‘You really are on your own’ is the title of a newly published review into the deaths of care leavers in England in 2025. These are the words of a young person, as told to reviewers Ashley John-Baptiste and Clare Chamberlain, when reflecting on the awful reality of being left, unnaturally, at a very early age to live alone. The Office for National Statistics reports a growing trend for adults remaining at home – 29% of adults aged 20 to 34 years lived with parents in 2025 compared with 25% a decade before. Yet, for the most vulnerable children and young people for whom the state is their corporate parent, living alone is commonplace and can start as young as age 16.
Once they have officially left care – or, more aptly described by many care experienced people, once care has left them – the most significant subsisting support comes via a personal adviser who is legally required to visit them at intervals of not more than two months. Imagine that – only seeing your teenage daughter or son six times a year. A footnote in the review report quotes from statutory guidance which stresses, “It’s important to understand that these are minimum requirements”. As we all know, what’s specified in law as the bare minimum often becomes the norm in overloaded systems.
John-Baptiste grew up in care and knows first-hand what needs to be fixed. He states in a foreword, “nothing could have prepared me for the heartbreaking stories we have encountered”. Chamberlain is an experienced social worker. I qualified as a social worker 38 years ago and now practise at the Bar where my work includes representing bereaved families at the inquests of children in care and care leavers. I never, ever get used to the desperate plights of children and young people who, despite being or having been in the care of the state, effectively stand (or stood) alone.
The review documents the 112 care leavers aged 18 to 24 who died in 2025, and the additional 11 children aged 16 and 17 who died as care leavers or as children in care, most likely living in supported accommodation – an arrangement whereby the state has designated that a child it is responsible for requires support only, but no day-to-day care. Through compelling case studies, we learn of the short lives of Michael, Janey, Nicky, Abraha, Kieron and David, with families and professionals variously reflecting on what could have helped them stay alive.
Of the 112 young adult care leavers who died in 2025, suicide is identified as likely for more than a third (36%). It appears that suicide similarly accounted for the deaths of one-third of the children in care and care leavers aged 16 and 17.
Among the review’s recommendations is a call for a “major national review” of those who support children in care into and through their early adult lives. I suggest the Law Commission could be asked to undertake this review with a specific emphasis on ensuring the local authority parenting role endures for as long as is needed at an individual level, and that it provides continuity and stability in care, protection and support. Why must care leavers who are still living with childhood traumas, the effects of bereavement and parental separation as well as the iatrogenic needs that arise from the care system itself (including being uprooted from home to home, area to area) seek out help from adult social care? Why does the care system, that is meant to be a young person’s corporate parent, fade into the background or disappear from their life altogether once they enter adulthood? John-Baptiste and Chamberlain praise Solihull Children’s Services for having a single looked after service for those aged 0-25 and rightly ask “why can’t others?” Why stop at 25?
Five years ago, I attended the funeral of a dear friend who had been taken into care as an infant for his own protection. Let’s call him Christopher. I was Christopher’s social worker when he was in primary school. He died aged 39 in dreadful circumstances. Two other women, a former residential care worker and a past head of service, also attended his funeral. But there was nobody there officially representing Christopher’s corporate parent. Neither did anyone attend his inquest. I have no idea whether anything was ever said or done within the local authority to contemplate and learn from his premature and preventable death (the Director of Children’s Services knew about Christopher’s death since I made contact in search of the two former employees who had been so important to him).
Today’s report states that local authorities should be ‘interested persons’ in the inquests of care leavers. That would help secure an important degree of accountability and, critically and optimistically, be a continuing catalyst for learning and change. There’s no reason why such a requirement should stop at age 24. If a system is to be designed to truly care for and about children as they grow into adults, then it should be there for them forever across the best and worst of times. Just like loving parents are.