Daisy

Obviously you’re... as someone who is in care, you know roughly what people could go into, but because of the law of the care system being very red taped and strict, the situations you’re in, all depends on your entitlement and your situation in care, which for me, I just missed the legal fully care entitlement threshold by three days, which meant that I got the bare minimum of support. So, I had no choice of saying where I went, and it’s also a situation where the support I would receive, once I left, so as soon as my 18th birthday came, wouldn’t be through the care system, it would be through just the general local authority support that every other citizen would get. So, because I didn’t qualify for support under the care system due to the... me not qualifying, so it was very rushed and quite overwhelming, to be honest.

It’s a situation where, in care, every single person in the care system is in a unique situation. Even if your siblings, you will not get identical level of support, ’cause it depends on your individual situation. So, a lot of people don’t realise that, they just think, ‘oh, yeah, you’re all in care, you must all get the same thing.’ Not... don’t work like that. There’s a lot of laws and restrictions to it, and I’m someone who’s had to deal with every single one, basically. And it’s not been good, but it’s gotten me to where I am now. So, like, in the process of being in care, like from when I entered, to when I left, I was also a student, so I was having to juggle my education alongside all the different things I was dealing with. And it... it was hard; it was really, really hard.

So even though I did have a pathway plan, there was nothing really that could be fulfilled out of that due to my entitlement of being in care. So even though I did have a pathway plan with like my basic details of who I was, my interests and my hobbies, the next steps, which obviously for some people would go in that pathway plan, wouldn’t really have been relevant because I have no choice over that. So, it meant that I was just given to a housing charity, and that was that. So, when it did come time for me to move.

Because of the way things were for me, nothing was prepared. The housing charity didn’t really know my circumstances, so it meant that everything, when I did move, was unsuitable. So, for me, ’cause of my disabilities, I am physically disabled, so I can’t be upstairs – I struggle a lot with stairs – but unfortunately that could not have been considered, due to the law. So, I was very informed, but it didn’t benefit me in any way. It was basically, for me, it was: ‘fend for yourself,’ basically, ‘bye-bye, not much we can do for you now,’ type thing.

All I had was a social worker that I saw every three months, and that was pretty much it,—

OK. So, there was...

—to do her checks and: “How are you, [Daisy]? How’s education?” and then just looking through my pathway plan, and then: “bye-bye, see you in another three months.” So even though I did get check-ins, it was more of a situation where the check-ins were ‘because she has to’, rather than support wise, because her whole, her and her whole team knew that they can’t do nothing for me because of my entitlement.

So, prior to my birthday and moving out, I didn’t have a say in where I went, or saw it, and that’s not something I got a choice of because of the legal obligation which the care system didn’t have to me. But usually, obviously, if you do fully qualify, depending on your individual situation, everyone gets to see where they’re going, so in my case I didn’t. No, it was literally: pack up, “See you [Daisy], good luck, good luck for the future, good luck, bye-bye,” I didn’t see anything prior.

So, for me, I don’t qualify for certain things, and she was very honest, brutally honest, to be honest, but she has to because she knows that if she doesn’t, I’ll find out at some point and it would not be the best situation finding out that you’re not like any other care leaver in the house you are in, or just as a whole. So, I had several meetings with my social worker. She basically went through her like assessment paperwork, through different situations, and then... then I just got on with my days until December came, and then when December 1st came, it was a situation where I got a message to say, “[Daisy], you need to start applying for Housing Benefit, you need to apply for all the benefits,” and then when my birthday came, I was moved out. Because of my unique situation, I didn’t know where I was gonna go prior. Obviously you’re... as someone who is in care, you know roughly what people could go into, but because of the law of the care system being very red taped and strict, the situations you’re in, all depends on your entitlement and your situation in care, which for me, I just missed the legal fully care entitlement threshold by three days, which meant that I got the bare minimum of support. So, I had no choice of saying where I went, and it’s also a situation where the support I would receive, once I left, so as soon as my 18th birthday came, wouldn’t be through the care system, it would be through just the general local authority support that every other citizen would get. So, because I didn’t qualify for support under the care system due to the... me not qualifying, so it was very rushed and quite overwhelming, to be honest.

So, for me, like my end goal is I would love to go into radio and have my own radio show for like one of the major like radio stations and stuff.

Uh-huh.

But like when I do leave fully, for me, it’ll be working my way up the ladder: so, volunteering, and then eventually paid work ’cause I don’t... for me personally, because of the way it would detrimentally impact my situation, because of all the things that’s led up to the present time, university would be a nightmare. It... I wouldn’t even get through the first term, it’s that bad. So, for me, higher education just wouldn’t be an option, so it’s just look for work and gain experience.

