A government-commissioned review has revealed that young people leaving care are dying at a rate up to four times higher than others in their age group. The review found 112 deaths involving care leavers aged between 18 and 24 were reported in 2025, an estimated rate of around 130 per 100,000.
Tragically, 22 of those who died were just 18 years old, more deaths than at any other age covered by the review. The report described the figure as “strongly suggestive of the stark challenges and pressures” faced by young people as they leave care, when they can lose “significant levers of support”.
Personal experience of isolation
Broadcaster Ashley John-Baptiste, who grew up in care and co-led the review alongside social worker Clare Chamberlain, recalled the daunting moment he left his foster family at 18 and found himself living alone in a council flat. He told LBC: “At 18 years old, I was placed into a council flat, and I still remember that moment of having to leave my foster family and live alone in this council flat.
“Couldn’t afford a bed frame, so I had to sleep on the living room floor on a mattress. And being that first night in that flat on that mattress, just the deep sense of isolation and vulnerability.” His experience reflects the loneliness and vulnerability uncovered among some of the young people whose deaths were examined.
High suicide rates
The report described those who died as young people “at the height of vulnerability who were isolated and often very lonely”. It added: “On reaching 18, they faced a dramatic drop in support and received inconsistent and, at times, inadequate help from both children’s and adults’ services. They were alone, with no safety net and with catastrophic consequences.”
More than a third of the 112 care leavers who died, 40 young people, were thought to have taken their own lives. The report said the potential suicide rate among care leavers was five times higher than in the general population. Overall, it found young care leavers aged between 18 and 24 were dying at an estimated rate “about three to four times higher than the death rate in the general population”.
Ashley, who has written a book about his childhood in care, branded it a “national tragedy that so many care-experienced young people are dying so early in life” and described the stories he heard as “heart-breaking”. He said: “These young lives ended far too soon.”
Government response
The findings come as the Government moves to increase the help available to young people after they leave care. £25 million has been announced this year for the Staying Close programme, which aims to help care leavers up to the age of 25 stay in settled accommodation rather than being moved on alone at 18. Those receiving support are also given a named adult who stays in touch and can help with things such as accessing healthcare, education and employment.
The programme currently operates in 47 local areas across England, but the Government plans to roll it out nationwide by 2029. Further changes will come into force from September 30, requiring local authorities to publish how they will support young people leaving care as they move towards independent living. From the same date, a young person who has left care can no longer be found intentionally homeless.
