Turning 18 Does Not End Vulnerability: What the Care Leaver Review Must Teach Us About Safeguarding
“Every care leaver should have someone in their corner.”
That is the message emerging from a government-commissioned independent review into the early deaths of young people who had left care and behind the policy announcements and investment is a deeply important safeguarding message:
Independence should never mean isolation.
The review, led by Ashley John-Baptiste and Clare Chamberlain, examined the stories of six young people who died between the ages of 18 and 24 after leaving care.
Its central finding was stark: young people leaving care can experience profound isolation, with independence sometimes resulting in loneliness and nobody close enough to recognise when things are beginning to go wrong.
In 2025 alone, 112 deaths of care leavers aged 18–24 were notified to the Department for Education.
The estimated mortality rate was around three to four times that of other young people of the same age.
These are figures that safeguarding professionals cannot ignore.
The cliff edge at 18
One of the issues highlighted by the review is the significant reduction in support that can occur when a young person reaches adulthood.
This is something safeguarding professionals across many sectors will recognise. At 17 years and 364 days, a young person may be surrounded by children's services, education professionals, carers and other support. Then they turn 18, their legal status changes, their vulnerabilities do not necessarily change with it. Trauma does not disappear, exploitation does not stop, mental health needs do not automatically improve.
The need for trusted relationships does not end. Yet our systems can still operate as though adulthood is a safeguarding finish line.
It isn't.
From transition to Transitional Safeguarding
This review reinforces why we need to think much more carefully about Transitional Safeguarding. Young people do not move neatly from childhood vulnerability to adult independence overnight.
For care-experienced young people in particular, the transition into adulthood may coincide with enormous changes:
leaving a placement or familiar home;
moving into independent accommodation;
changes in professional support;
starting employment, training or higher education;
managing money and bills;
navigating relationships;
managing previous trauma; and
losing regular contact with trusted adults.
Looked at individually, these may appear to be normal aspects of adulthood. Looked at together, they can create significant vulnerability.
That is why safeguarding must consider the whole person and their context, rather than simply whether they meet a particular service threshold.
Someone needs to notice
Perhaps one of the most powerful lessons from this review is the importance of relationships.
Policies matter.
Procedures matter.
Housing matters.
Services matter.
But so does having somebody who notices.
Someone who realises that a young person has stopped attending.
Someone who asks why their behaviour has changed.
Someone who follows up when they don't answer.
Someone who notices that their accommodation isn't working.
Someone who asks another question when “I'm fine” doesn't quite feel right.
Someone who remains professionally curious.
Safeguarding so often happens in these seemingly small moments.
Corporate parenting must mean something in practice
The Government has also announced an expansion of corporate parenting responsibilities, with more public bodies expected to consider the needs of care leavers when designing and delivering services. This is significant but corporate parenting cannot simply become another governance statement.
Organisations need to ask:
If this were our own young person, would we consider this good enough?
Would we accept them being placed somewhere isolated?
Would we assume that because they haven't asked for help, everything is fine?
Would we allow them to disappear from a service without anyone following up?
Would we accept multiple agencies each holding one piece of information without anybody seeing the whole picture?
Would we expect them to navigate complicated systems alone?
Corporate parenting needs to translate into relationships, curiosity, persistence and action.
This matters far beyond children's social care
Care leavers interact with organisations across society.
Further education.
Higher education.
Apprenticeships.
Employers.
Housing providers.
Healthcare.
Jobcentres.
Probation.
Charities.
Community organisations.
Each may see only one part of that young person's life. This is why safeguarding knowledge cannot sit solely within safeguarding teams.
A tutor noticing repeated absence, a housing officer seeing a deterioration in someone's home, an employer recognising a sudden change in behaviour, a healthcare professional understanding the wider context. Any one of these interactions could provide an opportunity to notice that someone is struggling.
What should organisations consider?
This review should prompt organisations working with young adults to ask:
Do we understand Transitional Safeguarding?
Do our systems recognise vulnerability beyond the age of 18?
Would staff recognise when apparent “independence” might actually be isolation?
Do we consider care experience when assessing vulnerability and risk?
Are staff confident in using professional curiosity rather than waiting for an explicit disclosure?
Do different teams and agencies share information effectively when concerns begin to emerge?
And perhaps most importantly:
Who is in that young person's corner?
Beyond compliance: safeguarding is relational
The Government has announced £25 million this year to begin the national rollout of strengthened connected housing options for care leavers.
Investment and structural reform are important but one of the strongest messages emerging from this review is much more human.
Young people need relationships.
They need continuity.
They need belonging.
They need people who notice when something isn't right.
Effective safeguarding cannot only be about responding when somebody reaches a threshold for intervention. Sometimes it is about recognising the gradual accumulation of vulnerability before crisis occurs. Turning 18 changes someone's legal status but does not automatically change their needs and no young person leaving care should have to navigate adulthood entirely alone.
Safeguarding must not simply prepare young people to become independent. It must ensure independence never becomes isolation.
Resources
Read the Press Release here