The Home Stretch: young people in care should have support until 21
What age did you first move out of home?
The average age Australian young people move out of their parents’ home is steadily increasing – currently it’s 23 for men and 24 for women. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, young people have been relying more and more on their parents for support through their twenties.
Think back to when you first moved out of home – you probably still called mum or dad when you needed advice on how to get red wine stains out of the carpet, or when you weren’t sure how to fill in your paperwork for a new job. Maybe you even moved back home for a bit when you didn’t get on with your flatmate and needed time to figure out what to do next.
But for young people in the care system in Queensland, care stops abruptly when they turn 18, or for a limited group, at 19. Access to a stable home, support and advice during the early years of adulthood can be the difference between thriving or surviving, but young people leaving care are left without this safety net from the age of 18 or 19. That’s between four and six years earlier than their peers.
Care leavers experience leaving care in many different ways. Young people who have had supportive and stable homes, and who have positive and ongoing relationships with carers, workers and others in the community often go on to live successful and satisfying lives despite their history of adversity. However, within 12 months of leaving care at 18, 50% of care leavers will be homeless, in prison, a new parent or unemployed. It doesn’t have to be that way, though: studies worldwide have shown that giving young people the choice to stay in care until they are 21 decreases these risks significantly. When care is extended, education participation rates double and homelessness rates halve among care leavers.
What is The Home Stretch?
The Home Stretch is a national campaign that seeks to change the current leaving care arrangements for young people in state care to provide the option of extended care and support from 18 to 21. You Be You and Anglicare Southern Queensland are proud to support The Home Stretch. We believe that all young people deserve the support they need to get the best possible start to life and the way to do this is by providing young people with the option for extended care to 21.
States and territories across Australia are starting to recognise the importance of supporting young people after they turn 18. Victoria extended support for care leavers to 21 in January this year, and Western Australia’s successful trial program is being rolled out universally over the next 12 months. They join South Australia and Tasmania, which have already made the change to extend foster care support to the age of 21, although this does not include young people who are self-placing or in residential care.
Extending care and support to 21 also makes financial sense, with Deloitte Access Economics estimating the return on investment of extending care in Queensland would be $2.69 for every $1 spent. These returns are based on savings in government spending on programs addressing issues like homelessness, unemployment and mental health, and increased participation of care leavers in the workforce meaning more paid in taxes. This modelling is based on international evidence from programs in parts of the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand where care is extended to 21.
So what's best for kids in care?
Trials in countries where the option for care has been extended to the age of 21 have been studied extensively, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive. When the age young people leave care is extended to 21, studies have found:
• homelessness decreases by 19.5%
• teen pregnancy decreases by 6.4%
• mental illness decreases by 24.3%
• alcohol and drug dependence decrease by 13.3%
• smoking decreases by 31.9%
• interaction with the criminal justice system decreases by 5.9%
• educational engagement increases by 9.3%.
The stability and connectedness that comes from extended support has a significant impact on young people’s wellbeing. Extending support to the age of 21 also decreases inter-generational disadvantage experienced by care leavers.
It’s time for Queensland to step up to join other states and make it #21in21.
If you'd like to support The Home Stretch, you can sign the pledge to support the campaign on their website.
