Tag: care experienced children and young people

Scottish Children’s Services Coalition: Bill provides opportunity to deliver action on advocacy

Dear Editor

It is well acknowledged that too many care-experienced children and young people are not receiving the vital care and support they need to thrive in education, a point further reinforced in a recent report from the charity Who Cares? Scotland for the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland.

This highlighted the need for a whole-school approach to supporting care-experienced children, as well as a requirement for a statutory right to independent, relationship-based lifelong advocacy for all care-experienced people who need it. This aims to ensure that these individuals are aware of their rights and can make informed decisions about their lives.

The latter is eminently achievable, as the Scottish Government’s recent Programme for Government outlined that a Children and Young People (Care) Bill will be forthcoming.

This legislation aims to further support The Promise, produced by the Independent Care Review in 2020, and which is Scotland’s pledge to care-experienced children and young people that they will grow up loved, safe, and respected.

With the Promise Bill now part of the government’s legislative programme, it is time for this fundamental right, as committed to in The Promise itself five years ago, to be enshrined in law.

Too many individuals are currently missing out on the advice and support they desperately need, often when they need it most.

Scotland has an opportunity to lead the way, and the Bill provides the opportunity to deliver action on advocacy.

The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition:

Falkland House School

LOVE Learning

Spark of Genius

Young Foundations

42 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh EH2 4HQ

£11.6 million for looked after children

Funding provided for targeted projects

Programmes to help raise the attainment of care experienced young people are to benefit from £11.6 million of funding – Edinburgh’s share is £1,000,800.

Projects as diverse as mentoring programmes and outdoor and play-based education were supported through the Care Experienced Children and Young People fund last year.

Funding was also used to provide looked after children with laptops to support their home learning during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Local authorities will work with Chief Social Workers and Directors of Education to decide how this year’s funding will be used. Care experienced young people from birth up to the age of 26 are eligible for support.

To help mitigate the impact of COVID-19, local authorities will have flexibility to redirect some of this Care Experienced Children and Young People funding from existing plans to best support the most vulnerable and disadvantaged families, with a continued focus on equity in education.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “Improving the education and life chances of all our children and young people is the defining mission of this government.

“The challenges presented by the current pandemic mean that efforts to deliver equity in education are more important than ever.

“We know that there are still many barriers facing young people in care and that they are not always able to access the same opportunities as their peers.

“This funding will help remove those obstacles and allows local authorities to provide targeted help for some of our most disadvantaged pupils.”