Contents

Your home

Where will I live?

One of the most important decisions we must agree with you as a young adult leaving our care is where you are going to live. It is very important that wherever you live, it is safe and feels like a home.

Your PA 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 at that time. All plans for where you live will need to be included in your Pathway Plan and agreed at your reviews.

If you are living with foster carers and want to stay there after you become 18, if both you and the foster carer agree, we will support you to remain there. This is called ‘Staying Put’. A Staying Put arrangement refers to a situation where a young person who has been looked after for a total of at least 13 weeks since the age of 14 and remained looked after on or after their 16th birthday, remains living with their foster carer with whom they were placed when they turn 18. 

Local Authorities are required to facilitate, monitor and support Staying Put arrangements for young adults who choose to remain with their carers post 18 until they reach the age of 21. The principle guiding the new legislation is to offer such young adults the option to remain living with their foster carers until they feel ready to live independently, however, in the year you turn 20, your PA will have a discussion with you as to whether you would like to stay post 21. If you choose to stay post 21, it will not be a Staying Put arrangement, but a private arrangement and your PA will be able to explain to you what this is.

If you have been living in a home provided by the local authority, we will help you to stay in touch with the important adults in your life. We will usually try to help you to live locally in Bexley, so you may see less of them but this is something you could write into your pathway plan if it is important to you.

Having somewhere warm and safe to live is very important. If you were living in a family with your parents, it is unlikely you would
move away to live alone at the young age of 18 years old. That is why in Bexley, we will encourage you to stay living with the carers you know, or very close by, so that you have a good support network.

We will worry about whether you are ready to live alone and will discuss it together. Your pathway plan will make very clear what is good for you and how we are going to manage this together. We want it to be ‘good for you’ so this is one of the most important things about your future planning!

In Bexley we provide several options where you can live when you are 18. We can provide you additional help through a housing personal advisor who can work with you and your allocated personal advisor to explore and support you with the various housing options available to help you decide which is right for you'.

Our options for where you can live once you are 18 include:

  • Staying Put - We will help you remain with a foster family (if you are already living with that family after turning 18) for as long as possible. Moves to semi-independence or full independence will only happen when you are practically, mentally, and emotionally ready to make this happen
  • We will support you to make an application to get on the housing register as soon as you turn 18 years old. This will mean that when you are accepted, you can begin to consider bidding for a social housing home, however, you will not be offered anything until you demonstrate that you have the skills
    necessary to live independently
  • Supported accommodation - perhaps a shared house, where you have your own room but share some facilities with other young people, you would also receive support from a key worker
  • Host and Support provisions might also be an option. This is sharing with an adult who will be there to provide help if you need it, but who will also be able to support you to live independently in their home
  • Independent accommodation through private renting
  • Where you qualify, we may be able to offer our Rent Guarantor Scheme which means we will become your guarantor with a private landlord
  • Returning to live with your family. When you are ready, a permanent home with either a social housing or private housing tenancy will be considered. Your legal status as a ‘Care Leaver’ gives you the right to be accepted onto the housing list. However, it is important that this does not happen until you are ready to live completely on your own and manage the responsibilities like paying all your bills on time. Due to housing shortages, it means that this can take some time and it may not be in the area you choose or have wished for. We can help you plan for this when we are writing your pathway plan.
  • Moving to live on your own is a massive step; it’s not just about paying bills and cooking your own food. It’s also about staying healthy and getting on with your neighbours. Your Social Worker/PA will talk to you as part of the pathway planning process about the best ways for this to be a success that lasts

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 PA will be there with you every step of the way 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.

Your PA will provide you with our Welcome to your new home pack. This includes essential information related to your new home and the local area you will be living in.

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