Caring for our children and young people: corporate parenting update 2018 to 2021

Chapter 8: Corporate Parenting Activities of National Bodies

Introduction

In this chapter we review the corporate parenting activities of national corporate parents in Scotland between 2018 and 2021. In total, 28 corporate parents were considered as national bodies within this chapter. From those 28 national bodies, 21 returned survey responses. This chapter therefore focuses on the activity of those 21 organisations.

There is significant variance in the size, remit and focus of the national bodies. Many of them provided comprehensive, detailed and considered returns, with strong evidence of activity across all corporate parenting duties. This was particularly evident from those corporate parents whose daily work relates specifically to care experienced children and young people, who naturally have many more activities and impacts to share. For example, Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS), the Care Inspectorate or Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA). Other national bodies, such as Accountancy in Bankruptcy or Independent Living Fund Scotland are at the beginning of their corporate parenting journey. Some bodies such as Police Scotland, Creative Scotland, Disclosure Scotland, Education Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) have a wider remit but were still able to report on specific work they do to support care experienced children and young people.

For many bodies, activity centred around engaging with and listening to the voice of children and young people. Many have progressed well in this area, whereas others have more work to do to understand the needs of children and young people, as well as understand their specific role in the duties. Many national bodies do not provide direct services to children, young people and families, and as such, some of those struggled to fully understand and fulfil their role as a corporate parent.

One positive found across the majority of returns was a willingness to engage with and listen to children and young people. Another positive was evidence of collaboration between national bodies and local agencies, whether they be local authorities, education institutions or health bodies. There was a sense of many corporate parents doing their best to fulfil their responsibilities, in circumstances made more challenging by COVID-19. Any successes, innovation and collaboration should be celebrated; however, where possible and appropriate, constructive challenge is also provided in order to ignite ideas and creative thinking about how to make further improvements to support care experienced children and young people.

Alert

It is the duty of every corporate parent to be alert to matters which, or which might, adversely affect the wellbeing of children and young people.

Many national bodies presented a nuanced understanding of the needs of care experienced children and young people, demonstrating strong activities around awareness raising, training and corporate governance. For many, this involved collaboration with other corporate parents or partnership work with organisations such as Who Cares? Scotland or CELCIS. For funding organisations such as Creative Scotland or Sports Scotland it meant funding or commissioning other partners to carry out research or project activity which strengthens understanding of children and young people’s needs. A small number of national bodies presented little or no activity, highlighting a need for greater focus in fulfilling this duty.

Activities

Training and Awareness Raising

Most national bodies provided evidence of training and awareness raising to support staff to understand the needs of children and young people. This included a range of activity, such as:

• In-house training and development
• Partnership working
• Funding or commissioning other organisations or care sector partners to carry out research or information-gathering
• Training to managers and senior leaders
• Encouraging staff to volunteer with mentoring organisations
• Building understanding across staff teams of their role as corporate parents
• Incorporating information about corporate parenting responsibilities in induction materials for staff

Spotlight

The Care Inspectorate Corporate Parenting group worked with Who Cares? Scotland and the Care Inspectorate young inspection volunteers to develop and deliver training for staff, including all board members and senior leaders.

Policy Scotland collaborated with Who Cares? Scotland to develop bespoke training, which is mandatory to complete for all police officers up to Inspector or equivalent. This training package provided information on their responsibilities as corporate parents, with first-hand accounts from care experienced young people. This training provided staff with insight to how care experienced people experience their service and the common perceptions of police officers. This training package has been completed by 14,400 staff across Police Scotland.

Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) staff have been encouraged to participate in a mentoring scheme for care experienced children and young people run by the Edinburgh based charity ‘Move On’, with support for staff such as time off in lieu for training provided.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has delivered awareness training in partnership with Who Cares? Scotland to their board, leadership team and colleagues on Corporate Parenting responsibilities and experiences of care experienced young people. This face-to-face training has been supplemented by an online resource centre providing colleagues with educational materials that can be used to influence and inform the work they deliver.

Social Security Scotland developed an e-learning course that is mandatory for all staff to complete. The course was launched in October 2020 and has received positive feedback.

Activities

Collaboration and Liaison with Stakeholders

Many national bodies showed strong evidence of collaboration with other corporate parents and services that support children and young people. Many of these collaborations were done with other national partners and cross-sector forums. There was also evidence of high-impact work taken place at a targeted, local level.

