More than 40 per cent of young people leaving care are not in work or education, prompting a warning from the youth employment tsar of a “system failure”.
Striking data reveals youths in England who have been in care are three times more likely to be unemployed and not in training.
This then becomes entrenched as they move through life, with care leavers also more likely to remain unemployed as they age.
Former Health Secretary Alan Milburn is leading government work on how to address the almost one million 16 to 24-years-old classified as “neet” – the highest level since 2014. He warned that care leavers were facing a “cliff edge” as they move into adulthood.
The Government estimates that 41 per cent of 19 to 21-year-old care leavers are so-called “neets” – not in education, employment or training – compared with 12 per cent of others the same age.
Official data from 2025 showed this amounted to 15,290 young people – an increase of almost 1,000 on the previous year.
By age 27, just 22 per cent of care leavers are in employment, compared to 57 per cent of others. Those who are employed earn, on average, £6,000 less than the wider population.
And the Department for Work and Pensions said apprenticeships are “effectively closed to care leavers,” with a mere 2 per cent accessing one in 2021.
Milburn, who is carrying out work to establish how to get more young people in work, education or training and off benefits, said tackling this problem among care leavers must be the priority.
He told The i Paper: “When the state steps in as a parent, it takes on a responsibility that does not end the moment a young person turns 18. Yet far too many care leavers are hitting a cliff edge just as they move into adulthood.
“A 41 per cent ‘neet’ rate among care leavers is not an outcome we get to quietly accept. It is a broken promise, written in data.”
“If we cannot get this right for a group, we are directly responsible for, we must be honest that the system is not failing by accident, it is failing by design,” he added.
Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, has made a series of recommendations aimed at giving care leavers stability, including council tax exemptions, priority housing, and practical support like free textbooks, driving lessons or help signing up with a GP.
She said society currently tolerates “shamefully low standards” from the services designed to support those leaving care.
Just 13 per cent go to university, compared to nearly half of the general population, and many face homelessness within two years of leaving care,” she said.
“Two in five 19 to 21-year-old care leavers are not in employment, education or training. And they are disproportionately represented in prison populations – borne out by my own research,” she told The i Paper.
“The services care leavers need to make the successful transition to adulthood are not marginal. They are the things other children take for granted: housing, financial support, access to higher or further education, or work experience.”
She added: “Being a ‘corporate parent’ means treating care leavers as we would our own children. Anything less is not good enough.”
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