Care leavers given free health services

Care leavers will be given free prescriptions, dental services and eye checks up to age 25 as part of a policy package to tackle health inequalities for care experienced people.

The measures also include a three-year pilot to improve looked-after children’s access to mental health services and action to improve data sharing among health professionals concerning children in the care system.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the NHS would also offer guaranteed interviews to care experienced job applicants who met the minimum criteria for roles and trial providing care leavers with paid internships.

The package is based on recommendations made to the DHSC last year by Josh MacAlister, when he was acting as its social care adviser, before his appointment as children’s minister in September 2025.

Care leaver inequalities ‘a huge social injustice’

Unveiling the plans, the DHSC referenced University College London research, published in 2020, that found that people who had spent time in care from 1971-2001 were 70% more likely to have died prematurely, up to 42 years later, than those who were not care experienced.

This was mainly due to deaths related to self-harm, accidents or mental or behavioural causes.

“The disadvantage faced by children who’ve grown up in care is a huge social injustice,” said MacAlister. “That’s why we’re taking cross government action to transform life chances for these children and care leavers.

“This package of health measures will make a tangible difference to reduce health inequalities, keep more children safe and help more families with intensive support.”

Free NHS services for care leavers

The introduction, this year, of free prescriptions, will benefit many of the approximately 100,000 care leavers aged up to 25 in England. Some will already be eligible for free care due to them accessing certain benefits.

The three-year mental health pilot for children in care follows multiple reports highlighting the group’s poor access to psychiatric and psychological services, despite them being much more likely to experience a mental illness than their peers.

The scheme would involve locating these services within local authority family help teams, said MacAlister, in an interview with Sky News.

Mental health services in family help teams

Councils have been establishing multidisciplinary family help services since 2025, as part of the government’s children’s social care reforms. 

They are designed to support families with multiple and complex needs through an allocated lead practitioner leading a team around the family.

MacAlister said getting mental health support for children in care out of the NHS and into local family help services would “get rid of the assessing and referring and gatekeeping and delays for people who’ve got really severe mental health problems”.

Alerting GPs about children in care

In a post on LinkedIn, MacAlister added that GPs would be automatically notified when one of their patients was in care or on a child protection plan.

The DHSC said that it would introduce a regulation to allow data to be “rapidly shared across health services to make sure the right people have the right information at the right time”.

Besides the action on healthcare, the DHSC also announced plans to boost employment opportunities for care leavers through the NHS.

Care leavers not in education, employment or training

While an estimated 12.7% of 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK were not in education, employment or training (NEET) (source: Office for National Statistics) as of this year, this applied to 40% of care leavers aged 19-21 in England (source: Department for Education).

Under the government’s plans, the NHS’s guaranteed interview scheme, currently available to disabled people, ex-service personnel and those at risk of redundancy, will be extended to care leavers.

This means they will be guaranteed an interview for a job so long as they meet the minimum criteria for the role in question.

Also, the NHS will trial providing care leavers with paid internships.

Measures ‘will help prevent financial hardship’

The Local Government Association (LGA) welcomed the introduction of free prescriptions and dental and eyecare services, describing it as a “positive step to ensure care leavers can access services that help them to stay healthy and well”.

“The LGA has previously called for this to help prevent care leavers from falling into financial hardship when they leave care and to support their transition into independence,” said the chair of its children, young people and families committee, Amanda Hopgood.

“However, care leavers must be supported to access NHS dentistry, as persistent ‘dental deserts’ are deepening health inequalities, particularly in more deprived and rural areas,” she added.

She also called for further action to ease financial pressures on care leavers, including a national government-funded council tax exemption.

The package was also welcomed by charity Family Rights Group, which described it as “an important step to tackle health inequalities and support young people who have had a tough start in life”.