Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund: operational guidance 2023 to 2024

Key Principles

• This guidance should be considered alongside the Scottish Attainment Challenge Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress.
• This funding stream is designed to enable local authorities, as corporate parents, to make strategic decisions around how best to improve the attainment of care experienced children and young people from birth to the age of 26, in line with The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. This includes appropriate engagement with agencies and institutions involved in the delivery of services for young people aged 0-26, including working with other corporate parents such as Further and Higher Education Institutions, other national bodies, Early Years providers and post 16 employment, training and education providers.
• The Chief Social Work Officer and Directors of Education should work together, supported by Education Scotland Attainment Advisors to ensure there are strategic plans in place with processes for reporting on impact.
• Local authorities should work in collaboration with each other to ensure the needs of children and young people educated outside the authority who look after them are considered and that appropriate plans and supports are put in place for children and young people in these circumstances.
• Local authorities should consider where the Regional Improvement Collaboratives can support the role of coordinating and supporting activity, or through establishment or participation in networks, such as the Virtual School Head Teacher and Care Experience Team network, facilitated by CELCIS – The Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection.
• The Scottish Government recognises that to improve a child’s attainment support may be required in all aspects of their wellbeing, in line with the Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) approach. The funding should be used in developing new, or supplementing existing supports or initiatives. This activity should address the factors which could impact on the child or young person’s wellbeing and attainment, which are not exclusively within the educational setting.
• This funding must enable local authorities, working in partnership with other agencies, to deliver additional activities, interventions or resources, specifically for the benefit of care experienced children and young people, and/ or to enhance any current targeted provisions. The funding must not be used to replace existing services.
• Funding should be used to enhance care experienced children and young people’s wellbeing, and capacity and/or readiness to learn.
• Decisions around how the funding is used should be made within existing corporate parenting mechanisms and statutory corporate parenting duties, and in line with existing planning processes and procedures. Examples of this include, integrated children’s service planning and strategic commissioning processes.
• Decisions should be informed by robust data and take account of care experienced voices (voices of care experienced children and young people, their families and/or those who know them best) in order to ensure that the use of funds is centred on overcoming the barriers to achieving the best outcomes for their care experienced children and young people.
• Local SAC plans should complement one another and must include ambitious and achievable stretch aims for progress in improving outcomes for all while closing the poverty related attainment gap, as set out in the Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress.
• Local plans and decision making should consider the aspirations of The Promise and show how they are working towards the Plan 21-24.