High time to develop policy and practice for care leavers: Early beginnings in Portugal

Abstract

Several gaps concerning the preparation of care leavers in foster care and residential care are identified at the European level. Most of these gaps are related to care leavers not being prepared to live independently and to the lack of developing common support methodologies and procedures. In Portugal, the situation is particularly worrisome as, among European countries, it has one of the highest percentages of children in residential care. Furthermore, there has been minimal investment in support for care leavers at various levels: national research in the area is limited, support for preparing young people for leaving care is minimal, and specific post-care legislation for care leavers is absent. The “OUTogether Project – Promoting Children’s Autonomy on Alternative Leaving Care” was developed to address some of these issues. The project had three specific areas and target populations: 1) advocating for policy and legislation where professionals and youth who have left care worked together; 2) developing a training programme for residential care staff and 3) developing support services for youth. In this chapter, the authors focus on the first area of action. The advocacy work involved participants working together to analyze, discuss and develop recommendations for the context of care and aftercare. Although there is still a long way to go, this advocacy work has resulted in progresses on legislative and practices changes.The chapter starts with a summary of the OUTogether project and then focuses on the methodology used for the advocacy work. This is discussed as an example of how to improve policy and practice in a country with little support for youth leaving care.