So, for me, I’m currently looking at the moment, and for me I would start with like volunteering for like a local charity, a local high street charity, and then just gain experience through that.

So, for me, since being in the... this like accessible property with the housing charity, I was only in that property unfortunately for a year, as then I got served with a section 21 no‑fault eviction notice, so it was still fairly traumatic, and of course I was going into the crucial stages of education. I’m now in my final year of study overall, so it was still extremely traumatic, and it’s led to my situation now. So, I got served with a section 21, so that led to me becoming homeless, but then because I was homeless, the council had a duty to obviously house me in circumstances, because I’m disabled. So, I basically went from the housing charity, they literally served me with that and said, “Bye-bye,” literally overnight, no, like, communication, no nothing. Basically from the second property, and from leaving the housing charity, things didn’t go so well for me, things weren’t great, communication was terrible, and to be honest, it was a situation where that housing charity was run off their feet with how many people they’re working with, but then also it’s a situation where they couldn’t provide me with what they knew I needed, so they obviously didn’t wanna say that to me, but that’s basically how it was, so they ended up... the council basically contacted the housing charity to say, “We need properties back, do you have any?” and they chose my property to be given back, so I got served with a eviction note, and then from then I went to a hotel, and then from then I went to another housing charity, and then from the housing charity, then I went on the council register, and now I’m basically in temporary housing with the council. So basically, from the housing charity to now, I moved four times on four separate occasions, still within [County], but dozens of different locations. Like one was 10 months long, one was a year, literally one was one week, so it was just moving from place, to place, to place. Now I’m settled for now, but of course because I’m now officially with the council, I could be moved... I could be moved at any point to maybe my forever home, or it could be more temporary housing.

So, for me, before I was in care, I was in the exact same area as I was in care. So basically, when I left care, I only went around 20 minutes down the road to a different area of [County], but was still in the same county. So, for me, I was in a different area for 12 weeks, like, but then I ended up moving back to the area where my... where my rela... where my family was who I lived with prior to care. So, it was... it was quite traumatic and quite shocking that the system works like that, because in my situation, I went through court proceedings for a family member, my parent, who was physically... like, who caused me physical harm; he is an extremely not a nice person. So, for me, being in the exact same area when I turned 18, I literally moved straight back to that area at 18, straight back to an area where this guy lives. Literally, I was 10 minutes down the road from where he was – 10 minutes down a road. Shopped in the same place because that’s what you have to do. Like, where I... I lived was literally a very small place, so wherever you live in the district, you have to shop in the same place as everybody. You have to do everything in the same place, otherwise you just wouldn’t leave your house. How would you do your shopping? So, it meant that I literally saw him on a daily basis: it caused me severe anxiety, heightened my mental health to the worst possible thing ever.

But then when I was outside at... like when I left the home and turned 18, things got even worse because I wasn’t necessarily prepared for turning 18 and the kind of house I would go into because it was a full‑blown empty property with literally nothing, it was. ’cause usually when you’re in care, when you do obviously qualify for the full package, people get basically what... you get a £2,000 grant for everyone that leaves care and is fully entitled to stuff. So usually your social worker would go shopping with you for things like sofas, beds and all this sort of stuff, which of course where I didn’t qualify for anything in regards to care, for that, I didn’t qualify for the grant. So it meant that everything that I had to buy, I had to basically save up for it and get things second hand and stuff through charities and goodwill of people, which was quite embarrassing, I found, because like I’m a 18‑year‑old person, I’m in care, and I’m having to rely on the goodwill of a housing charity staff who I don’t know, they don’t even know me properly, and I’m having to literally be like a homeless person just because there’s a system out there that I’m a part of, but they don’t wanna care for my needs just because of a few days, so it was hard; it was really hard.

I would probably say that, like, don’t compare yourself to other people when times get tough, because things are always gonna be hard, like, nothing’s easy. You might think that things are going very, very well for you, but then overnight, things can change. So don’t get too comfortable, and always just prepare for things, but don’t over prepare. Like obviously, life is always gonna bring its challenges, but you need to just understand it will get better; it will get better. It might take many, many years and many, many ups and downs, but it does get better, and it does get easier as you get older, and often, the closer you are to leaving care, the easier it gets because the care system isn’t always the answer to all your problems. Like, as much as they will be like showing that they care for you and they really love you, it’s sometimes not always the case. For a lot of them, they are professionals, and they obviously have to show a certain level of care and support for their job, but it’s not always for your best benefit.

Probably I would just say that I just hope that the care system one day changes to benefit everyone fairly, because the current system isn’t doing that. Like, the fact that everyone receives a different level of service, isn’t benefiting people at all. Like, of course for a small minority of people, their care journey is OK – they have little to no issues – but for most people, it’s a traumatic experience and things need to change; things need to change.