There would be a big hole in my life if I didn't have the contact I do
Every year, thousands of young people in England age out of the care system and into a silence where the scaffolding of institutional support collapses almost overnight. The UK government's Finding Family programme, now expanding to 25 local areas with £8.4 million in funding, attempts to answer a question that has long gone unanswered: who will stay? By assigning coordinators to help care leavers build lasting bonds with trusted adults — relatives, mentors, or familiar faces from the care system itself — the scheme seeks to transform what has been a matter of individual luck into something closer to a social promise.
- Young people leaving care face a brutal 'cliff edge' at 18, where institutional support vanishes almost overnight, leaving them three times more likely to become homeless or fall out of education and employment within two years.
- For many care leavers, the absence of lasting relationships — not just services — is the deepest wound; without a web of trusted adults, the transition to adulthood becomes a freefall.
- The Finding Family pilot has shown early promise, with participants forming an average of nearly two meaningful relationships each and over a third reconnecting with estranged family members through coordinated support.
- The government is now committing £8.4 million to expand the scheme across 25 local areas, framing it as part of broader reforms to extend council support for housing and employment until age 25.
- Sector experts welcome the expansion but warn it remains a beginning, not a solution — housing and employment gaps are still critically unaddressed, and the infrastructure to catch young people as they leave care is still being assembled.
Poppie was ten when she entered the care system, spending eight years in a Hertfordshire children's home with no contact with her birth family. When she turned eighteen and aged out of care, two support workers — Brigitte Marshall and her son Reuben — chose to stay in her life. They took her to appointments, helped her choose a college course, and brought her into their family. She calls Brigitte 'mummy Brigitte' now, and in September she will begin training toward a career in healthcare.
This kind of connection is what the Finding Family programme is designed to make ordinary rather than exceptional. Piloted since 2023 and now expanding across England, the scheme assigns coordinators to young people leaving care, whose role is to help them build and sustain relationships with trusted adults — whether estranged relatives, former teachers, or people they already know from within the system. The coordinator does not replace family; they create the conditions for connection to take root.
Mackenzie, 20, found his way back to aunts, uncles, cousins, and a half-sister he had grown distant from after years in a Norfolk care home far from his Hertfordshire family. His coordinator organised a family gathering and helped him navigate the emotional complexity of reconnection. 'I still have trauma from my childhood,' he says, 'but there would be a big hole in my life if I didn't have the contact I do.'
The scale of need is significant. Around 80,000 children are currently in care in England, and the transition to adulthood arrives for most of them as what social workers call the 'cliff edge' — a moment when support stops almost overnight. Care leavers are three times more likely to end up homeless or disconnected from education and employment within two years. During the pilot, participants established an average of nearly two meaningful relationships each, with more than a third reconnecting with lost family members.
The government has now committed £8.4 million over three years to expand the scheme to all 25 participating local areas, alongside broader reforms including more foster placements and extended housing and employment support until age 25. Children's minister Josh MacAlister said too many young people leave care without the lifelong relationships that most people rely on throughout adulthood.
Those working in the sector welcome the expansion while urging caution. Cathy Ashley of the Family Rights Group, which helped develop the model, calls it 'a brilliant start' but is clear that housing and employment support remain critically inadequate. Poppie and Mackenzie are among the fortunate ones — the ones whose coordinators found them people to love them. The question the programme must now answer is whether that fortune can become a guarantee.
Poppie was ten when the system took over. Her relationship with her mother had fractured beyond repair, and she moved first into a foster home, then into a children's home in Hertfordshire where she would spend the next eight years. She had no contact with her birth family. But when she turned eighteen and aged out of care, she was not alone—not because the system had planned it that way, but because two people who worked there had decided to stay.
Brigitte Marshall, 58, and her son Reuben, 24, were support workers at the home. Reuben had been Poppie's key worker, the person who sat with her through her GCSEs and helped her imagine what came next. When Poppie left, they didn't disappear. They took her to medical appointments. They helped her choose a college course. They invited her to family barbecues and trips. She calls Brigitte "mummy Brigitte" now. In September, Poppie will start a health and care course with ambitions to become a doctor.