Collaboration included the development, monitoring and publication of a joint corporate parenting plan or report. It also included:

• Sharing information
• Providing advice or assistance
• Co-ordinating activities
• Sharing responsibility for action
• Funding activities jointly

Evidence of collaboration was demonstrated by the majority of national bodies and was, for the most part, one of the main strengths of their survey returns. Much of the collaboration was carried outwith other corporate parents, including many other national bodies. For example, Children’s Hearing Scotland (CHS) and the Scottish Children’s Reporters Administration (SCRA) naturally working closely together, or Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and Social Security Scotland working in partnership. Some of the more innovative collaboration was carried out locally, with national bodies such as Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and SQA engaging with local Champions Boards.

Spotlight

Disclosure Scotland described how existing relationships have been fostered with key corporate parents including Education Scotland, Police Scotland, Care Inspectorate, Skills Development Scotland (SDS), and Scottish Social Services Council. These relationships enabled Disclosure Scotland to collaborate, share contacts and best practices but also be aware of matters that may affect services for care experienced people.

Members of SQA’s Corporate Parenting Steering group participated in a number of corporate parenting forums to keep informed about the issues which impact on the life of care experienced young people, including representation on the Glasgow Corporate Parenting Forum, Scottish Funding Council Care Experienced Governance Group, Edinburgh corporate parents Group, and Midlothian Champions Board.

Each year SQA share the exam timetable with Children Hearing’s Scotland to ensure CHS can avoid Children’s Hearings clashing with SQA exams. They aim to develop stronger links with SCRA to monitor and measure the impact there might be in considering the exam timetable and are keen to explore further collaboration between SQA and SCRA.

Most national bodies provided evidence of the impact that collaboration provided, describing activity that improved services for care experienced children and young people, or helped the organisations(s) to fulfil their duties as a corporate parent.

Activities

Increased participation with care experienced children and young people to better understand their needs

In preparing (or revising) their plan, corporate parents must consult with other corporate parents, and any other organisations and persons that they think relevant (Section 59(2)). This includes looked after children and young people and care leavers. Similar to their responses to each of the six duties, national bodies presented a mixed picture of participation here.

Many bodies such as SCRA, CHS and the Care Inspectorate, whose services have a very direct role with care experienced children and young people, were able to demonstrate embedded participation approaches that had impact at a strategic and operational level. Other bodies such as SQA and Creative Scotland, used partnerships and networks to facilitate engagement with care experienced children and young people. This included partners such as Who Cares? Scotland, local authorities Champions Boards, CELCIS, MCR Pathways, Move On and Glasgow Life.

Spotlight

The Care Inspectorate consulted widely with care experienced young people in the development of the Health and Social Care Standards and in the review of their complaint functions. To improve accessibility for children and young people to complain about the care service they receive, a ‘text to complain’ service has also been launched.

Articulate Cultural Trust (on behalf of Creative Scotland) undertook a mapping exercise of where projects were being delivered specifically for care experienced young people, finding that care experienced young people face systemic barriers to accessing creative opportunities and to progression within artform areas.

In March 2018, the Scottish Prisons Service (SPS) updated their electronic Prisoner Record System to include a condition marker that enabled staff to identify care leavers. During initial assessments of those in custody, SPS staff would ask the relevant questions of an individual to ascertain if they are a care leaver, and if confirmed via their local authorities, the electronic system would be marked affirmatively. These changes have enabled SPS to identify care leavers via interrogation of the electronic Prisoner Records System and ensure that they are offered advice, guidance and assistance they are entitled to, including aftercare.

Activities

Increased participation with care experienced children and young people to better understand their needs

Other national bodies with a less direct corporate parenting role, such as Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, evidenced a real willingness to engage directly with care experienced children and young people; including having open days and fun activities for children and young people to take part in. Others used their role as a regulatory, funding or oversight body to deepen other corporate parents’ understanding of care experienced children and young people’s needs. Others made attempts, with mixed success, to engage care experienced children and young people through seeking feedback on their corporate parenting plans and activities. Some, however, spoke of difficulties in engaging directly with children and young people.

Many spoke about upcoming plans around participation, or of activity that had to be curtailed due to COVID-19, so there should be an expectation of greater evidence of participation activity during the next reporting period.

