From 30 September 2026, local authorities in England must comply with strengthened requirements governing their published offer to care-experienced young people.
Although these reforms form part of the legal framework commonly associated with the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000, the immediate changes are introduced principally through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. This amends the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and operates alongside the continuing leaving-care duties in the Children Act 1989 (Department for Education, 2026a; UK Parliament, 2026).
For children’s homes and supported-accommodation providers, this distinction does matter. The new statutory guidance is addressed principally to local authorities; it does not automatically transfer councils’ statutory responsibilities to private, charitable or independent providers.
I’ve no doubt providers will nevertheless feel its effects through:
- care and pathway planning;
- home expectations;
- commissioning and contract specifications;
- joint work with housing and leaving-care services;
- information-sharing;
- transition and post-placement support arrangements; and
- Ofsted’s increasing focus on relationships, belonging and the experiences of young people after they leave.
At the centre of the reforms is the proposition that leaving care should not mean leaving behind the people, places and relationships that make a young person feel secure.
What changes on 30 September 2026?
By 30 September 2026, every local authority in England must have reviewed and updated its published care-leaver local offer. You can find more information on the current offers here: https://mycovenant.org.uk/about-the-care-leaver-covenant/
The revised offer must explain not only which services exist, but the authority’s arrangements for supporting care-experienced young people with:
- their transition to adulthood;
- safe, stable and suitable accommodation;
- financial support and financial literacy;
- access to services;
- participation in society; and
- building and maintaining enduring relationships.
Authorities must publish information about how they anticipate accommodation needs before and after a young person leaves care, work with housing services and providers, prevent homelessness, support young people leaving custody and assist former relevant children under 25 to access the services they need (Department for Education, 2026a).
The guidance also promotes a more relational understanding of adulthood. The objective is no longer adequately described as teaching a young person to “live independently”. Councils are expected to support interdependent living, enabling young people to develop practical adult capabilities while belonging to dependable networks of people and community support.
The revised local-offer guidance should therefore be understood as more than a requirement to improve a council webpage. The published offer is intended to describe and make publicly visible the tangible substance of the support available.
Enduring relationships: the new golden thread
The government describes enduring relationships as important, consistent and lasting relationships that provide emotional security, warmth, responsiveness, dependability and shared positive experiences (Department for Education, 2026b).
Crucially, these relationships are defined by the child or young person. They might include relatives and siblings, but also:
- friends;
- former foster carers;
- residential or support workers;
- teachers and education professionals;
- neighbours;
- mentors;
- youth workers; and
- members of cultural, community or faith groups.
The government’s Enduring Relationships strategy says that building and sustaining loving relationships should become the “golden thread” running through the care system. It explicitly tells providers (including children’s homes and supported accommodation) that supporting these relationships is not an optional extra (Department for Education, 2026b).
This presents a significant challenge for services whose operating models have traditionally emphasised professional boundaries and independence targets. Appropriate boundaries remain essential, but a model in which an important relationship ends abruptly on the day a young person moves on will increasingly be difficult to defend.
The question for providers is changing from ‘has the young person completed an independence-skills programme?’ to ‘who will still answer when this young person needs help six months after leaving, and what have we done to make those relationships safe and sustainable?’
The Children’s Commissioner’s hierarchy of needs
The Children’s Commissioner’s Care Experienced Advisory Board has developed a hierarchy of needs to help professionals understand what care-experienced young people feel they need to participate, belong and fulfil their potential (Children’s Commissioner for England, 2026a).
Its foundations include:
- food, warmth and secure accommodation;
- physical, emotional and financial safety;
- dependable adults and appropriate family contact;
- access to health and mental-health support;
- information about entitlements;
- involvement in pathway and safety planning; and
- continuity during moves into or away from a local area.
Above these foundations sit integration, belonging, self-esteem, autonomy, knowledge, identity and the opportunity to fulfil personal aspirations.
This might provide a useful test when preparing a young person for greater independence; they may be able to cook a meal, complete a budget worksheet or attend an appointment, while also still needing to have or develop:
- a safe person to contact;
- emotional security;
- a sense of belonging;
- confidence about their rights;
- stable accommodation during holidays;
- help during a financial emergency; or
- relationships that will survive their time with you.
Practical competence should therefore not be confused with readiness to manage alone.
What will this mean for children’s homes?
Children’s homes are already expected to prepare children for their futures, plan any moves carefully and help them form and sustain attachments with safe adults.
The April 2026 children’s homes inspection framework (SCCIF: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-care-common-inspection-framework-sccif-childrens-homes) gives greater prominence to:
- the quality of relationships;
- children’s sense of belonging and stability;
- timely preparation for their next move;
- the experiences of children who recently left;
- support to make and sustain attachments with adults; and
- whether managers challenge ineffective responses from other services (Ofsted, 2026a).
