How do I sign up to the Care Leaver Covenant?

There are two documents you need to complete to become a signatory. Firstly a ‘Statement of Intent’ form and secondly, a more detailed ‘Proforma’.

Both documents are shared, completed and returned online and the Covenant team is happy to help along the way. Please drop us a line to start the process.

How much does it cost to sign up? Is there a cost associated?

It’s free to sign up to the Covenant – there are no costs associated with becoming a signatory. The Covenant is funded by the Department for Education.

Do you operate in Scotland and Wales?

This Care Leaver Covenant only operates in England.

There is a Scottish Care Leavers Covenant – scottishcareleaverscovenant.org and there are various support services available in Wales – sheltercymru.org.uk.

If you are struggling to find information relating to where you live, please contact us.

What are the benefits to signing up?

Organisation Sign-up means you are reinforcing a framework of support for care leavers in England.

Your involvement can contribute to your company’s Equity, Diversity & Inclusion and/or Corporate Social Responsibility activity.

And, if you utilise your offer to employ care leavers, you will be tapping into a young talent pool that has the potential to grow with your business.

As a signatory, you will also be invited to talks and events relating to the Covenant as well as broader Equity, Diversity & Inclusion themes.

I’m not sure I have a valuable offer, can I speak to somebody?

Yes! We love to talk to our signatories and those considering signing up.

The Covenant team will work with you to craft an impactful offer and promote it to the care leaver community, enhancing the chances of care leavers accessing and benefitting from your opportunities. Please get in touch.

Can our organisation also become a Signatory of the Covenant?

Partners can also become signatories of the Care Leaver Covenant if they’re able to provide a direct offer or opportunity for care leavers that can be promoted to them. Examples could include ringfenced employment opportunities, employability support, life skills and discounted offers.

Click here to become a Covenant signatory.

How will the Care Leaver Covenant work with its Partners?

The CLC will work with partners to record impact on an annual basis with a single point of contact within the organisation in alignment with the agreed proforma.

Partners with aligned or shared goals at both a local and national level will be linked to respective Covenant signatories to enable the take-up of opportunities by members of the Covenant team.

Partners will be invited to take part in relevant national and regional events that promote the work of the Care Leaver Covenant.

How does your organisation work with the Care Leaver Covenant as a Partner?

There are three suggested areas of collaboration which facilitate the aims of the Care Leaver Covenant. ‘Opportunity Take-up’, ‘Awareness Raising’ and Policy collaboration. These areas would form the foundation of your organisation’s offer defined within the completed proforma.

Your organisation is not limited to or expected to define an offer around all three areas.

Opportunity Take-up is defined as how your organisation will promote existing Covenant opportunities and offers to care experienced young people. Particularly, encouraging young people and those who work with them to register for Connects (our direct email and app system).

This could be through social media campaigns or within existing support groups or care leaver hubs and those who work directly with young people.

Importantly, your organisation could directly support care-experienced young people to live independently and therefore be able to enable young people to access Covenant opportunities published through Connects.

Awareness Raising is defined by how your organisation will promote the Care Leaver Covenant wherever possible. This includes your supply chains, through the procurement and commissioning of services or within professional networks that exist within your sector.

Examples of this could include inviting the Care Leaver Covenant to speak at an event or meeting with organisations, businesses or partners that could sign the Care Leaver Covenant and offer opportunities to care leavers.

Secondly, you can directly link prospective signatories to the Care Leaver Covenant engagement team.

Thirdly, you could enhance your social value requirements within your social value action plan to include outcomes for care leavers and an expectation that your partners and supply chain become signatories of the Care Leaver Covenant.

Policy Collaboration is defined as the alignment of your organisation using its influence and leadership to improve outcomes for care leavers within your sector or wider society.

For Unitary Local Authorities, this would include working towards the Covenant’s ‘Whole Council Approach’ Strategy, defined here.

For organisations within the wider public sector, this could include defining policies that improve services and access for care experienced young people.

For organisations in the charitable or voluntary sector, this could include collaborating with the Care Leaver Covenant on projects and programmes of work in environments where care leavers access services and support.

Overall, facilitating a system change approach through applied solutions.

Your organisation will have a named single point of contact that will be the Care Leaver Covenant Ambassador within your organisation promoting the partnership and working with the Care Leaver Covenant to deliver the agreed proforma.