Spotlight

SCRA worked with groups including Champions Boards, ‘Our Hearing, Our Voice’, Hearings-Experienced Modern Apprentices to ensure information on their website is accessible, rights-based, and child and young person friendly.

Police Scotland have established corporate parenting champions in all 13 local policing divisions, who work closely within their community and local authorities partnerships. This has allowed Police Scotland as a national organisation to be receptive to local community needs and be alert to the needs of care experienced young people through local engagement partnerships. Examples included:

• In Edinburgh the Youth Justice Sergeant and Young Person Liaison/Missing Person Co-ordinator have daily meetings with Residential Care Home Managers
• In Dumfries and Galloway, they have introduced the role of the Link Officer, who attends all care homes on a fortnightly basis

The Care Inspectorate young inspection volunteers have contributed to the Cares Inspectorate Corporate Parenting report, Corporate Parenting plan for 2021-2023 and to the responses noted within this survey.

Assess

It is the duty of every corporate parent to assess the needs of those children and young people for services and support it provides.

Many national bodies demonstrated a strong understanding of the needs of children and young people, which was evidenced through robust frameworks of data collection, policy work or participation activity. A number of national bodies also evidenced strong participation and engagement activity with children and young people. Some of this activity is outlined in this chapter; however, additional participation activity is shown across other duty chapters, highlighting the cross-cutting benefit of this work.

Activities

Creating opportunities to learn from children and young people

Many national bodies demonstrated a wide range of creative, fun and relationship-based opportunities to help develop their understanding of children and young people’s needs. Some activities included:

• Engagement and consultation of diverse groups of children and young people
• Commissioning or partnership work with other agencies to assess the needs of children and young people
• Opportunities for children and young people to contribute to national policy development
• Opportunities to contribute to service improvement work

Spotlight

CHS consulted with young people from ‘Our Hearings, Our Voice’, LGBT Youth Scotland Youth Commission on Care Experience, Reach for Autism and Inverclyde Proud To Care, SCRA Modern Apprentices to inform a number of improvements to the new types of Hearings held during COVID-19.

Social Security Scotland added specific questions to their Client Survey in order to gather data on the experience of people with care experience who have applied for and received a benefit outcome. The first Client Survey published in March 2021 included responses from over 100 people who had care experience and the findings were then used to contribute to their Equality Impact Assessment process.

As part of development of the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020, Disclosure Scotland created specific engagement opportunities to understand how best to meet the needs of care experienced people. This included members of Who Cares? Scotland, children in secure care, residential care and a range of other young people groups. This engagement provided invaluable feedback on proposals and helped shape the Act.

Activities

Data Collection, Analysis and Monitoring Improvement

National bodies demonstrated a range of innovative data collection methods and analysis frameworks in order to increase their understanding of the needs of children and young people.

Often this this involved developing, collating and reporting against specific indicators to identify care experienced children and young people accessing their services.

For others, this activity involved collaborating with other corporate parents to design data collection processes and systems in order to assess and better understand need. This included multiagency working as well as direct engagement with children and young people.

For organisations such as Social Security Scotland, this activity was to help frame their planning as a relatively ‘new’ corporate parent.

Spotlight

SDS host the 16+ Data Hub through which information on 16 to 24-year-olds that can be shared securely between partners, including local authorities, colleges, the Scottish Funding Council, SAAS and the Department for Work and Pensions. Details include, for example, expected school leaving dates, where young people intend to go after school, whether this be into a job, Modern Apprenticeship, college or university, and information on those who are receiving career services and welfare benefits. Use of the Data Hub allows SDS to work with partners to accurately identify care experienced young people, ensuring they receive a targeted service without relying on them to continually self-disclose.

Police Scotland collaborated with multiagency partners to test an idea for change aimed at reducing the criminalisation of care experienced children and young people. The pilot was initially tested in Dumfries & Galloway Division and was used as an opportunity to incorporate the extended adoption of the ‘Not At Home’ missing person protocol. The pilot changed the way in which Police would ordinarily deal with incidents involving children and young people in a residential care home setting. Protocols were put in place to respond differently to behaviours that could be considered as low-level crime and children missing or not at home. A number of positive results have been recorded from this pilot, including a 62% reduction in recorded crime of a minor nature within the care homes.

