What is a 'local offer'?

If you were previously looked after by Southampton City Council, and any of the above explanations are right for you, then under the Children and Social Work Act 2017 you are entitled to continue to receive support and advice until your 25th birthday.

If after the age of 21 you have not accessed this you are entitled to return to us for support and advice until your 25th birthday.

A Pathway Plan sets out your needs, future goals, and helps to identify exactly what support you will receive from us. It will detail how to achieve your goals. We will review your Pathway Plan with you every six months, so that it is kept up to date. Importantly it will have your views and wishes in it because it is about you.

Your Pathway Plan will focus on supporting you with areas such as:

• Relationships
• Home and housing
• Being able to participate in society
• Your health needs and your education
• Training and employment needs
• Your budgeting and finances

Support with your accommodation; education, training & employment; health & wellbeing; relationships and participation in society. There are a wide range of services and support available to you as a care leaver in Southampton. Some of these services are provided by the council and some are provided in partnership with other agencies.

Services are available for all care leavers, but you might not need to access all of them, it will depend on your circumstances. The types of services offered to care leavers include:

• Support with accommodation
• Education
• Employment and training
• Higher education
• Health
• Wellbeing and finances, including access to an allocated Personal Advisor

A Personal Advisor is a person who is dedicated to working with you to support you on your care leaver journey. They will build a relationship with you, any relevant family members, and any professionals that you are working with to support you with your leaving care journey. They will work with you to create and write your Pathway Plan.

If you are a Relevant or Former Relevant care leaver, then this is not a problem because we would like you to stay with us until the age of 25! You will be able to ask for support from the service or a Personal Advisor up to the age of 25 years old, including if you are in Higher Education.

You may only want a short period of support about one thing, or a full Pathway Planning Service. The amount of support that you receive from your Personal Advisor will depend on what you need and your circumstances.

Importantly, even if you have decided to stop working with us, you have the option to come back to us for help and support until the age of 25 years old. Our minimum standard of seeing you is every two months, when you are first living independently, we will want to see you more often.

If you move address, we will see your accommodation within seven days and then by 28 days as we will want to spend time with you reviewing your pathway plan. We will therefore see you at least every four weeks for the first six months to make sure things are going smoothly.

The above visiting patterns are what we do as a minimum, however we are not restricted to this and we will see you more often if it is needed.

Southampton City Council believes 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 over 18 years old, we will give you advice and support in helping you find a suitable place to live.

Don’t worry as you will have a Personal Advisor to help you every step of the way.

We will make sure you know how to apply for any benefits you are entitled to so you can pay for food, rent and bills. A Leaving Care Grant of up to £3,000 will also be provided to a young person who has eligible, relevant or former relevant care leaver status, which is used to set up your home so you can afford basics like furniture, a bed, washing machine and furnishings.

We will give you practical support in helping you to move in, look after and maintain your home. Advice and support will be given about managing your money and your tenancy (the agreement between you and your landlord).

As a young person who has eligible, relevant or former relevant care leaver status with Southampton City Council, you will automatically be able to join the Southampton Housing Register. This does not mean that you will necessarily be ready to have your own tenancy at 18, and most young people remain living within their family or friends’ networks at this age. We will work with you to consider how to best support your housing needs. There are various options for your housing, and these will include:

Staying put

Young people in foster care are encouraged to “stay put” with their carers when they turn 18 years old. This arrangement allows you to remain with your foster carer until the age of 21 years old. You would then move to alternative accommodation at a later stage when you feel more ready.

Supported accommodation

We work with a range of different supported accommodation providers, where you can live “semi independently.” This means that you will have your own space in shared accommodation, but that there will be different levels of support available to you to help you get used to living in a different way.

Your Social Worker, or Personal Advisor will work with you to discuss the different options that are available to you and help plan what is right for you.

A social housing or council tenancy

Once you have reached the stage where we both agree that you can live independently and maintain a tenancy without risk of this being lost, you will have the option to apply to Southampton City Council for social housing (this is accommodation managed by the council). Our Care Leavers Service already has access to several available tenancies a year for our care leavers, and as a care leaver when you and your Personal Advisor think that you are ‘tenancy ready’, you will be given priority.

Your Personal Advisor will work with our housing services to support this transition to a social housing tenancy

If you live outside of Southampton, then we cannot award you priority status for another Local Authority. However, we will work with you and your local housing authority to ensure that they recognise your care leaver status, and we will advocate for you.

Return home to birth or extended family

If this is safe for you to do and this is a decision that you make, then we will support you to do this and work with your birth or extended family to make sure that you are ok and that the transition goes smoothly.

Working with you

We will work with you to look at your budget, help you consider what you can and cannot afford. We will work with you to ensure that you claim any entitlements that could support you to fund any part of your accommodation such as housing benefits, rent and deposit schemes etc.

Paying Council Tax

Care leavers living in Southampton do not pay Council Tax until they reach the age of 25.

If you do not live in the City, then we cannot make other local authorities exempt you from paying Council Tax, however we will talk to them to see if there is any council tax relief that you are entitled to as a care leaver living in their authority.

See our advice for moving out of home.