Policy as Social Ecological Resilience Scaffolding for Leaving Care

Abstract

This chapter’s authors argue that social policy on leaving care is a critical resilience process for promoting care leavers’ successful transition toward emerging adulthood. Care leaving literature has given limited attention to the wider policy contexts in which care leavers make this transition. This chapter argues for a better understanding of how these contexts can bolster the social ecology of care leaving by providing a policy scaffolding to the support and services required by care leavers. South Africa is used to illustrate the argument, capitalizing on the heightened political sensibilities of a society still grappling with the legacy of apartheid and committed to developmental social welfare as a strategic policy direction. The chapter concludes that the South African case study not only highlights the need to address the policy context of youth transitioning from out-of-home care, but also demonstrates the benefits of cross-national reflection on policy and practice development and implementation.