Procedures when young people leave care — Views of 111 Swedish social services managers

In western societies, there is a general tendency towards a protracted transition to adulthood for young people, who thereby may become increasingly dependent on support from family. Young people leaving a placement in out-of-home care often lack such support, and will thus have a disadvantageous position compared to their peers. With the purpose of looking into the procedures when young people leave a placement in out-of-home care, telephone interviews were performed with 111 managers of social service units in two Swedish regions (West Sweden, and Stockholm Region), using a structured interview schedule. Answering rate was 99.1%.Only 6% of the managers had information of the young people's whereabouts once they had left care. 86–88% had general support programmes for all young people concerning housing, employment etc. but only 2–4% had specific programmes for young people leaving care. A majority of the managers were attentive of the difficulties the young people leaving care may encounter, but displayed little awareness of the consequences of a prolonged transition to adulthood, and the need for continued support after leaving care. Several managers referred to the general support of the Swedish welfare state, meaning that young people leaving care had the same access to support as all other young people in Sweden. Consequently, young people leaving care are at risk of being invisible in the welfare system and facing a compressed transition to adulthood.

► Few local authorities had elaborated programmes or routines for care leaving.
► Many small municipalities had few young people in care, which made it difficult to organise elaborated programmes for care leaving.
► Manager’s expected a rapid and linear transition to adulthood. Little awareness of the yo-yo transition pattern common for other young people.
► Managers were worried that continued contact with social services would lead to young people being dependant on support.
► Only 6% of managers had any information of young people’s whereabouts, once they had left care.