Recent years have seen a shift away from youth transitions being understood as a linear progression towards conventional goals. Instead, it is now argued that youth transitions tend to be highly chaotic, often involving non-linear and fragmented movement between dependence and independence. This article discusses how young people leaving the state care system are seldom afforded the luxury of a more gradual and non-linear transition. Instead, for them, the possibilities of adult futures remain marked by chronic and continuing exclusion as they move abruptly into ‘instant adulthood’, with no opportunity to return to the child welfare system should they find themselves unable to make it on their own. Drawing from findings of 30 in-depth interviews with young care leavers, social workers and further and higher education institutions in the UK, the article considers the experiences of young people leaving state care, including their perceived lack of ‘care’, and the importance they place on unconditional and emotional support and contact.

In 2002, the UK Government set the target of increasing participation in higher education to 50% of 18-30 year olds by 2010, with a particular focus on young people from 'non-traditional backgrounds'. In order to increase this participation, a range of initiatives have been introduced in an effort to encourage young people to enter post-16 education. One significant initiative is Aimhigher, which specifically targets lower socio-economic groups and aims to raise the attainment and aspirations of young people. This paper emerges from research conducted in 2008 into post-16 withdrawal rates amongst Aimhigher students in the South East of England. Drawing from interviews and case studies with young people, further education (FE) colleges and schools, the paper argues that students benefit significantly from the intensive pastoral support provided in Aimhigher target schools, but that this is rarely carried over into FE. Although there is often significant pastoral support provided to students in FE, it is often quite disparate from that provided in Aimhigher schools and suffers from low take up. Whilst previous research investigating student withdrawal has focused on individual factors (socio-economic status and ethnicity) or institutional factors (the labour market), this paper highlights the views of young people and argues that, through establishing effective and cohesive mentoring schemes, schools and FE colleges have a substantial role to play in reducing student withdrawal.

This article explores the financial, housing and emotional support provided to 16-19 year old care leavers, studying in further education in England. Drawing from 28 interviews with social workers and further education college professionals the article discusses the accessibility of existing provision in England, with a particular focus on the relationships and collaborative working practices between further education professionals and social work teams. The article argues that despite the individual commitment of further education professionals, the level of support they provide is, in the main, sketchy, reactive and underresourced. Given the significant austerity measures implemented by the ConservativeLiberal Coalition Government, it is now all the more important for both education and social services to adopt a more collaborative interagency approach in order for them to address the complex problems experiences by care leavers studying in further education.

This paper emerges from a study conducted by the author into the effectiveness of a communitybased intervention scheme. The scheme, run in association with a professional football club, provided informal, personalised mentoring and a range of sports-based activities (primarily football) to young people in schools and housing estates in areas suffering from high levels of deprivation in the South of England. The interventions were intended to raise the aspirations of the young people and divert them away from crime and antisocial behaviour. While being mindful of the limitations of mentoring, this paper discusses the value of the positive male role models provided by the informal relationships between the young people and the football coaches and their role in enhancing the self-esteem and self-efficacy of the young people involved.

There is a significant amount of existing research exploring adoption policies, processes, and the experiences and safeguarding of children. However, although much research has children at the focus, little research has been conducted into the experiences of approved and waiting adopters. Where research has included adopters, focus tends to be on how adopters can aid an adoptive placement and what support they can provide to an adoptive child. In this article, the experiences of approved and waiting adopters are at the centre. This article reports on a digital ethnographic research project, which used unobtrusive methods to conduct a thematic analysis of over 600 posts made by waiting adopters on publically available UK online adoption forums in 2015. Online posts discussed the perceived over‐recruitment of adopters; the decision‐making behind adopters' initial preferences; and the negative emotional effects of the waiting period following approval. This article argues that more consideration needs to be given to the needs of and support for approved adopters whilst they wait for an adoptive child.