The September reforms strengthen the context in which these expectations will be judged. Homes should expect commissioners and inspectors to look beyond completed paperwork and consider what changed for the child.
Before a young person leaves, a home should be able to demonstrate that:
- transition planning began early and did not wait until the disruption meetings;
- the young person’s important relationships were identified in their own words;
- decisions about future contact were based on individual welfare and safeguarding considerations rather than blanket policies;
- higher education, further education and apprenticeship aspirations were actively supported;
- the proposed accommodation was assessed in the context of safety, transport, education, employment and existing relationships;
- practical preparation included budgeting, benefits, tenancy responsibilities, digital access, cooking, health and help-seeking;
- the young person knew their entitlements and how to contact their personal adviser (and had the time and opportunity to develop a relationship and attachment with them);
- term-time and holiday accommodation needs had been addressed where the young person intended to study; and
- there was a realistic plan for what would happen if the move began to break down.
Providers should also be prepared to challenge the placing authority when a move is premature, poorly matched or likely to sever important relationships. Recording that challenge, and the authority’s response, may become increasingly important evidence of effective leadership. Independent advocacy can also be key at these twists and turns in the road (see NYAS website for more info on the provider in your area: https://www.nyas.net/get-support/young-people/advocacy-search/).
What will this mean for supported accommodation?
Registered supported accommodation for looked-after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17 is governed by its own quality standards. These already require providers to support young people towards adult life in a safe, homely and nurturing environment. Building strong and meaningful relationships is an established theme of the supported-accommodation regulations and accompanying guidance (Department for Education, 2023).
The revised local offer is likely to sharpen commissioning expectations in several areas:
- early identification of move-on needs;
- evidence that accommodation is suitable for the individual young person;
- stronger coordination with housing and leaving-care teams;
- practical support during the early stages of a tenancy;
- rapid escalation where accommodation is at risk;
- continuity of mental-health and adult-service support;
- opportunities to build peer and community networks;
- preparation for education or employment away from the local area; and
- clarity about what contact or support will continue when the regulated place in your home ends.
Supported-accommodation providers should not allow ‘independence’ to become a justification for withdrawing support too quickly. A young person may be able to budget, cook and attend appointments while still being profoundly isolated or without anyone dependable to call.
Good preparation should assess relational readiness as well as practical competence.
Higher education: a transition that providers must start preparing for early
The Children’s Commissioner’s updated August 2026 handbook, Supporting care experienced students, was co-produced with the Care Experienced Advisory Board. It contains 33 recommendations spanning pre-admission, moving in, accommodation, finance, wellbeing, social integration, employment, graduation and postgraduate study (Children’s Commissioner for England, 2026b).
Although the handbook is directed principally at higher-education professionals and is not statutory guidance, it is directly relevant to children’s homes, supported-accommodation providers, leaving-care teams and personal advisers. It identifies several areas that should be addressed well before a young person leaves their home with you.
Information and aspiration
Providers should ensure that young people know higher education is a realistic option and understand:
- the range of available institutions and courses;
- contextual admissions;
- application and clearing processes;
- bursaries, scholarships and hardship funds;
- accommodation and guarantor arrangements;
- support for disabled and neurodivergent students; and
- the named care-experienced-student contact at prospective institutions.
The absence of family experience of university means professionals should not assume that young people will independently discover their entitlements.
Accommodation throughout the year
The Commissioner recommends year-round accommodation with priority access and flexible contracts for care-experienced students. This is particularly important because university accommodation may not ordinarily cover every vacation, while returning to a family home may not be possible.
Pathway and accommodation planning should therefore establish:
- whether accommodation is available for 365 days;
- where the young person will live during each term-time break;
- who will meet deposits and advance rent;
- whether a rent guarantor is required and who will provide it;
- what will happen if the course or accommodation ends unexpectedly;
- whether the local authority’s support continues when the student studies out of area; and
- what accommodation will be available after graduation.
A university place should not be treated as a substitute for a complete housing plan.
A person as well as a place
The handbook recommends a primary point of contact, regular wellbeing checks, peer mentoring, social-integration support and a person to meet the student when they arrive. This closely mirrors the enduring-relationships agenda. A successful transition cannot be secured merely by handing over the keys to student accommodation. Before the move, the provider should help the young person identify:
- their university or college contact;
- their personal adviser;
- trusted former carers or workers;
- relevant health and mental-health services;
- peer and care-experienced-student networks;
- emergency and out-of-hours contacts; and
- the person who will notice and respond if the young person becomes isolated or disengages.
