Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, July 2001, 16: 155-174

This article discusses a qualitative study that aimed to create an opportunity for young people to voice their issues by listening to eight Pakeha care leavers talk about their experiences in care, at the point of leaving care, and since leaving care. Like their counterparts overseas, it is clear that they carry more than their fair share of emotional, social and scholastic deficits. The author posits that they would benefit from legislative, policy and practice reform aimed at assisting them through a gradual transition to adulthood. The author notes that New Zealand has fallen behind other Western countries in its attention to young people leaving the statutory care services to undertake independent living. These young people comprise a very small and hidden population here, and very little is known about long-term outcomes for them, except that, anecdotally, they seem to begin to have children early, and to struggle to raise them without coming to the notice of child welfare services. Source: Author's abstract