Care Leavers’ Week 2023 – let’s celebrate Defence’s care leavers

Join Defence in celebrating National Care Leavers' Week 2023.

Who are ‘care leavers’?

A care leaver is someone who has spent a specified amount of time in the care of a local authority – such as in a children’s home or with foster parents – up to or older than the age of 16.

To find out more about care leavers, watch the short animation below:

Support and opportunities for care leavers in Defence

Many care leavers make a successful transition to Defence, where they develop and apply their skills to make a real impact. To help them do that, Defence offers a range of financial, emotional, and career support. But in order for care leavers to benefit from this support, they first need to know that it exists and where to find it.

Check out the recent improvements to care leaver support:

How is Defence supporting care leavers?

Having appropriate support and access to training is crucial. Over the years, Defence has made many improvements to care leaver support, information, and guidance.

Here are a few examples:
 

• The Care Leavers’ Working Group collaborates with various policy teams and the Armed Forces Families and Safeguarding (AFFS) team on how to better reflect the needs of care leavers in Defence policy. 
   
• The Care Leavers Internship scheme gives care leavers a chance to benefit from a 12-month paid internship in a central Government department or agency, which can be extended or made into a permanent role. 
  
  Defence has been supporting the scheme since 2018. To date, Defence has offered 23 placements to care leavers in the civil service, and nine of them have had their Fixed Term Appointments (FTA) made into permanent roles. In this year alone, the scheme has identified seven care leavers to potentially take up a FTA in Defence.