Statutory guidance: Children Act 1989: transition to adulthood for care leavers

Department For Education

February 10

14:33 2025

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This statutory guidance is for:

personal advisers
childrens services social workers
frontline managers who have particular responsibilities for care leavers and looked-after children
lead members in local authorities
directors of childrens services
managers of services for care leavers and looked-after children
commissioners of services for care leavers and looked-after children

This is volume 3 in a series of 5 related statutory guidance publications.

This guidance is issued as part of a suite:

Published 27 October 2010
Last updated 10 February 2025 +show all updates

10 February 2025
Updated the statutory guidance. We now recommend that the setting up home allowance should be a minimum of 3,000. This is in paragraph 8.19.
1 February 2022
Made minor amendments to the guidance for local authorities when responding to Subject Access Requests (SARs) to reflect changes to data protection legislation.
23 January 2015
Updated chapter 7 to include further information on suitable accommodation.
7 October 2014
Added updated version of the guidance document. It now includes a reference to siblings (page 22) and an additional paragraph on not moving a young person during the academic year after their 18th birthday (page 46).
8 August 2014
Updated 'The Children Act 1989 Guidance and Regulations' document.
20 May 2014
Updated guidance added.
27 October 2010
First published.