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Children in Care and Leaving Care

Around 1000 of the children and young people we support in Scotland are care experienced; they are either currently being looked after or are care leavers. We are committed to improving the support that these young people receive, and lobbying for change to the whole care system, to improve outcomes for care experienced young people.

We want to make sure that:

Children come into care at the right time
Children in care have stable and consistent living arrangements
Children in care and young people leaving care have good mental health, are able to form stable attachments and recover from trauma
Children in care and young people leaving care are more likely to gain sustainable employment
Young people leaving care are able to transition successfully into independence

Our work

Our policy work in this area is currently focussed on the independent Care Review in Scotland. We are working with our services to gather evidence on what we think needs to happen to improve the care system, and we are planning a programme of work that will enable the children and young people we support to contribute their voices to this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to influence very meaningful change.

In September 2017, we submitted responses to the discovery phase questions of the Independent Care Review that our frontline staff believe should be considered. Read the full response here.

At the request of the Discovery Group, we also talked to staff about their understanding of love in the care system.

We also gave all of the children and young people we support the opportunity to answer the Review’s questions about what good care looks like and what the care review should focus on. Read their responses here.