Widening the Care Gap? An International Comparison of Care Leaving in the Time of COVID-19

Following COVID-19, young people who transitioned to adulthood from different types of alternative care (care leavers) experienced an exacerbation of the challenges they had before the pandemic. The purpose of this international survey was to explore the range of policy and service responses that have or have not been implemented around the world to support care leavers during COVID-19. Responses were collected from care-leaving researchers from 19 countries toward the end of 2020. Half of the participating countries reported that the state had issued directives about measures that should be taken to support care leavers following COVID-19 outbreak, but only three reported actual changes in legislation. Additionally, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in various countries took steps to guide and support care leavers, while two thirds reported on special initiatives that were mounted. The most common change in practices during COVID-19 was the postponement of exits from care, and the second was an increase in contact from workers. These findings are critically discussed in relation to the impact of policy changes on an already vulnerable group. In particular, we indicate that there appears to be a widening care gap: Some countries with stronger leaving care legal and policy frameworks pre-COVID-19 were more inclined to introduce additional supportive measures during the pandemic, whereas some with underdeveloped services tended not to increase the support. By contrast, other countries used this crisis to develop services that were not available before. The creativity and flexibility in the services provided during the COVID-19 outbreak are required on an ongoing basis and thus should be implemented overall. Public Policy Relevance Statement Before the outbreak of COVID-19, care leavers-young adults aged 18 and above who transition to adulthood from different types of alternative care-constituted a marginalized group in every country in the world. During the pandemic, their difficulties were exacerbated. The findings indicate that, while countries that were more progressive to begin with implemented the most policy and program changes and countries that had limited policies and services before COVID-19 implemented limited or no changes in policies and services, some other countries used COVID-19 to spur improvements to the situation of care leavers via unique policy and service frameworks. There is a need to ensure territorial justice by decreasing the gap