The core offer to care leavers in North Yorkshire: all the services and support in one place to help you achieve what you want from life.
We have created this core offer to tell you about all the services and support that we have in North Yorkshire for you as a care leaver. We know that leaving care might be difficult at times and we want you to know that just because you are leaving or have left care, we haven’t stopped caring about you.
The core offer to care leavers aims to clearly set out your entitlements and what you can expect from us in one document. We hope it will help you make the most out of the services available to you. Your leaving care case worker will talk to you about the information in the core offer but if you have any questions or if you feel you need something different, just ask them. If we agree to help you with something which we haven’t put in the core offer, we will record this clearly in your pathway plan, which means if we don’t do what we have agreed with you, you can hold us to account.
We want to make sure that you feel listened to and know that what you say matters to us. To do this we ask our care leavers what is important to them and what they think about what we do. We have used this feedback to help us write this document and we will continue to listen to your views to make sure the help we give you is the help you need.
All our departments have a responsibility to act as your ‘corporate parent’, which means it is a shared responsibility to be good parents to you and to other young people leaving our care. The leaving care team sit within our children and families service and will be your main point of contact. Your leaving care case worker will support you directly whilst also coordinating any additional support you receive, either from us or our partners. They all have different backgrounds but usually will have experience in a field such as youth work, social work, children’s residential care or teaching. We also have more specialist workers within our team who we may ask to work with you, people like clinical psychologists, speech and language therapists, family group conference workers and opportunity brokers who can help you find work, education and create opportunities just for you. We also have a manager in each of our 4 areas who organise their teams to help give you the best possible support we can.
We know a lot of people are looked after and are care experienced but not everyone will be a ‘care leaver’ who is entitled to the support provided by us.
To be able to get the support provided by us, you must have been in care for a period of at least 13 weeks (or periods amounting to 13 weeks) which began after age 14 and included some time after your sixteenth birthday. If you are not sure whether you are entitled to support, then ask your social worker or leaving care worker. There is also a flow chart below which will help you to work out your leaving care status.
Your status depends on lots of things. The terminology can be confusing, so if you are not sure, ask your leaving care case worker.
If you are a young person qualifying there are different arrangements in place for the support you receive from leaving care. Speak to your local area team who will advise you of your individual entitlements.
Your social worker will be your personal adviser usually from 16 until 18, and during this time you will be introduced to your leaving care worker. You would usually be introduced to your leaving care worker when you are around 17 but you can ask for one any time after turning 16. Their role is to help you as you move into adulthood and offer advice and support after you leave care.
We will make sure you have a leaving care worker until you reach at least 21 and we will keep working with you until you’re 25 if you are happy to have this extra support. We will try to make sure you to keep the same worker throughout your time with leaving care, though this will not always be possible. The amount of support that you receive from your worker will depend on your circumstances and what we have agreed in your pathway plan.
You can always contact your old worker or anyone on the team after you leave the service and at any age via our always here offer.
We will be talking about what’s important in your life, your future plans and how we can help you achieve this.
You will know the person who is there to help you as you become an adult. Often this is a leaving care worker but sometimes before you are 18 your social worker will be the person who does this.
We will encourage you to achieve your goals and to celebrate when you do.
At least every six months, together, we will discuss your pathway plan and involve whoever else you want to involve. The plan will lay out what support can help you achieve the plans and who is responsible for what, when and how.
We will be in contact regularly. We will visit you, phone, text, WhatsApp, in whatever way suits you. We will want to see you in person every couple of months and often we will see you much more often. However, what is important is we discuss what suits you and how best we can keep in touch.
Each of our four teams operates their own duty service. A leaving care caseworker will be on duty in each of the teams to deal with emergencies and provide advice. The duty services operate on Monday to Thursday between 1pm until 5pm and 1pm until 4:30pm on a Friday. You can contact a duty worker by using one of the following numbers:
Telephone: 01609 533865
Email: CPFRWest@northyorks.gov.uk
Telephone: 01609 533796
Email: ThurstonCSCAdmin@northyorks.gov.uk
Telephone: 01609 536193
Email: CPFREast@northyorks.gov.uk
Telephone: 01609 536330
Email: CPFRSelby@northyorks.gov.uk
If you need to speak to someone outside of office hours you can contact the emergency duty team on 0300 131 2 131. If you need to speak to someone because you or someone else is in immediate danger call the appropriate emergency service on 999.
To stay up to date with upcoming events within leaving care you can follow North Yorkshire leaving care team on Facebook.