PEER-REVIEWED FINAL EDITED VERSION OF ARTICLE PRIOR TO PUBLICATION

Another care leaver was resourceful enough to make her housing wishes known
when she was offered inappropriate accommodation by her leaving care service.
She recommended to her leaving care team a voluntary organization that had
housing she was interested in, and after this had been looked into as an option
for her, the leaving care team negotiated with the voluntary organization to offer
her a place in one of their London hostels.

Conclusions

This paper has analysed housing pathways for two groups of young people:
those who have been in public care and those who have had difficulties but have
not been in care. The former group usually had access to different resources
than the latter and the young people in the in difficulty group could have been
admitted to care had their difficulties arisen earlier in their lives. In addition, there
is some bias in the way the two groups were recruited. Nevertheless,
comparisons are useful, as they situate the position for care leavers and raise
awareness of the position for other young people.

In this study, care leavers who left prior to the CLCA 2000 reported having
many difficulties with both accessing and choosing accommodation that was
appropriate for them. Through the provisions made available in the CLCA 2000,
for care leavers in this study who left care after this act, transitions to
independence were smoothed by leaving care teams who provided them with
both practical and emotional support. Indeed, leaving care officers were the most

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