Leaving Care Plan NSW: What Happens When a Young Person Turns 18

When a young person in foster care turns 18, their legal status in the child protection system ends. The Department of Communities and Justice no longer has parental responsibility. The caseworker relationship formally closes. The child, legally, becomes an adult — at exactly the age when most 18-year-olds are still living at home, navigating their first jobs, figuring out who they are.

For most young people leaving foster care, that transition is the hardest moment of their lives. The NSW system recognises this, and has built a framework of supports around it. But those supports don't happen automatically — they require planning that must begin years before the young person's 18th birthday.

What Is a Leaving Care Plan?

A Leaving Care Plan (also called a Leaving and After Care Plan) is a formal document that every young person in out-of-home care in NSW is entitled to. Agencies and DCJ are required by policy to begin developing the plan when the young person turns 15 — not at 17, not when the placement is ending, but at 15.

The Leaving Care Plan covers five key domains:

Housing. Where will the young person live after they turn 18? This is often the most critical and most difficult element. Options may include staying with a current or previous carer (Staying On arrangement), transitional housing, private rental, or supported accommodation. For young people without a stable placement or who have had multiple placement breakdowns, the housing situation at 18 can be precarious.

Education and employment. Is the young person enrolled in school, TAFE, or a training program? What are their career goals? What support do they need to achieve educational continuity past 18? The Leaving Care Plan should identify any assistance needed — tutoring, transport, fees, equipment.

Health. Physical and mental health history, current diagnoses, ongoing medication management, Medicare and healthcare card access. Young people leaving care are significantly over-represented in mental health services and substance use programs. The plan should anticipate, not react to, these needs.

Life skills. Can the young person cook, manage a budget, use public transport, navigate Centrelink, renew their ID? These are skills that most family-raised young adults absorb gradually over years. Care leavers often need deliberate, supported skill-building.

Support networks. Who will this person call when they need help? A carer, a mentor, a caseworker, a counsellor? The social support network that most people take for granted often needs to be intentionally built for care leavers.

Why Age 15 Matters

The three-year preparation period from age 15 to 18 is not bureaucratic formality. Research on care leavers consistently shows that outcomes — housing stability, employment, mental health, avoiding justice system involvement — are significantly better for young people who entered Leaving Care Planning early.

Starting at 15 also gives time to address housing. It takes time to explore whether a Staying On arrangement is possible, to apply for transitional housing programs, and to prepare a young person for the practical realities of independent living. Starting at 17 is too late to do this well.

If you are a carer of a young person who is currently 15, 16, or 17, and no one has initiated a Leaving Care Plan conversation with you yet: raise it with your caseworker. This is something you are entitled to expect.

Financial Supports After 18

The NSW system provides a suite of financial supports for young people leaving care and for the carers who continue to support them.

Staying On Allowance. If a young person turns 18 and chooses to remain living with their foster carer (with both parties agreeing), the carer continues to receive the fortnightly care allowance until the young person turns 21. From 1 January 2026, this matches the standard care rate — currently $703.20 per fortnight (the 16–17 year old rate). This is called the Staying On Allowance and is underutilised because many carers and young people don't know it exists.

Independent Living Allowance. For young people aged 18–20 who were in statutory care and are now living independently, there is a fortnightly payment of $276. This is modest — but it is available.

Transition to Independent Living Allowance (TILA). A one-off federal grant of $1,500, administered through Services Australia, for young people transitioning from care to independence. It can be used for furniture, whitegoods, bond or advance rent, or course fees. It requires application through a caseworker or aftercare worker.

Aftercare support. Young people who have left care can access support from the Care Leavers Line until age 25. This includes help accessing historical file information, crisis financial assistance, and referral to community services. The contact point is through DCJ's aftercare program.

Centrelink. Young people leaving care are entitled to Centrelink support payments as eligible adults. They should be assisted to establish their Centrelink relationship before they turn 18 — navigating Services Australia while in a housing crisis at 18 with no prior engagement is significantly harder than setting it up in advance.

The Carer's Role in Leaving Care Planning

Carers are the adults who know the young person best. They are the most important non-professional advocates in the Leaving Care Plan process. In practice, this means:

Participating actively in planning meetings. Don't leave the Leaving Care Plan to the caseworker alone. You know what this young person is ready for and what they are not. You know their anxieties, their aspirations, and their practical gaps.

Having honest conversations early. Talk to the young person you're caring for about what happens at 18. Don't let it be a surprise. If a Staying On arrangement is possible and both of you are open to it, say so explicitly — it won't happen unless both parties have agreed.

Building life skills deliberately. Teaching a teenager to cook, budget, use public transport, and manage appointments takes time. If you start at 17, you don't have enough of it. The care environment itself should be building independence progressively.

Connecting to community. Employment, education connections, mentors, community activities — these social roots are what protect young people after they leave care. If the young person in your care has no community connections beyond the care placement, the Leaving Care Plan should address that.

What Happens if Leaving Care Planning Is Not Done

The research on outcomes for care leavers in Australia is sobering. Young people who leave care without adequate planning are significantly over-represented in the populations experiencing homelessness, unemployment, contact with the criminal justice system, and poor mental health outcomes.

The Leaving Care Plan is not a guarantee of a good outcome — the challenges are real and significant. But it is the system's primary mechanism for not abandoning young people at the exact moment their legal protections end.

For carers, understanding this framework is part of the professional knowledge that makes the difference between doing the minimum and genuinely changing a young person's trajectory.

The New South Wales Foster Care Guide covers Leaving Care Planning in detail — including a checklist of what the plan must include, how to access every financial entitlement, and how to support a young person through the transition from care to independence.

See more Australia guides →