Scottish Legal Aid Board’s applicant research questionnaire includes a question inquiring as to the care status of the applicant, which allows them to capture data on the numbers of care experienced people accessing legal aid. It has increased knowledge about the number of care experienced applicants which will be used to inform policies and advice to government; increased staff awareness of corporate parenting; and begun to provide an evidence base for the policy making process.

Independent Living Fund Scotland flag records of care experienced young people on their internal database to monitor how many applications they receive.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessment process has been amended to incorporate the assessment of the potential impact on the grounds of being care experienced and being in a position of providing care. This means that every relevant corporate decision the organisation takes is assessed for its impact on care experienced children and young people.

Promote

It is the duty of every corporate parent to promote the interests of those children and young people.

Many national bodies displayed commitment and creativity to promote the interests of children and young people. For those larger bodies with a more direct role in supporting children and young people, a wealth of activity was demonstrated. For others, activity under this duty was more mixed. A small number of national bodies did not evidence any activity under this duty. Some of the most positive activity demonstrated under this duty came from national bodies who used their specific remits as funding, oversight or regulatory bodies to develop unique or innovative ways to promote the interests of children and young people.

Activities

Promoting and encouraging opportunities for care experienced children and young people

Some national bodies used their role as a corporate parent to encourage innovative opportunities for children and young people. Some of these opportunities were working directly alongside children and young people, whereas others were using their remit as a funding, oversight or regulatory body. Examples included:

• Assessments and inspections
• Awareness raising events
• Thematic reviews or strategic scrutiny
• Professional guidance or support to the care sector

Some of the more positive activity here showed evidence of creative or innovative thinking, with corporate parents challenging themselves to create new ways of reaching children and young people. Scottish Fire and Rescue Service offering drop-in sessions for young people was one such activity. Police Scotland designed a ‘pledge’ of minimum standards of support from police for care experienced young people up to the age of 26.

Other positive activity here related to the use of art and creativity in order to engage young people, but also to develop resources or service improvements.

Spotlight

The Care Inspectorate published ‘My World Outdoors’ in 2016, and together with the Scottish Government published ‘Space to Grow’ in August 2019 and ‘Out to Play’ in February 2020. These resources support the development of outdoor play and outdoor-based provision as part of the funded expansion of early learning and childcare. Eight care services have now evidenced outdoor-based work.

The Care Inspectorate also published ‘My Creative Journey’ in 2017, which encourages creative play (art, drama, pretend play, music and song, model making, loose-parts play, storytelling and dance). Emoji characters for the SHANNARI wellbeing indicators were used as a way of bringing the indicators to life for children. Two care services have since evidenced how they are encouraging creative play in their service.

Between 2018 and 2020 Education Scotland’s inspections of schools and centres identified approximately 1900 pupils as care experienced. A sample of the key messages taken from the safeguarding self-evaluations returned by inspected establishments include how schools ensure pupils can access clubs and activities through funding such as the Pupil Equity Fund; Assessments and plans in place for care experienced children and young people such as wellbeing assessment plans, child’s plans, individualised education programmes, additional support plans and risk matrices.

Creative Scotland commissioned CELCIS to lead on one of the programme strands for UNCON 3.0 in January 2021, a creative symposium showcasing work that discussed the impact of COVID-19. The content produced by CELCIS showcased interviews and creative work from talented care experienced artists, sharing their work and their views on the importance of creativity to them and how creative opportunities should be supported during COVID-19. Their programme showcased work from organisations such as Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum (STAF), Aberlour, Children’s Parliament, the Good Shepherd Centre, Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ), The Sound Lab and Articulate.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service support local groups and Champions Boards through walks and keeping in contact online through watching films, playing board games and bingo, as well as arranging online drop-in sessions where young people can pop by for an informal chat.

Activities

Direct Delivery of corporate parenting training to others

Some national bodies used their expertise to provide training and skills development to promote the interests of care experienced children and young people. Examples includes:

• Direct training opportunities for care experienced children and young people
• Training and support to other organisations supporting children and young people

Spotlight

Education Scotland support the work of CELCIS’s Education Forum and their Virtual Schools and Head Teachers Network often providing presentations or resources. Education Scotland also regularly share research articles, professional learning resources through their newsletter.

Independent Living Fund Scotland (ILF) developed staff awareness on the subject of corporate parenting to make sure staff promote benefits for care experienced young people. For example, on the principles of corporate parenting, ILF Scotland’s responsibilities and the ILF Scotland action plan.

