One care leaver is trying to change a broken system

A care leaver has designed a booklet to help other young people leaving the system.

Shannon Budd, 24, created a booklet to help children in the care community understand their rights.

As it stands, the current care system often leaves young people in limbo when they age out of foster care. Shannon wants to change this.

She told the Canary that Social workers and others working in the sector are usually the ones holding all the information. Of course, this means young people can feel powerless.

Social workers usually store documentation, paperwork, and other items that may be important to young people once they leave the system in inaccessible ways. This makes it hard for anyone without social work training to access or even understand.

Shannon says that care leavers deserve easy access to this information.

Stark statistics

In total, around 81,770 children are in care in England.

One in four leaves care on their 18th birthday, and one in three who leave care will become homeless within two years.

Moreover, four in 10 care leavers aged 19 – 21 weren’t employed, in education, or training in 2024/25. That’s three times the rate for people who haven’t experienced care.

Similarly,  only 15% of care leavers go on to higher education by the age of 19, compared to 47% of people without care experience.

Additionally, care-leavers are at higher risk of developing mental health problems than their non-care-experienced peers. A lack of support can make this even more complicated to navigate. To make matters worse, a third of care leavers do not know how to access mental health support. Many also report feeling alone or isolated after leaving care.

Shannon said:

My book includes numbers and contact information for Mental health charities that young people or care leavers could call instead of calling social workers and personal advisors who are not legally trained to handle them types of situations, and quite frankly don’t have a lot of time.

All of these statistics suggest a support gap, meaning young people leaving care are missing out on opportunities to further their education or careers, as well as on stable housing.

Become, a charity supporting and campaigning for children in care and young care leavers, said that:

Too many young people are expected to leave care before they feel ready, just at a time when they need stability the most. They don’t have the support networks other young people can take for granted. In a survey of care leavers, Ofsted found that more than a third felt they left care too soon.

Making a difference for a care leaver

Of course, no two people leaving care are the same, meaning support should never look exactly the same. However, the system is in crisis.

Currently, more money is being spent on children’s residential care than on early intervention services. These would prevent children from ever needing to go into care.

The number of children’s homes has also reached a record high, with Ofsted opening nearly 900 investigations into unregistered homes.

But with so much talk about money and funding, the children at the centre of the care system are often forgotten.

Shannon told the Canary:

the care community need to recognise that we’re just children with complex lived experiences, and not all cases and children handle things in the same manner

We need a better system

In creating the workbook, Shannon also wants to show younger children in the care system that they can be successful.

I want to – through my own work path & life story – bring awareness to the problems that I and so many other children have faced while being in the care system.

I want to try to make a success of myself and show others that you can be somebody and beat the statistics we are usually faced with.

Shannon has already taken the booklet to her local council, she said:

They thought it was absolutely brilliant. Especially the pathway plan I created for young people and care-leavers, as it gives the chance for young people to work alongside their personal advisors and social workers.

She added that:

all it takes is one person believing in you for a young person to become a success.

Featured image via Shannon Budd