Home | Latest News | Early adopters of North Central London’s Care Leavers Pathfinder Programme

News | Elisha Jadav | 30 June 2025

Early adopters of North Central London’s Care Leavers Pathfinder Programme

North London Partners Shared Services (NLPSS) partnered with North Central London (NCL) Integrated Cared System (ICS) and other partner organisations to deliver the North Central London Care Leavers Pathfinder Programme. Care experienced young people are among the most vulnerable groups in society with lower outcomes in education and employment than their peers.

Paving the way for brighter futures

NCL ICS is a pathfinder organisation, part of NHS England’s Universal Family programme (also known as the Care Leaver Covenant) which first launched in January 2023. The NCL Pathfinder programme is designed to proactively support young people, aged 16-26, with care experience, in accessing education, training, and employment within the health and social care sector. NCL ICS collaborated with colleagues in NCL boroughs and the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector to co-develop this programme.

We are proud to have taken an early role in this programme, which aims to inspire and support care experienced young people with meaningful opportunities that can help shape brighter futures.

An introduction to NHS corporate services

When thinking about jobs in the NHS, young people may not be aware of the range of non-clinical roles available, and the many jobs offer through corporate services teams. That’s why the NLPSS team was pleased to offer a placement and host a young person to gain hands on experience and insights into how we manage and deliver essential shared services for NHS employees working across our partner sites. The young person worked in our recruitment team during their placement.

Danielle Sprott, NLPSS Hiring Team Service Manager, shared:

‘‘The Care Leavers Pathway is a great initiative that provides young people from diverse backgrounds with the opportunity to develop essential skills in a real workplace environment. It serves as a valuable stepping stone, offering participants first-hand experience within the NHS and helping to prepare them for the transition into working life. This exposure can also open the door to potential long-term career opportunities within the NHS.’’

Shaping the role of a model employer

Hosting a young person was an incredibly rewarding experience for our teams. We were also able to feedback to the ICS to build on learnings for future cohorts going through the programme, and to equip employers with all the tools to best meet the needs of the young person with them, and help them to fully thrive.

Reflecting on the Pathfinders programme, Alyson Lewis, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer at NLPSS, shared:

‘‘The care leavers pathway is an exemplary programme on how to work in partnership across the borough to offer young people, regardless of their backgrounds, valuable work experience. The pathway offers the young person an opportunity to develop skill sets that they can use both inside and outside of the workplace, along with insights into the wide range of career opportunities that are available across the NHS.

‘‘Working with young people in this way has been an important reminder that they are our future. NLPSS is an active contributor within the NCL care leaver pathfinder programme and we will endeavour to offer additional work experience placements.’’

We are proud to support this impactful programme, partnering with NCL ICS and other organisations in the NHS, VCSE, local authority and education to make a difference.