Young Care Leavers Visit the House of Lords, 29th November 2016
On the 29th November 2016, Forward Thinking facilitated a roundtable between Lord Francis Listowel and young care leavers from the Drive Forward Foundation. Participants discussed onerous aspects of recent social housing policy reform, the challenges faced when transitioning from foster care into independent and semi-independent living, in addition to the barriers stopping young people moving from benefits and into apprenticeships, full time employment or education.Themes highlighted included inadequate social housing allocation and tenancies, and a lack of affordable social housing, which has forced young care leavers to be financially better off on benefits then in work or studying. It was noted that national level policies for housing support are vague and leave too wide a discrepancy between national policy and local council practice.The opportunity also gave young care leavers involved in Forward Thinking's political and media workshops a chance to put their debating skills into action during the roundtable. Encouragingly, they later saw their issues on housing and employment raised by Lord Listowel to a variety of peers during a debate within the House of Lords.