A new space for Hackney care leavers
Hackney's new Care Leavers Hub opened in June.
A new space for Hackney’s care leavers opened its gates in June.
The new Care Leavers Hub and Children and Families Services Clinical Space will be offering care experienced young people a place where they can easily access a range of services and support, while staying in touch with their social workers and with each other. Other children and families will also be able to access therapeutic support from the Children and Families Services Clinical team.
Young people will be able to attend regular sessions offered by the council and other partner organisations to support them, such as:
- education, training and employment advice offered by the 16+ team from Hackney’s Virtual School
- advice and support from the Domestic Abuse Intervention Service (DAIS), the Young Hackney Substance Misuse Team, and local voluntary sector organisation Drive Forward
- health and wellbeing support from the City and Hackney Looked After Children Health Team
- tailored housing advice and support from Hackney’s homeless prevention team, Young People’s Housing Support Service, and voluntary sector organisations Settle and Centrepoint.
The hub will also act as a space for care leavers to be together and meet one another.
Within the hub, there are a number of rooms that can be used for therapeutic intervention with children and young people, such as family therapy, art, music and talking therapy.
A Hackney care leaver is a young person aged between 18 and 25 who has been looked after by Hackney for more than 13 weeks after their 14th birthday, including some time after their 16th birthday. All Hackney care leavers are entitled and encouraged to access support from the Children and Families Leaving Care service whenever they need it. There are currently 563 care leavers in Hackney.
As corporate parents, all Council officers and members share a collective responsibility to ensure that care experienced children and young people who may have had disrupted experiences of family life get the support they need to live the happiest and healthiest lives possible. The new service has been developed in line with the Council’s systemic, trauma-informed and anti-racist (STAR) approach, acknowledging and building on children and young people’s needs and lived experiences.
“We believe that every young person deserves to grow up happy, healthy, safe and supported. This innovative hub will provide a safe space where our care experienced young people have access to the support they need when they need it.
“We want to thank our teams and our partners for their dedication and hard work together with our young people and our families, who made the opening of this space a reality. I am pleased to see our concept is now a reality, and has been shaped by young people.
“Despite the very challenging financial context, we are proud to continue to invest in improving our services for those who need us most, supporting the future of our young people and our community. ”
Cllr Anntoinette Bramble, Deputy Mayor of Hackney and Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and Young People
“It was a real pleasure to be at the opening of the Hackney Care Leavers Hub, to see and talk to the young people present, and to hear the recognition for the key people that made this project possible.
“What I heard is that leaders have had a vision of what needs to change and what needs to improve for care leavers. That vision was followed through with action, which led to the creation of this safe space for care leavers, and that is remarkable. This shows that this local authority really invests in care leavers, doing that bit more, and going that much further.
“I'm looking forward to hearing all the great things that are going to happen in this space, and in Hackney in general.”
Janet Daby MP, Minister for Children and Families
The launch of the hub marks another step in the delivery of the Council's commitment to providing high-quality care, and minimising disruption in the lives of vulnerable children. Last year, Hackney Council changed its housing policy to allow looked after children to join the Council’s housing register from the age of 18, in order to remove the cliff-edge in finding a suitable place to live once they are no longer housed by the Council at 21.