SQA’s corporate induction programme now includes information about SQA’s Corporate Parenting responsibilities, commitments and the services they offer to support care experienced children and young people.

Activities

Sector Support

Some national bodies used their remit as support or oversight organisations to create resources, training or guides to improve the practice of other organisations who work with care experienced children and young people.

Several national bodies provided examples of innovative practice or collaboration with other corporate parents or services that support care experienced children and young people, or with care experienced young people directly.

For some, this activity is part of their daily work (for example Education Scotland providing support to the education sector) whereas others, such as Scottish Fire and Rescue Service activity, was thinking of their corporate parenting responsibilities in more creative ways.

Activity here included:

• Creating online and paper guides informing others of how best to promote the interests of care experienced children and young people
• Facilitation of training
• Partnership work
• Consultancy support
• Direct work with children and young people

Spotlight

Disclosure Scotland collaborated with Who Cares? Scotland’s advocates to inform how Disclosure Scotland could better assist the young people they work with to understand disclosures. These activities have helped advocates to support care experienced people apply for a background check to help them in seeking employment, education or volunteering. These tools have helped employers to use the disclosure information that they receive to create safe and fair recruitment practices and assist individuals to disclose convictions in a confident and positive way.

Education Scotland worked in partnership with the University of Stirling and stakeholders to encourage and embed participation throughout schools and early-years settings. The How Good is Our school? Series produced in collaboration with schools, local authorities, colleges and organisations that represent children and young people across Scotland, was designed to support educational settings to engage children and young people in self-evaluation and improvement in ways that enhance learning. Both these resources are essential toolkits for engaging with care experienced learners to ensure that their experience of school helps to inform future improvements.

Education Scotland supported the Scottish Government with data and reporting to help inform the impact of the Care Experienced Children and Young Peoples Fund’s (part of the Attainment Scotland Fund). This capacity building activity has been supported by Education Scotland Attainment Advisers supporting local authorities with data and evidence around this specific group of learners.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service worked in partnership with Morrisons to deliver food parcels to the care experienced community, as well as collected care packages for care experienced children and young people.

Care Inspectorate young inspection volunteers represented the organisation on the Independent Care Review Stigma working group, giving them an opportunity to share their thoughts and to speak on behalf of care experienced children and young people they work with. They helped to influence important change that will benefit many children and young people in years to come.

Skills Development Scotland’s Business Team have created a best practice guide for learning providers and employers working with care experienced customers, and their corporate website includes a section for businesses on the barriers that care experienced young people face in accessing employment.

Education Scotland host the National Improvement Hub, the Professional Learning and Leadership website and Parentzone, provide comprehensive information, guidance, reflection tools and professional learning that promote the interests of care experienced children and young people. The resources support practitioners and parents with their understanding around the issues that affect care experienced children and young people, and these are constantly being updated. All resources are accompanied by a suite of questions for practitioners to help them to reflect on both the challenges facing care experienced learners and how they can contribute to improving the educational outcomes and wellbeing for these learners.

Opportunities

It is the duty of every corporate parent to seek to provide those children and young people with opportunities to participate in activities designed to promote their wellbeing.

National Bodies were asked how they had helped to bring about opportunities for care experienced children and young people. Some of the more positive examples demonstrated strong evidence of collaboration with other corporate parents, as well as a willingness to engage directly with care experienced children and young people. For many, this extended to participation work with care experienced children and young people to help bring about improvements to their own services. For others, activity centred around their response to supporting care experienced children and young people through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Activities

Skills Development Opportunities

Responses included a number of initiatives to provide opportunities for care experienced children and young people to learn and develop new skills.

Some of these opportunities were vocationally skill-based, whereas others were opportunities for care experienced children and young people to engage in recreational and leisure opportunities.

SQA, in partnership with Who Cares? Scotland and local authorities, supported two care experienced young people to attend a seven-week residential programme at Harvard University’s Summer School in 2019. Both young people achieved the full credits for the courses they were studying.

CHS have provided opportunities for care experienced people to sit on interview panels, contribute to advisory and working groups, and provide feedback on work and publications.

The Care Inspectorate have been running four development days each year where their young inspection volunteers take part in learning around topics they have identified are needed. For example, training around interview skills to help young inspection volunteers find out more information from young people in a care setting. Other training has included children’s rights, transgender awareness, Corporate Parenting and champion’s board awareness.

