Accommodation options for 18 year olds

After your 18th birthday, we could arrange for you to carry on living with your current foster carers. This is called ‘staying put’. It means you can stay in familiar surroundings and make use of the continued support from your foster carer. It’s also a chance to develop your independent life skills, like becoming more independent around money, looking after yourself and cooking.

You might feel ready to live independently with very little support. As a care leaver you’ll get priority when bidding for council housing. We’ll talk to your leaving care coach to ensure that any decision about independent living is in your best interest.

When you turn 18 you might decide you want to move back to live with your parents or other family members. They would also need to agree to this. You must think about this very carefully to make sure that you’re ready to do this and that you’ll be safe.

You may want to talk to your leaving care coach, a close friend or trusted adult before making any decision.

If you go back to your family and things don’t work out, you can still get support from our Leaving Care Service. Just let us know.