Championing care-experienced children and young people

Care experienced children and young people will receive further support to improve attainment, attendance and wellbeing throughout their education and beyond.

The Scottish Government will provide £10.5 million to be shared by local authorities across Scotland through the Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund.

Launched in 2018, the funding is provided to local authorities and aims to improve the educational outcomes for care experienced children and young people, supported by the strategic goals of The Promise and the Scottish Attainment Challenge.

The fund has so far provided more than £60 million to deliver initiatives such as mentoring programmes and out of school support.

First Minister Humza Yousaf, said:

“I am fully committed to Keeping the Promise - every single child should grow up loved, safe, supported and respected, as well as being given every opportunity to flourish and reach their full potential.

“Supporting care-experienced young people includes helping them to continue or re-enter education and The Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund plays a vital role in delivering additional support to improve educational outcomes.

“We know it is making a real difference as the latest figures show more care experienced children and young people are staying in school for longer and achieving higher qualifications.

“Improving outcomes for care-experienced young people requires a truly national effort, and the Scottish Government will continue to work with local authorities, schools and others to ensure that all young people in Scotland can meet their full potential.”

COSLA Children and Young People Spokesperson Cllr Tony Buchanan said:

“Local Government is committed to keeping the Promise made to care experience children and young people by 2030. We have welcomed this funding, which councils have used in recent years for a number of innovative approaches responding to the diverse needs of care experience children and young people across Scotland. This has included ‘virtual’ head teacher and mentoring schemes.

“We will continue to work with the Scottish Government, across Local Government and with our partners across the education system to ensure that all children and young people grow up loved, safe and respected and achieve the best possible outcomes.”

BACKGROUND

The Promise is the outcome of the Independent Care Review and was published in 2020. The Scottish Government signed up to all of the conclusions set out in the review and set out the actions we would take in The Promise Implementation Plan published in March 2022. 

The Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund supports people with a care background from birth to the age of 26.

Allocations for the 23-24 Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund are:

Chief Social Workers and Directors of Education at local authorities are responsible for determining how the £10.5 million fund can be used. All 32 councils receive allocations at a rate of £1,225 for each looked after child aged between five and 15-years-old, as based on the 2021/22 Children's Social Work Statistics Scotland

Supporting documents - Education Outcomes for Looked After Children 2021/22 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)