'Turning 18 when you're in care is really scary'

Becoming an adult is scary enough. But for those who are care experienced, and trying to navigate children's services and different social workers, the challenges can be even greater. The BBC found out how one council is trying to ease the transition.

Six months after turning 18, Chloe Morley has gone from living in supported accommodation to a hostel.

Things are about to change for her, as she has just been offered a flat.

However, she believes she should never have found herself in this situation.

"No social worker will tell you how scary it is being 18 and I wish I been warned, because it is very scary," said Miss Morley, who now is an ambassador for care experienced people at Cumberland Council, helping the authority shape its care services.

Despite the challenges, Miss Morley said she had seen big changes in the way the authority works since children's services were transferred from Cumbria County Council following a local government restructure in April 2023.

Ofsted inspectors who spent three weeks looking at how the department was run at Cumberland Council agreed the service had improved, rating it 'good' - up from 'requires improvement' under the previous authority.

Miss Morley said her experiences had not been "the greatest" under the now disbanded Cumbria County Council, "but I would say there has been a big improvement".

She said she started seeing differences about a year ago, shortly after Cumberland Council took over.

"I had had so many different social workers and so many different people coming in and out of my life, but now I just have that set person and I don't have to keep getting passed around.

"I think it's good because I have strong relationships."

She said it meant a lot her to be able to rely on one point of contact, as those who are care experienced "don't really trust people" due to traumatic events in their lives.

Since turning 18, Miss Morley has had a personal adviser, who will support her until she turns 25, helping her transition into adulthood.

But she thinks work is still needed to prepare young people like her through that transition.

"There's just a housing crisis for everyone, which I know is difficult," she said, but one improvement would be more support in finding housing options "because I shouldn't be in this situation six months after turning 18".

However, she said she was "100% confident" that children going into care today would be looked after properly, after recent changes to the system.

The positive changes she has witnessed have been recognised by Ofsted inspectors, who published their report on Tuesday.

Councillor Emma Williamson, portfolio holder for children's services, said Cumberland Council had to overcome "systemic challenges" when taking over services from Cumbria County Council, with a high number of children in care and issues around staff retention and recruitment.

A new leadership team had been in place since March, and they had been able to consolidate the team and work on staff development, she said.

"One of the things that was really important was to review every single child and I'm not afraid to say that in the first week, two children went home and I cried, because I think we had a fresh approach, and what we should always be doing is trying to keep children with their families," said Williamson.

The authority was also working on its early intervention programme to ensure people were not passed around several departments before getting the right support, she added.

Although the service has been rated 'good' overall, there are some areas that still require improvements, according to Ofsted.

Inspectors made four recommendations, around the council's private fostering arrangements, homelessness response for 16- and 17-year-olds, response to children experiencing long-term neglect, and response to children who go missing.

These were areas highlighted in previous Ofsted reports when the service was run by the former local authority.

"While they could see we had firm plans in place, we were literally just about to launch the new policies when Ofsted arrived, so what they couldn't see was the impact of those policies and the positive changes that will be seen going forward," said Philippa Holmes, assistant director for children's services at the council.

She added she was "incredibly proud" of what had been achieved in such a short space of time and was "very confident" the service would continue to improve.

Martin Birch, director of children and family wellbeing, said while the problems highlighted by Ofsted were challenges the previous authority also faced, they were not as big an issue as they had been.

"Had Ofsted come in three or four months' time, that would have been a very different outcome," he said.

"We're really proud of our service, the staff have worked incredibly hard to deliver what we have achieved today and I'd like to thank them all."

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