Through the Investing in Youth country review series, the OECD has analysed in depth school-to-work transitions for a wide range of countries and identified ways to strengthen education, employment and social policies that can help to improve socio‑economic outcomes for young people. A consistent finding of the country reviews was the need for additional support for young people with a high risk of low-quality jobs, persistent unemployment and/or social exclusion. The Updated OECD Youth Action Plan and the OECD Recommendation of the Council on Creating Better Opportunities for Young People stress the need for specific attention to ensure vulnerable young people receive the support they need to thrive in life. However, while general employment, social and other services are more or less widely available in the majority of OECD countries, they are not necessarily tailored to meet the needs of some vulnerable young people, who may furthermore have difficulties in accessing them. As vulnerability often stems from a range of complex factors, collaboration between stakeholders and across system boundaries is necessary.
The OECD therefore decided to focus on one particular group of young people, i.e. care leavers, to better understand their needs and the supports they require, and explore the gaps and challenges of service provision across countries. The choice to focus on young people who were in care out of their homes during their childhood was driven by the compound challenges many of them can face in their transition from childhood to adulthood and by the limited cross-country sharing of good practices. Better evidence‑based understanding of child development and of the needs of specific groups of care leavers has led to improvements in both the quality of care and the supports available for young care leavers in several countries. But too many care leavers still experience unacceptably poor outcomes.
This report explores a range of policy areas and supports that are key for improving care leavers’ transition into adulthood and determining their socio-economic outcomes. It highlights good and promising practices in OECD countries in areas such as leaving care legislation, extended care arrangements, aftercare supports and involving care leavers in decision-making. The report concludes with directions for reform, based on evidence both from the literature and from what countries are learning through their own experiences. The hope is that this report will contribute to the field of care leaving policy and practice internationally, stimulate discussion and reform and support countries to improve the outcomes of the young people leaving their care.
The report was written by Dorothy Adams, Sarah Kups and Martina Garcia-Aisa with contributions from Maxime Ladaique and Hlodver Hakonarson, under the supervision of Veerle Miranda, Senior Economist, and leadership of Monika Queisser, Head of the OECD Social Policy Division. Lucy Hulett prepared the report for publication. We are very grateful to both Robbie Gilligan, Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and Philip Mendes, Professor in the Department of Social Work, Faculty of Medicine at Monash University, Australia, for giving so generously of their time to help the authors better understand the issues care leavers face and the evidence about what works to improve their outcomes. We thank countries who responded to the questionnaire and took the time to review and comment on draft reports.
The OECD gratefully acknowledges financial support provided by Norway, Lithuania and Austria for the preparation of this report.