Care Leavers' Month 2025: Sherrie Austin asks, 'Why does care leaver support stop at 25?'

This November, we're proud to celebrate National Care Leavers' month - a time dedicated to recognising the strength, resilience and achievements of care-experienced young people across the UK.

Here at Juno, the views, experience and insights of care-experienced young people are at the heart of all we do. So, to mark Care Leavers' Month, we asked our Non-Exec Director and Expert by Experience, Sherrie Austin, to reflect on a big question - 'why does care leaver support stop at 25?'.

Sherrie shares their honest thoughts and personal experiences of navigating life as a care leaver in a system too often defined by limited support, low aspirations and a lack of stability.

When do we stop?

Often, when I ask the question "does being a care leaver include those over 25?", the response is, “we wish we could offer more support, but when do we stop?”

My question would be, when did you start?

There are so many people leaving the care system having had limited or no support, stability or nurturing from their corporate parents, placements or surrounding support workers. We often leave the system more damaged than when we entered it.

Around 25% of the homeless population are care-experienced. I can’t imagine any other system that chews people up and spits them out onto the street would be allowed to continue with such levels of complacency.

I left care in 2014. I won’t lie, I'm not a massive fan of those statistics. I can’t imagine my child would be either. But, I find myself part of a group who are too old to join many care-leaver groups or access support.

Should care-experienced people be dismissed because we have reached yet another arbitrary marker of adulthood?

At what point does our family abandon us because we have reached a certain age? Or do we love and care for our parents, siblings, friends, even in death?

Towards the end of my third year of university, my mental health was the worst it has ever been. Because of this, I lost my job, my home, and was unable to finish my degree. I was lucky to have a great friend who let me stay with her and who held me through those dark times, but this was before I was 25.

If this is what care looks like, how are we ever supposed to come to terms with our experiences and start to heal from them before we age out of any support? Can we really begin to build a solid foundation that means we won’t be reliant on failing systems into adulthood?

The political rhetoric surrounding benefits is quite a scary one, but this is the life most people in care are pushed towards. If we are lucky, we are supported to access a council home and benefits, taught to manage a small budget and run a house alone.

Where is the hope and aspiration for success? Not learning to navigate a benefits system and manage a small budget, but learning to utilise your finances and build up savings. To connect with local communities and become the change we long for?

This Care Leaver Month, I long for some acknowledgement that the impact of care is lifelong. There is a generation of forgotten care leavers who long to be heard, to make sure the system learns from the mistakes it made with us. If only the system wanted to listen.