you are waiting for your benefit claim to process or are waiting to start employment 
  • We offer discretionary financial support depending upon your circumstances


  • We believe that you should always have a roof over your head and somewhere safe and suitable to live, in or out of the area
  • If you’re between 16-17 years old we’ll make sure you have a suitable place to live. This could mean with a foster carer or in a home with support on hand. When you reach 18, you can continue to live with your foster carer, under what is called a ‘Staying Put’ arrangement
  • If you’re over 18 years old we’ll give you advice and support in helping you find a suitable place to live
  • In June 2018, a decision was made that all care leavers living in the Wokingham Borough Council area aged between 18-25, do not have to pay Council Tax


This offer is just for care leavers, as we know it can be hard paying lots of different bills and we know that council tax debt can build up for our young people. 

  • We want to continue to listen to our care leavers' views to make sure our services meet your needs. So we’d love to hear from you if you have any ideas
  • Every child in care and care leaver is a part of the Children in Care Council - ‘your second voice’
  • You can contact Here4U on 0118 908 8386 or the Children’s Rights and Advocacy Officer on 07801 664 370