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Good practice Imported

Keep Care Leavers Connected — Digital Device Guarantee Campaign

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Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 85% 48/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Catch22-led campaigning secured a UK pledge of up to 10,000 free devices for care leavers in 2021, but Catch22's own survey of local authorities serving 6,000+ care leavers found 40% delivered none — a cautionary case on funding vs. delivery.

126 GBP million
DfE technology scheme expansion (October 2021)
10,000 devices
Devices earmarked for care leavers and children with a social worker (2021)
40 %
Local authorities reporting zero devices delivered to care leavers (post-2021 survey)
62 %
Care-experienced young people without a working laptop at programme entry (over 4 years)
48 %
Care-experienced young people without home wifi at programme entry (over 4 years)
Keep Care Leavers Connected — Digital Device Guarantee Campaign

Details

Promoter
Catch22 (with the Care Leavers National Movement and National House Project)
Period
2020-present
Keywords
care leavers, digital poverty, devices & connectivity, youth services, England

Context

In 2020, as pandemic-era digital exclusion intensified, Catch22 — with the Care Leavers National Movement and the National House Project — warned that roughly 80,000 care leavers aged 18-25 in England could not afford the internet access or devices needed to stay connected to support, education and employment.

Objectives

The coalition lobbied government to extend its 'Get Help with Technology' scheme, until then focused on schoolchildren, to guarantee devices and a year of connectivity to every care leaver on first living independently.

Activities

In October 2021 the Department for Education responded with a £126 million expansion of the scheme, earmarking up to 10,000 devices specifically for children with a social worker and care leavers, allocated to local authorities partly by the number of care leavers they supported. Catch22 subsequently surveyed local authorities covering more than 6,000 care leavers between them to check delivery.

Results

The survey found that 40% of responding local authorities reported none of their care leavers had actually received a device through the scheme. Catch22's own employability programmes illustrate the underlying need: across 621 care-experienced young people supported over four years, 62% did not have a working laptop and 48% had no home wifi when they joined.

Conclusions

The campaign continues to call for a statutory guarantee — a device and 12 months of free connectivity for every care leaver in England — rather than a one-off, unevenly delivered grant, making this as much a case study in implementation gaps as in campaigning success.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — £126 million DfE scheme expansion (October 2021), with up to 10,000 devices earmarked for children with a social worker and care leavers specifically.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Campaign began 2020; funded device allocation announced October 2021; advocacy for a statutory guarantee continues beyond that one-off tranche.
Staffing & skills
Catch22 policy/campaigning team, Coalition partners: Care Leavers National Movement, National House Project

Conditions for success

  • Coalition of care-experience-led organisations lobbying with a specific, costed policy ask
  • Use of primary survey evidence (covering 6,000+ care leavers via local authorities) to hold the funded scheme accountable

Common failure modes

  • 40% of surveyed local authorities reported delivering zero devices to their care leavers despite the national £126m/10,000-device allocation — a significant funding-to-delivery gap
  • The device allocation was a one-off 2021 top-up rather than a statutory, renewable entitlement, so continuity is not guaranteed

Where it fits

Governance type
national government scheme (Department for Education) shaped by third-sector advocacy
Scale
national (England)
Income level
high-income country, targeting a specific vulnerable population (care leavers)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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