This is what the Finding Family programme is designed to make routine rather than exceptional. The scheme, piloted since 2023 and now being rolled out across England, assigns coordinators to young people leaving care—people whose job is to help them build and sustain relationships with trusted adults. These adults might be estranged relatives, former teachers, sports coaches, or, as with Poppie, people they've known in the care system itself. The coordinator doesn't replace family. They create the conditions for connection to happen and hold.
Mackenzie, 20, experienced this differently. He spent six years in care after his mother died and his father's involvement became impossible. Placed in a Norfolk care home, far from his family in Hertfordshire, he maintained contact with his father but felt distant from the wider family—aunts, uncles, cousins, a half-sister. His coordinator helped him rebuild those relationships. She organized a family gathering. She created what Mackenzie calls "a safe space" to reconnect. "I still have trauma from my childhood," he says, "and sometimes I need time out. But there would be a big hole in my life if I didn't have the contact I do."
The need is vast. Around 80,000 children are currently in care in England. For most of them, the transition to adulthood arrives as what social workers call the "cliff edge"—the moment when support and oversight stop almost overnight. Young people leaving care receive help with housing, finance, and education. But they receive it as a transaction, not as part of a web of relationships. The result is stark: young people who leave care are three times more likely to end up homeless or disconnected from education and employment within two years.
During the pilot phase, young people supported by the programme established an average of nearly two meaningful relationships each. More than a third reconnected with family members they had lost touch with. The government has now committed £8.4 million over three years to expand the scheme to all 25 participating local areas, with the stated aim of making this kind of support available to every child in care.
Children's minister Josh MacAlister framed the expansion as an effort to help young people "achieve and thrive." "Too many children leave care without the lifelong relationships that most of us rely on for love, support and stability throughout adulthood," he said. The programme is part of a broader package of reforms that includes creating more foster placements, keeping children closer to their home areas, and extending council support for housing and employment until age 25.
But those working in the sector caution that the expansion, while welcome, is only a beginning. Cathy Ashley, head of the Family Rights Group, which helped develop the model underlying Finding Family, calls the rollout "a brilliant start." Yet she is clear about what remains undone. "The state system has fundamentally failed for so long, that is why the outcomes for these young people are so poor." Housing and employment support remain critically inadequate. The infrastructure to catch young people as they leave care is still being built. For now, Poppie and Mackenzie are among the fortunate ones—the ones whose coordinators found them people to love them. The question is whether that luck can become a guarantee.
Notable Quotes
Too many children leave care without the lifelong relationships that most of us rely on for love, support and stability throughout adulthood— Josh MacAlister, Children's Minister
The state system has fundamentally failed for so long, that is why the outcomes for these young people are so poor— Cathy Ashley, head of the Family Rights Group
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does leaving care feel like such a sudden drop-off? Why can't the support just continue?
Because the law treats eighteen as a hard line. You're in the system, then you're not. The funding stops, the oversight stops. Nobody's checking in. It's not malice—it's just how the machinery was built.
And the relationships part—why is that so crucial? Isn't housing and money more urgent?
Both matter, but relationships are what hold you together when things get hard. Poppie has Brigitte. Mackenzie has his aunts and uncles again. When you're alone and something breaks, there's no one to call. With people who care about you, there's a reason to keep going.
The coordinator role—what exactly do they do? Just introduce people?
They do much more than that. They listen to what the young person wants, they find the people who might matter, they help arrange meetings, they create safety around reconnection. Some of these relationships are with estranged family—there's hurt there. The coordinator helps navigate that.
How many young people are we talking about here?
Eighty thousand in care right now. The pilot reached a fraction of them. The new funding is meant to scale it up, but it's still a question of whether the money and coordinators will actually reach everyone.
What happens to the young people who don't get this support?
The statistics are grim. Three times more likely to be homeless. Three times more likely to drop out of education or work. They're adrift in ways that most of us never experience.
So this programme is almost like a safety net that should have always existed?
Exactly. It's not revolutionary. It's just saying: when you leave care, you shouldn't have to do it alone. That should be basic.