Care Leaver Payment: consultation

1. Consultation Process

1.1 Responding to this consultation

The consultation will run for 12 weeks and will remain open for responses until 26 January 2024.

In order to respond, please use the Scottish Government's consultation hub Citizen Space, which can be accessed online.

You can save and return to your responses while the consultation is still open. However, please ensure that consultation responses are submitted before the closing date above. You do not need to respond to every question.

If you are unable to respond using our consultation hub, please complete the Respondent Information Form and send your responses and consultation questions to careleaverpayment@gov.scot.

1.2 Handling your response

If you respond using the consultation hub, you will be directed to the About You page before submitting your response. Please indicate how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, if you are content for your response to be published. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

If you are unable to respond via Citizen Space, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form included in this document. To find out how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy policy.

1.3 Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, checks will be undertaken to ensure the responses do not contain potentially defamatory material. After this process has completed the responses will be made available to the public on the Scottish Government's consultation hub. If you use the consultation hub to respond, you will receive a copy of your response via email.

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence. Responses will be published where we have been given permission to do so. An analysis report will also be made available as soon as possible once the consultation closes.

There will be a further consultation on the details of the Care Leaver Payment in advance of the use of the regulation-making powers taken in the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill. The use of this power will also be subject to the Bill's parliamentary passage and commencement.

1.4 Scottish Government consultation process

Consultation is an essential part of the policymaking process. It gives us the opportunity to consider your opinions and expertise on a proposed area of work.

You can find all of our consultations online: Scottish Government consultations. Each consultation details the issues under consideration, as well as a way for you to give us your views, either online, by email or by post.

Responses will be analysed and used as part of the decision-making process, alongside a range of other available information and evidence. We will publish a report of this analysis. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:

• indicate the need for policy development or review;
• inform the development of a particular policy;
• help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals; and
• be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented.

While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments. These should be directed to the relevant public body.