About us

Our aim is to encourage and facilitate inter-generational rebalancing, by providing young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with both the material resources and life skills knowledge they need to achieve their potential in adult life. There are currently two ways that we achieve this:

  1. for young people in care, we work with the Department for Education to operate the Government’s starter capital accounts for young people in care, the Child Trust Fund and the Junior ISA, throughout the United Kingdom; and

  2. for young people generally who were born in the UK between 1/9/2002 and 2/1/2011, we run programmes designed to help them claim their Child Trust Fund accounts from age 16 via https://findCTF.sharefound.org and https://www.sharefound.org/talkCTF

Between 2005 and 2010 we made additional contributions to Child Trust Funds for young people in care: since 2012 we’ve been appointed by the Department for Education to establish Junior ISAs for all children and young people who’ve been in care continuously for over one year, and who do not have a Child Trust Fund.

There’s an initial £200 from the Government to open each account, and one of our tasks is to raise additional money to build that account into a worthwhile starter for adult life, and to provide life skills. Our Stepladder course provides these, including guidance on handling money. It's a vital role in which we also work closely with local authorities, carers and schools and wherever possible we provide it on an incentivised learning basis, as ‘Stepladder Plus’.

In 2017 we were additionally contracted to administer Child Trust Funds for young people in care: this responsibility was transferred to us from the Official Solicitor/Accountants of Court.

This website by necessity addresses some very different audiences:

  • young people themselves;

  • carers, or responsible persons;

  • local authorities, who make the allocation of accounts possible;

  • Junior ISA and Child Trust Fund providers, with whom the accounts are held; and

  • those who want to help us turn these accounts into a meaningful start to adult life, by making additional contributions and providing contacts to help with funding.

The Sharefound office in Aylesbury co-ordinates all of this. Its team of twelve people run operations on a purpose-built system and provides a helpline for enquiries. 

Evidence shows that the large majority of looked after young people want to make the most of their opportunities in adult life and to contribute to their communities effectively. It is our objective to help them to realise their potential.

Websites that we operate include:

https://www.sharefound.org and https://www.CTFAmbassadors.org.uk