During 2019, Police Scotland worked in collaboration with Scottish Fire and Rescue service to develop training and engagement programmes that were provided to young people in secure and residential care. This included sessions on drugs, violence, rights and responsibilities, fire safety and driver safety.

Activities

Art, Creativity and Play

Innovative and creative practice that has provided care experienced children and young people to engage with:

• Art and creativity
• Music
• Sport
• Play
• Events
• Fundraising activity

Spotlight

Creative Scotland invited 20 regional and national organisations to apply for awards of between £30k and £70k to help the recovery of youth arts activity across Scotland from October 2020. From 20 successful applications, 7 projects for this fund identified care experienced young people as a priority group to work with.

Helping to mark Year of the Young People 2018, SCRA invited care experienced children and young people to contribute to a window display, during Care Experienced Week in Glasgow. Key partners Glasgow City Council Arts in the City and Articulate Cultural Trust supported the children and young people to produce a variety of creative pieces, named ‘Art in the HeART of the City’.

Sports Scotland, as part of their Highlife Highland work, collaborated with a range of partners including Who Cares? Scotland, Cashback Highlands videography, Active Schools, and facility managers to deliver a project delivering outdoor activities for 18 care-experienced young people to reconnect through sport and outdoors activity. From a survey of participants, 90% of attendees strongly agreed that the adventure day helped them to meet new people and feel a sense of belonging.

A Police Scotland Campus Officer for Ayrshire College worked exclusively with groups of care experienced young people for one day per week throughout January and February 2020, taking small groups off campus to experience outdoor activities such as kayaking.

Creative Scotland commissioned Articulate Cultural Trust to host a series of four full-day consultation events with participatory artists and arts organisations who were interested or already working with care experienced young people. Short films of the 2019 sessions are shared here: www.articulatehub.com/training.

Activities

Mentoring, Internships and Modern Apprenticeships

Several bodies have created opportunities to gain paid work through mentoring or internship programmes. These provided opportunities for care experienced young people to work alongside staff, as well as enabling them to gain valuable experience, paid work and career support.

Others provided staff with opportunities to take part in mentoring schemes for care experienced children and young people.

Spotlight

SQA worked with MCR Pathways to support a group of young people from local schools to undertake work experience in SQA’s Customer Contact Centre, as part of their Talent Taster programme. SQA also encouraged staff to take up mentoring opportunities with MCR Pathways. SQA also have 12 active mentors across SQA supporting Care Experienced young people.

The Care Inspectorate has continued to invest in the young inspection volunteer programme. The scheme has 15 volunteers who go along on inspections and talk to the children and young people about their experiences. Young inspection volunteers play a vital role in working with the inspectors, making sure that the concerns of young people are understood and taken seriously.

Social Security Scotland took part in the national internship programme for people with care experience. Who Cares? Scotland delivered learning to managers, to support those who will be managing care leavers. The two interns were successful in securing permanent employment on completion of the programme.

SCRA run a successful Modern Apprenticeship scheme, having helped employ 13 young people over a 10-year period. This has supported them to acquire a recognised qualification (SVQ) in Business and Administration, provided pastoral care and support and offered long term employment opportunities and additional educational programmes if requested. The majority of the candidates are now full-time permanent employees in the organisation. One of the modern apprentices, Sophie, has written a blog about the experience www.mycorporateparents.co.uk/2018/01/25/blog-sophie.

Access

It is the duty of every corporate parent to take such action as it considers appropriate to help those children and young people to:

• access opportunities;
• make use of services, and access support, which it provides

National bodies presented a mixed response to activities they had undertaken to support or improve access to their services. Many described how they provided opportunities for care experienced children and young people to take part in their organisational work. Others described how they had made attempts to make their services more accessible to children and young people. Some bodies described broader work that related to all children and young people, but which was described as having positive impacts for care experienced children and young people. Some did not respond to this question or provided little information to analyse.

Activities

Accessing Opportunities

National bodies created a number of different approaches to help care experienced children and young people access opportunities.

For some this included participation opportunities for care experienced children and young people to engage with their organisation.

Some bodies, such as SQA, SDS, Creative Scotland and Education Scotland described how they had used their remit as oversight, funding or regulatory bodies to improve the services of others.