Financial security
The handbook recommends clear information about bursaries, scholarships, hardship funding, travel, course materials, budgeting and local employment. The revised local-offer guidance also requires authorities to explain:
- the statutory £2,000 higher-education bursary;
- support with accommodation during and outside term time;
- local rent-guarantor schemes;
- discretionary financial support;
- support for postgraduate study; and
- what assistance may continue where study extends beyond the young person’s 25th birthday (Department for Education, 2026a).
Providers should ensure that this information is incorporated into the young person’s pathway planning and translated into actual applications, deadlines and named responsibilities.
Avoiding another cliff edge at graduation
One of the handbook’s most significant recommendations is that institutions should provide opportunities for students to stay in touch and maintain a legacy after completing their studies.
This recognises that a care-experienced young person may encounter several successive cliff edges:
- leaving the children’s home or supported accommodation;
- moving away to study;
- losing statutory support or reaching 25;
- leaving university accommodation; and
- graduating without a family home or financial safety net.
Enduring-relationship planning should therefore extend beyond entry to higher education. It should consider what happens when the course finishes, including accommodation, employment, postgraduate study, community connections and continuing relationships.
An important eligibility distinction
The Children’s Commissioner’s handbook uses an intentionally broad definition of “care experienced”. It can include people who have experienced foster care, residential care, formal or informal kinship care, youth-justice settings, adoption following care and estrangement (Children’s Commissioner for England, 2026b).
This is broader than the legal categories used to determine entitlement to statutory leaving-care support under the Children Act 1989.
Providers and higher-education institutions should therefore distinguish between:
- statutory entitlements that depend on a young person meeting a legal definition such as eligible, relevant or former relevant child; and
- wider discretionary support that an institution, council or partner may make available to anyone with experience of care.
A young person who falls outside the statutory leaving-care categories should not automatically be assumed to have no need for relational, financial or educational support.
Do providers have responsibilities after a young person leaves care?
The primary statutory leaving-care duties remain with the responsible local authority. These include personal-adviser and pathway-planning responsibilities, accommodation assistance and, depending on the young person’s legal status and circumstances, duties extending to age 25.
A former provider does not automatically acquire a free-standing statutory duty to support every young person after departure. Its continuing responsibilities will depend on matters including:
- the terms of the contract or placement plan agreements;
- the young person’s care and pathway plans;
- any commissioned transition or outreach service;
- safeguarding and information-sharing responsibilities;
- commitments in its statement of purpose or young person’s guide; and
- any Staying Close arrangement.
We should nevertheless avoid treating this legal distinction as permission for an abrupt relational cut-off. Where a young person wants a relationship with a former member of staff to continue, the provider, young person and local authority should discuss how that can happen safely, consistently and transparently.
An agreed arrangement might include:
- scheduled telephone or video contact;
- visits;
- recognition of birthdays, results, graduation and other important occasions;
- practical support during a tenancy crisis;
- access to appropriate social events;
- mentoring; or
- continuing contact with a trusted former key worker.
The arrangement should identify:
- what support will be provided;
- by whom and for how long;
- how the young person’s consent will be obtained and reviewed;
- which organisation supervises and funds the work;
- permitted communication methods;
- boundaries and out-of-hours expectations;
- safeguarding and escalation arrangements;
- record-keeping and information-sharing requirements;
- insurance and lone-working considerations; and
- how the arrangement may change or end.
Continuing contact should not depend solely on the unpaid goodwill of an individual employee. Informal, unsupported arrangements can create risks for the young person, worker and organisation: ‘enduring’ does not have to mean unstructured.
Staying Close: important, but not yet a universal September 2026 duty
Staying Close is designed to provide young people leaving residential care with suitable move-on accommodation and continuing practical and emotional support from someone they know and trust.
It is particularly relevant to children’s homes because it seeks to provide a residential equivalent to the gradual transition available through Staying Put in foster care. Existing models include accommodation near a former home, support from former residential staff and opportunities to maintain familiar relationships (Department for Education, 2022).
However, we need to be precise about the timetable. The September 2026 guidance says that Staying Close will become a national local authority duty in 2028/29 and will be rolled out nationally in advance. It does not become a universal statutory entitlement on 30th September 2026.
Where Staying Close is already available, the council should include it in its local offer and explain how it can be accessed.
Providers should therefore think about asking each placing authority:
- Is Staying Close operating locally?
- Which young people can be considered?
- When should assessment and planning begin?
- Can independent providers participate?
- What accommodation and support models will be commissioned?
- How will former residential staff time be funded?
- Who remains responsible for safeguarding, supervision and review?
- What happens when the young person studies out of area?
- How will support during university vacations be managed?
- What evidence will demonstrate that the arrangement is helping?
