Care Leaver Payment: consultation analysis

1 Introduction

1.1 Between 3 November 2023 and 26 January 2024, the Scottish Government carried out a public consultation on its proposals to establish a Care Leaver Payment for young people leaving care in Scotland. This report presents findings from the analysis of responses to the consultation.

Policy context

1.2 In February 2020, the Independent Care Review published a series of reports called The Promise which set out what needed to be done to make sure that all children and young people are loved, safe and respected so that they can reach their full potential. In March 2022, the Scottish Government published its Promise Implementation Plan to deliver on its commitment to ‘Keep The Promise’ for care experienced children, young people and their families by 2030.

1.3 One aspect of The Promise is that all children and young people with care experience should be given the support they need to help them transition from care and move on into adulthood and independent living. It is in this context that the Care Leaver Payment has been proposed.^[1] This payment will be part of a broader package of support which includes, but is not limited to, the Care Experience Bursary and council tax exemption for care leavers.

1.4 Proposals for the Care Leaver Payment benefited from input and discussion with a range of stakeholders, including young people with care experience, and care leavers. The consultation sought to build on these discussions, and to develop and refine the proposals.

The consultation

1.5 The consultation paper on proposals for the Care Leaver Payment was published on 3 November 2023. The consultation was open to the public but was specifically targeted at (i) children and young people with care experience, (ii) those who work with young people in care or support people with care experience – including kinship carers and foster carers, and (iii) organisations and people working in relevant areas across the public, private and third sectors.

1.6 The consultation questions addressed the following topics:

• Purpose of the proposed payment (Q1 and Q2)
• Payment amount and processes (Q3 to Q6)
• Impact of the proposed payment (Q7 and Q8)
• Eligibility criteria, including age and income requirements (Q9 to Q13)
• The application process (Q14)
• The need for support (at the time of application and after payment) (Q15 to Q19)
• Awareness and publicity (Q20)
• Any other issues and / or other financial assistance for people with care experience (Q21 and Q22).

1.7 In addition to the online consultation, the Scottish Government carried out six ‘engagement sessions’, each of which attracted between 5 and 16 participants. Scottish Government officials produced a short report for each session, summarising the main discussion points.

1.8 The consultation closed on 26 January 2024.

About the analysis

1.9 This report is based on a robust and systematic analysis of the responses to the consultation. The work undertaken involved both quantitative and qualitative analysis.

1.10 Frequency analysis was undertaken in relation to the responses to all closed (tick-box) questions and the findings are presented in tables throughout this report. Not all respondents answered all the closed questions, and therefore the total number shown in each table is the number of respondents who answered that question.

1.11 Very occasionally, respondents did not answer a closed question (i.e. they did not tick a box in response to the question), but their comments stated or strongly implied their response to the closed question. In such cases, the response to the closed question was imputed (i.e. added at the analysis stage). Thus, the tables throughout this report include a small number of these imputed responses.

1.12 Qualitative thematic analysis was undertaken in relation to respondents’ comments. The aim of the qualitative analysis was to identify the main themes, as well as the full range of views submitted in response to each question (or group of questions), and to explore areas of agreement and disagreement in the views of different groups of respondents. A thematic analysis of the summaries of the engagement sessions was also undertaken.

A caveat about the findings

1.13 As with all consultations it is important to bear in mind that the views of those who have responded may not be representative of the views of the wider population. Individuals (and organisations) who have a keen interest in a topic – and the capacity to respond – are more likely to participate in a consultation than those who do not. This self-selection means that the views of consultation participants cannot be generalised to the wider population.

1.14 For this reason, the approach to consultation analysis is primarily qualitative in nature. Its main purpose is not to identify how many people held particular views, but rather to understand the full range of views expressed and any concerns that respondents may have. The qualitative analysis also helps in understanding the responses to the closed questions and gaining insight into people’s views.

The report

1.15 The remainder of this report is structured as follows:

• Chapter 2 presents information about the respondents to the consultation, and the six engagement sessions undertaken during the period of the consultation.
• Chapters 3 to 11 present an analysis of the written consultation responses. Note that the findings are not presented in the same order as the questions appeared in the consultation questionnaire. See the table of contents for details.
• Chapter 12 presents a thematic analysis of the key points from the discussions at the engagement sessions.

1.16 In addition, this report includes two annexes. Annex 1 contains a list of organisational respondents. Annex 2 sets out the response rates for each of the consultation questions, with a breakdown by respondent type.