Accommodation and where young people live, with our care leavers local offer
Your accommodation
As you reach 18 years old, one of the most important decisions we must agree with you, is where you are going to live. Feeling safe and secure where you live is vital for your future. Your personal adviser is here to help you with this, working through the options available to you and helping you to decide on what will be best for you.
There are lots of options of where you can live after age 18, but it's important that the option decided for you is right for what you need.
Options for where you can live once you are 18 include:
Staying put
We will help you remain with your foster family (if you are already living with that family when you turn 18), if you and your foster family want this to happen. The arrangement is reviewed every year and is available until you are 21 years old.
Supported accommodation
This could be a shared house or flat, where you have your own room but share some facilities with other young people and receive support from a support worker.
Training flats
We have 4 council-owned trainer flats for care leavers aged 18 and over, which can give you the experience of living independently while having access to support.
Independent accommodation (social housing)
Your personal adviser or social worker will help you to apply to the housing register, so that when you turn 18 you can start to bid on your own home with your own tenancy. Your legal status as a care leaver gives you the right to be accepted as priority on to the housing register up to age 21 (but we will consider up to age 25). However, it is important that you feel able to live completely on your own and manage the responsibilities like paying all your bills on time.
We can plan for this when we are creating your pathway plan with you. This may mean that we will need to continue to support you financially where you have been living and we will do this for a period of a time whilst you are actively bidding and until a you are successful in securing your own tenancy.
Private rented accommodation
You could decide that privately renting a property is best for you. This would be a legal agreement between you and a private landlord. We will not in principle assist as a guarantor for care leavers in private rented property but will assist with providing a deposit and first month’s rent if this is needed. Read more about private renting from Citizens Advice.
Returning to live with your family
You may feel that returning to live with your family is right for you. It is best to talk about this with your personal adviser before making any decisions so that you fully understand how this could affect your future access to housing support and to ensure we support you in the right way.
University accommodation
Support is also provided to care leavers who are attending university and need help with the cost of accommodation during vacation time.
How else we can help
Moving in day
We will be there to make sure everything goes smoothly on your moving in day. We realise this can be an exciting but also scary time, your personal adviser will be there with you if you want for emotional and practical support. We will help you settle in and make sure all practical things are in place such as water, gas and electricity. If needed, we can help you to enrol on the electoral register.
Transitions to Adulthood Guide
In 2023, the Care Experienced Forum came together to create the Transitions to Adulthood Guide to help care leavers as they explore independent living.
Staying Close Project
In 2023, to help our care experienced young people develop support networks we developed the Staying Close Project. For many children in care and care-experienced young people, "family" will also include their keyworkers, peers, schools/colleges, health practitioners, work colleagues and community groups and we want to help make these networks stronger to help your transition to adulthood. This project is available to:
- Children and young people seeking sanctuary
- age 16 to 25
- living or moving into semi-independent housing in the Dunstable and Houghton Regis areas
- Central Bedfordshire care leavers
- age 16 to 25
- leaving residential care
- transitioning into semi-independent properties or independent accommodation