Children's commissioner calls for leaving care age to be raised to 25

The call comes after a survey by the Office of the Children's Commissioner found that one in three care leavers felt that they had left care before they were ready for independent living.

The current age for leaving care is 18 for young people in residential care although young people in foster care have the opportunity to stay in care until the age of 21.

Extending the leaving care age would require investment, but would “bring great benefits,” Longfield said.

“When a child reaches 18, a parent would not wave goodbye to them for good and close the door to them, so we shouldn’t do so for children in care, who more than any of us, need a positive springboard for the future,” she said.

The survey, to which nearly 3,000 care leavers responded to, also found that more than half didn’t know why they came into care, and 46 per cent didn’t know how to contact an advocate, a service they are entitled to.

A report based on the survey findings, The State of the Nation Report 1, makes a series of recommendations.

These include children in care keeping the same social workers for longer, children’s views being “systematically sought” in all decisions affecting them, and every child being guaranteed at least one consistent relationship with an adult throughout care and into adulthood.

Enver Solomon, director of evidence and impact at the National Children’s Bureau and co-chair of the Alliance for Children in Care and Care Leavers, said the survey findings highlight "a failure to adequately support children to enter the adult world successfully".

“No loving parent would leave their child to fend for themselves if they didn’t think they were ready to leave home."

He says a reform similar to that in Scotland, where children are now allowed to remain in care until the age of 21, is “long overdue”.