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In the kitchen
Planning a week of meals, shopping to a budget, cooking for other people, and cleaning up after. Young people cook for the house before they cook for themselves.
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Independence & after care
A young person leaving care is often expected to run a home, a budget and a job at eighteen, with no one to phone. We spend years preparing for that, and we don't stop when it arrives.
Independence & life skills
At eighteen, care leavers face independence alone. We help them prepare years earlier, with support by their side.
Planning a week of meals, shopping to a budget, cooking for other people, and cleaning up after. Young people cook for the house before they cook for themselves.
Real budgets, real consequences, in a setting where running short is survivable. Bank accounts, direct debits, saving toward something wanted.
Registering with a GP and dentist, booking appointments, collecting prescriptions, understanding what to do when unwell, without an adult doing it for them.
CVs, applications, interviews, and the unspoken rules of a workplace. Placements and part-time work wherever a young person is ready.
Bills, meter readings, landlords, deposits, and what to do when something breaks. The practical knowledge that decides whether a first tenancy survives.
The hardest skill and the one we teach most deliberately. Knowing who to call, and having learned that calling works.
What after care actually means
Not a policy. Four things a young person can hold us to after they have left.
The same named contact you knew in the house. Not a duty desk, not a rota.
Whether it has been two weeks or two years. There is no point at which you become someone else's problem.
Tenancies, benefits, bills, employers, college. The dull things that decide whether independence actually holds.
For a meal, for a bad week, or because something has gone wrong. The door does not close behind you.
After care
Most support for care leavers stops at a birthday. Ours is built to outlast the placement: a named person who still answers, practical help with tenancies and work, and a door that stays open.
We stay in contact for as long as a young person wants us to. Some check in weekly for a year. Some call once, three years later, because something has gone wrong and they remembered they could.
Talk to the referrals team