What's a pathway plan?

For eligible children, relevant children and former relevant children a pathway plan must be prepared and continued until the age of 21.

Your wishes and dreams for the future, in terms of where you want to live and whether you want to continue in education or go to work, should be at the heart of your pathway plan. Your views and wishes must be heard and taken into account before any decisions are made about your future. 

The pathway plan must make plans for:

• Your health and development
• Your education, training and employment – what you want and what support you will get to help you with your goals
• Contact with your parents, wider family and friends, focusing on the help they can give you at this time
• Managing your money, including an assessment of what money you need to live on and how good you are at handling money – for example, whether you have a bank account and understand about saving money. This section must say exactly what the local authority is doing to support you financially.

Once you turn 18 and become a ‘former relevant child’ your pathway plan will continue to be followed until you are 21, unless you continue in education or training, when it will be followed until the end of that programme.

The main difference after you turn 18 is that the local authority will not continue to support you with housing and financially. Your pathway plan at this stage must set out what support you can get and how to get it.