Leaving care, not leaving family: Staying Put, Staying Close and the road to adulthood

BFCA Tutor

Thu, 22 Oct 2026

Most young people in England do not leave home at 18. They move out gradually, come back when things go wrong, and lean on family for advice, a meal or a spare bed well into their twenties. For young people in care, 18 can still feel like a cliff edge. The law has been moving, slowly but clearly, to change that, and foster carers and the professionals around them have a big part to play.

What the law says

Staying Put. Section 98 of the Children and Families Act 2014 added a duty to the Children Act 1989. When a young person in foster care turns 18, they can keep living with their former foster carer in a "staying put" arrangement. The local authority must give advice, assistance and support to both the young person and the carer, including financial support, while this is consistent with the young person's welfare. The duty lasts until the young person turns 21. The local authority must also think about staying put early, while the child is still in care, so it is part of planning and not a last-minute favour.

Staying Close. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, goes further. It places a new duty on every local authority in England to provide Staying Close support to eligible care leavers up to age 25 where their welfare requires it. This covers help to find and keep a home and to reach services. It replaces the earlier grant-funded scheme. The Act also requires councils to publish how they support care leavers' transition to adulthood as part of their local offer, and creates new corporate parenting responsibilities for wider public bodies. The Department for Education has said new statutory guidance will follow.

What the evidence tells us

The Department for Education's latest figures (year ending 31 March 2025) show why this matters:

• 62% of 18-year-olds who left a foster placement on their 18th birthday were still living with their former foster carers three months later.
• 40% of care leavers aged 19 to 21 were not in education, employment or training, compared with an estimated 15% of all young people that age.

Behind those numbers are young people who need a steady adult for longer, not less. For Black and Global Majority young people, leaving care can also mean losing daily links to their culture, faith, food, hair care and community, just when identity matters most.

What it means day to day

• Start talking early. Raise staying put in reviews and pathway planning from 16, not weeks before an 18th birthday.
• Know the local offer. Read your council's care leaver local offer so you can point young people to the housing, money and support they are entitled to.
• Teach life skills gradually. Budgeting, cooking, booking appointments and dealing with landlords are easier to learn at home than alone in a new flat.
• Keep culture in the plan. Make sure the pathway plan covers identity and community: places of worship, barbers and hairdressers, community groups and trusted adults who share the young person's heritage.
• Stay in touch. Even when a young person moves on, a text, a Sunday dinner or a lift to an interview can make a real difference.

Courses that help

Our course Staying Close and Transitions to Adulthood (£25) explains Staying Put, Staying Close and pathway planning in plain language, with a culturally informed focus on the young people BFCA supports. You will receive a certificate of completion.

It is also part of our Carer Essentials bundle (£79), alongside courses on identity, racial trauma, responding to racism at school and preparing for professional meetings.

Eighteen should be a milestone, not a cliff edge. Start the Staying Close and Transitions to Adulthood course today and help the young person in your care move into adulthood with a family still behind them.