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act provides for a future council duty to assess whether Staying Close support is required in the interests of a former relevant child’s welfare and, where it is required, to provide appropriate support. Its purposes include helping the young person find and keep suitable accommodation and access services relating to wellbeing, relationships, education, employment and participation (UK Parliament, 2026).
The duty remains the local authority’s even where delivery is commissioned from a provider.
What providers could do before 30 September
1. Audit every transition plan
Review every young person approaching 18 or another significant move or milestone.
Check whether each plan addresses accommodation, finance, education or work, health, risks, community connections and the people the young person wants to remain in their life.
2. Create a relationship map
Ask who matters, who is trusted, who has been lost and who might safely be reconnected, and record the young person’s relationships in their own terms, rather than simply listing currently involved professionals.
3. Add an education-transition audit
For any young person considering further or higher education, establish:
- application and results day support;
- the named institutional contact;
- bursary and hardship-fund applications;
- year-round accommodation;
- guarantor arrangements;
- holiday plans;
- mental-health and SEND support;
- travel and course costs; and
- post-course accommodation.
4. Review policies on contact after departure
Consider co-developing a safe, individualised framework. Address consent, boundaries, social media, staff changes, safeguarding, data protection, funding, supervision and recording.
5. Contact placing authorities
Request the authority’s revised local offer, implementation plan, joint housing protocol and Staying Close position. Clarify what it will expect providers to deliver before and after the young person’s time with you ends.
6. Build ‘return before crisis’ arrangements
Young people should know who to contact if a tenancy, relationship, benefit claim, university place or employment arrangement begins to fail. Agree escalation routes before an emergency occurs.
7. Prepare the team
Train staff to understand:
- leaving-care status and entitlements;
- pathway planning;
- housing and homelessness routes;
- financial and educational support;
- the Children’s Commissioner’s hierarchy of needs;
- relational and trauma-informed practice;
- safe continuing contact; and
- the respective responsibilities of providers and local authorities.
8. Measure more than independence skills
Track housing stability, education and employment, but also whether the young person:
- has people they trust;
- feels that they belong;
- knows where to seek help;
- remains connected to their community;
- has someone who notices when they are struggling; and
- can maintain relationships across moves.
9. Review commercial arrangements
Continuing relational support requires staff time, supervision, management oversight and funding. Providers should define the offer they can deliver and ensure it is reflected in contracts, rather than relying on unpaid goodwill.
The real test
The reforms should not be reduced to another compliance exercise or a rewritten policy, and they do fall in several of the quality standard domains. For residential and supported-accommodation providers, the real test will be whether a young person leaves with:
- somewhere safe and sustainable to live;
- an agreed plan for university vacations or other accommodation gaps;
- a realistic response if their accommodation becomes unstable;
- knowledge of their rights and entitlements;
- access to their personal adviser and education contacts;
- practical and financial confidence;
- a sense of identity and belonging; and
- at least one safe, dependable relationship that will survive the move.
The provider may not hold the principal statutory duty after the young person leaves. But your staff may have formed some of the most important relationships in that young person’s life.
The challenge presented by the September reforms – and reinforced by the Children’s Commissioner’s updated handbook – is to ensure those relationships do not disappear merely because the young person’s time with you, their course or funding has ended.
References
Children’s Commissioner for England (2026a) Hierarchy of needs for care experienced young people. London: Office of the Children’s Commissioner. Available at: Children’s Commissioner for England.
Children’s Commissioner for England (2026b) Supporting care experienced students: a handbook for professionals working in higher education. Updated August 2026. London: Office of the Children’s Commissioner. Publication and accessible viewing options.
Department for Education (2022) Staying Close 2023 to 2025: application guide for local authorities. London: Department for Education.
Department for Education (2023) Guide to the supported accommodation regulations, including quality standards. London: Department for Education.
Department for Education (2026a) Care leaver local offer: guidance for local authorities—effective from 30 September 2026. London: Department for Education.
Department for Education (2026b) Enduring relationships for care-experienced children. Updated 14 July 2026. London: Department for Education.
Department for Education and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2024) Joint housing protocols for care leavers: good practice advice. London: Department for Education and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Ofsted (2026a) Social care common inspection framework: children’s homes. Updated 1 April 2026. Manchester: Ofsted.
Ofsted (2026b) Social care common inspection framework: supported accommodation for looked-after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17. Manchester: Ofsted.
UK Parliament (1989) Children Act 1989. London: The Stationery Office.
UK Parliament (2000) Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000. London: The Stationery Office.
UK Parliament (2017) Children and Social Work Act 2017. London: The Stationery Office.
UK Parliament (2026) Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. London: The Stationery Office.