Accessing Care: Health, Hope and Change for Care-Experienced Young People (Pan-London Children in Care Council, NHS NEL ICB)
Partnership for Young London · 2025
This report explores the barriers care-experienced young people face when accessing healthcare services in North East London, drawing on focus groups and interviews with young people and senior NHS leaders. Key findings highlight long waits for mental health services, abrupt transitions at age 18, poor continuity of care, low awareness of entitlements such as free prescriptions, and a systemic lack of care-aware training among frontline staff. Young people reported that services are frequently designed around assumptions of family support, which care leavers often lack. The report makes six recommendations including mandatory care-aware training co-produced with young people, portable records with named coordinators, simplified entitlements, and an unsupported patient pathway for those without family networks.
