You are an Enfield Care Leaver if you have been looked after by London Borough of Enfield for a period of 13 weeks after your 14th birthday with at least one day of this being after your 16th birthday. You will officially leave care when you are 18 years old and considered an adult but, in some other cases, you may also ‘leave care’ any time after your 16th birthday if you stop being looked after. In some circumstances you may also get support from the leaving care team if you were under the care of Enfield for shorter periods of time between 14 and 18 years of age.
You are also a care leaver if you came to the UK when you were under 18 years old without your parents or any other adults responsible for your care, you made an application for Asylum in the UK and you were looked after by Enfield Council for a period of time as explained in the previous paragraph.
If you are unsure about whether you qualify for leaving care support you can contact Enfield’s Adolescents and Leaving Care Team for advice.
If you have a disability or special educational needs
There is a specific ‘Local Offer’ that describes the help you can expect from Enfield. Enfield’s Local Offer for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disability (SEND) can be found at www.enfield. gov.uk/SEND It includes provision for young people up to the age of 25. The Moving On pathway explains what the process is for young people aged 14 to 18 years and 19 to 25 years with disabilities. Both pathways show the options and support provided to young people (who meet the Care Act 2014 eligibility criteria) as you move from childhood to adulthood.
If you are an Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Young Person (UASC) or you have to regularise your immigration status in the UK
You may have come into care without a regularised immigration status in the UK. This could be because you came to this country as an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child or due to some other reasons (ie: having a nationality other than British). If this is your case, there are a range of additional support services available to you. These include English classes (ESOL), interpreters, help with your immigration claim and support groups.
You are entitled to the same support from the Care Leavers Service as any other care leaver up to your 21st birthday. At this point, depending on your immigration status, if you still require further support in areas like housing this may be provided by an alternative Service like the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) in the case of former UASCs. However if you become appeal rights exhausted prior to your 21st then your eligibility for financial support ends but we can continue providing advice should you need it.
We will work with you to plan for all the different possible outcomes on your asylum/immigration application as well as explaining the implications that the different outcomes could have in the support we are able to provide you with post your 21st birthday, especially in regards to accommodation and payments for your subsistence.
This is called triple planning and will be reflected in your Pathway Plan.
We will help you as much as we can to ensure your immigration claim has every opportunity to be successful, however, in the unfortunate event that this is not the case, we will also work with you to make sure that you are prepared for a return to your Country of Origin if you have exhausted your appeal rights to stay legally in the UK.
If you are over 18 and under 21, with no legal right to be in this country and no outstanding application at the Home Office, then a Human Rights Assessment will be completed to determine if you are still eligible for financial support from the Care Leavers Service. If not, then you may be referred for support to other partner Agencies like the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) if you are in agreement with this.
If you are on remand, about to leave custody or under any Court Order
Your entitlement to access support as a care leaver remains the same. Including regular visits and planning for your life after custody as part of your Pathway Plan. We will work alongside you, your prison resettlement worker or probation worker to make sure you get the support you need to successfully move forward and/or complete your Order(s).
