Trafford Borough Council

Care leavers receive priority for social housing

Priority is offered up to the age of: 25

Banding priority is: Band 1

Additional information / how to qualify:
Once young people have experienced living in a supported lodgings/housing or semi-independent living/ foster care/Staying Put and developed the skills to enable them to living independently such as keeping their tenancy clean, tidy and safe, budgeting skills, paying bills and shopping for food and accessories, we will support them to apply for their own accommodation through social housing. Their allocated aftercare worker will guide them to register with Home Choice (social housing tenancies) and create an account. Once they have submitted their Independent Living Skills Workbook, they will then be supported by their aftercare worker to be prioritised for social housing (band 1) and start bidding for properties. If they are willing to live in different locations within Trafford and bid on properties regularly, they are more likely to secure a social housing tenancy.

HOST contact details are [email protected], this email is monitored Mon – Fri 9am – 5pm. HOST main contact number: 0161 912 2230. HOST are the homeless team for Trafford and manage the housing register. All housing associations who have properties within Trafford advertise on this register. Any young person can contact HOST for just housing advice or to present as homeless. Or their Aftercare worker can support them to refer to HOST on their behalf. Outside of working hours, there is emergency telephone contact support: 0800 218 2000

Care leavers get to practice independent living with taster flats

Additional information:
Two training flats, with Moss St Vincent, YP have to be involved in EET.

Trafford Borough Council will not in principle assist as a guarantor for care leavers in private rented property

Trafford Borough Council in principle will assist with providing a deposit for care leavers in private rented property

Details:
Bond, admin fee and first month rent if required by the landlord.

Will utilize the rent and bond scheme if the young person is receiving support via social housing.

Care leavers are provided with a setting up allowance

Allowance amount: ££2000

Trafford Borough Council in principle will assist with support to pay at least the first year TV licence for care leavers

Trafford Borough Council in principle will assist with support to pay at least the first year home contents insurance for care leavers

Trafford Borough Council in principle will assist with support to pay for redecoration costs of a care leavers first flat

Trafford Borough Council in principle will assist with support with broadband costs for care leavers

Trafford Borough Council in principle will assist with support with mobile phone costs for care leavers

Trafford Borough Council will pay towards cooking equipment for care leavers

Trafford Borough Council offers work experience within the council for care leavers

Number of places per year: 2

Trafford Borough Council will pay for work/interview clothes

Trafford Borough Council will pay towards travel to work or training

There are ringfenced apprenticeship vacancies for care leavers at Trafford Borough Council

1 working within Virtual School, however, work force development are progressing further. apprenticeship vacancies are ringfenced a year

Care leavers are working as apprenticeships within Trafford Borough Council

Number per year: 1

Additional information about work and training:
The Aftercare Team may also provide an incentive payment each week during term time depending on the college course /training and hours of attendance (full / part-time) up to a young person’s 20th birthday. They may also be able to claim an educational bursary; their Aftercare worker will support the young person to claim this from their college provider. The Aftercare Team may also provide an incentive payment each week dependant on employment, hours of work and salary/wage. An incentive payment may also be provided if a young person is attending voluntary work dependant on hours of work.

All young people in higher education will receive a £2,000 bursary each year provided in instalments. They will also receive from the Aftercare Team £80 per week, this is to support with living cost, equipment and materials. This is a total cost of £6,160 per year and will be for a maximum of 4 years while at university. The young person will be expected to claim their maximum entitlement from Student Finance for tuition fees and a maintenance loan.

All care leavers aged 18+, participating in a full time educational course (with a minimum of three months attendance), will be offered a laptop worth £300 with a £50 bundle if they do not already have a laptop (or is 3+yrs old).

Trafford Borough Council will ensure each young person has ID documents when they leave care

Passport: Yes

Provisional Driving Licence: Yes

Birth Certificate: Yes

Trafford Borough Council will not in principle assist with driving lessons

Trafford Borough Council will not in principle assist with driving theory tests

Trafford Borough Council will not in principle assist with driving tests

Trafford Borough Council will not in principle assist with CBT tests

Partners local to Trafford Borough Council offer support with free travel for care leavers

Bus: Yes

Train / Tram: No

Additional details:
For young people aged 18 -21, they can apply for a free pass , when they turn 21 the Prince’s Trust are offering bus passes up to age 25 for any young person in EET , as well as additional funding for laptops etc.

We will also offer financial support to young people who wish to pursue alternative educational or leisure based hobbies to enable young people to become aspirational.

Care leavers have the opportunity to meet with their corporate parents (councillors)

Care leavers have the opportunity for mentoring with any of the senior leadership team

Additional details:
The aftercare forum meet weekly as a support group and more formally on a monthly basis to provide information to feed into the corporate parenting meetings. Face to face opportunities are provided to ensure that vision, current needs and concerns about service provision are articulated via the HoS and Service Manager.

Care leavers have the opportunity to be mentored by the senior leadership team. Currently, we have a care leaver who is being mentored by the Chief Executive.

Trafford Borough Council has a children in care and care leavers council

Details of council:
Yes both Children in Care council and aftercare forum.

The Children in Care Council (up to age 16) meet monthly and there are 8 participants at the moment.

The aftercare forum (16+) meet weekly as a support group and more formally on a monthly basis to provide information to feed into the corporate parenting meetings. Face to face opportunities are provided to ensure that vision, current needs and concerns about service provision are articulated via the HoS and Service Manager.

Children in care and care leavers council does not have its own bank account

Children in care and care leavers council does not have its own constitution

Trafford Borough Council has peer mentors (other care leavers)

Trafford Borough Council has other mentoring schemes

Details:
YES (EET focused care leaver mentors to younger children in care)

We have currently commissioned a mentoring service to work with 40+ care leavers around individual support, project work, EET provision and emotional wellbeing support.

We plan to commission a new mentoring service in June 2021 to focus on three main areas of need for 18+ care leavers: Housing support, EET and emotional wellbeing, and EET mentoring for 16-17 year olds. This will be an exciting partnership with Trafford Housing Trust to enable young people to progress in areas of support to enable them to achieve their goals and aspirations. This will be linked up the young person’s pathway plan and closely collaborated with the aftercare personal advisor.

Young people do not have to go through the complaints dept to access their care files

Young people who access their care files get emotional support before, during and after disclosure

Details:
This is offered to care leavers via the aftercare personal advisor, alongside and referral counselling support pending the young person’s wishes and feelings.