Spotlight

Creative Scotland Hosted the Firestarter Festival event in February 2020, Connecting Culture & Care. Delivered with Starcatchers charity, the session explored how to support care experienced young people to exercise their right to access and participate in the arts and culture and how creative approaches can be integrated into this support. The event included a practical session of some expressive arts approaches and had input from the Care Inspectorate on the role of the arts-based approaches in their work for the Stand Up for Siblings campaign.

Skills Development Scotland’s ‘Next Steps’ service ensures that those who do not initially make a successful transition from school to a positive destination are provided additional intensive coaching support to do so. While this support is primarily targeted at people aged 15–18, the offer is extended to 26 years for those with known care experience as part of their corporate parenting commitments. In 2018/19, 97% of senior phase pupils and 75% of Next Steps customers with known care experience received coaching guidance from SDS, with 84% and 65% respectively showing an improvement in their career management skills.

Skills Development Scotland worked with Scottish Government to extend enhanced contribution rates for care experienced modern apprentices up to the age of 29. This reflects the fact that care experienced young people may take longer to make sustained positive transitions, may require more attempts to do so, and therefore may require a longer period to access and sustain a suitable Modern Apprenticeship. There were 92 applications made in 2019-20 for care experienced Modern Apprentices.

Activities

More inclusive and trauma-informed settings

Some national bodies provided evidence of where they have improved their own services and activities to make them more accessible to care experienced children and young people. Activity here included:

• Development of child-friendly resources
• Support to other corporate parents and organisations who work with care experienced children and young people
• Development of materials and guides to support practitioners

Spotlight

CHS have produced Panel Member Profiles to try and make the Hearing experience as comfortable as possible for children and young people. These images of the panel member allow children and families to see in advance who the panel members in their Hearing are and learn something about them, therefore increasing familiarity.

Disclosure Scotland established a programme of sessions with practitioners to support people with convictions (Turning Point, Barnardo’s and Grace Chocolates). They have helped to provide education to employers, people supporting people with convictions and care experienced people to informing them about their services.

SCRA’s Hearing Rooms Improvement Programme led to approximately 10 new Hearing rooms being redesigned. These rooms have transformed the nature of the traditional Hearing format and allowed for less intimidating more inclusive environments.

In Edinburgh, all police incidents involving children in residential care are discussed at daily managers’ meetings. Training, advice and guidance has been provided to frontline police officers and care staff on the importance of not criminalising young people for behaviours which, if they happened in a child’s family home, would not involve a parent calling the police. This has led to a reduction in offending.

Education Scotland have been supporting schools and local authorities across Scotland with professional learning and direct support. This process is affording educational establishments more confidence and skills to provide learners, including those with care experience who previously struggled to access the curriculum, more flexible options that more appropriately meet their needs. Some examples include: Flexible Learning Pathways Case Study – Sanderson High School or Attachment Theory and Practice.

SCRA have been working with Who Cares? Scotland to make information more accessible and improve how to deal with requests for information from care experienced people. They have launched a new suite of materials to make it easier for people to understand how to make a request to SCRA to access their information.

Activities

Learning from Care Experienced Children and Young People

Some demonstrated how they had created opportunities to learn from or engage directly with care experienced children and young people.

Spotlight

Since 2018, the Care Inspectorate have met over 3,000 children and young people to learn about their experience of care and used what they have told us to inform inspection reports and support improvement.

SCRA developed a resource pack for practitioners to use with young people on areas they were keen to hear from them about in relation to virtual hearings. Our Hearings, Our Voice, The Fostering Network, and Aberdeenshire’s Young People’s Campaigning Group all took part.

Activities

Access in the context of the COVID-19 19 pandemic

Some bodies, in particular SCRA, described their approach to responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Spotlight

SCRA used a secure online platform Vscene, to hold Children’s Hearings, ensuring that legal protections remained in place to consider children’s needs.

Improve

It is the duty of every corporate parent to take such other action as it considers appropriate for the purposes of improving the way in which it exercises its functions in relation to those children and young people.

For the Improve duty, national bodies reflected on their activities as a corporate parent to help bring about improvements for care experienced children and young people. Many national bodies spoke about ways in which they strengthened internal planning, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, to measure progress and efficiency as a corporate parent.

Activities

Monitoring and Evaluation

A range of improvements to monitoring, evaluation and data capturing was evidenced. For several bodies, this was an opportunity to think critically about how their own service is accessed by care experienced children and young people, and where improvements need to be made.

Spotlight

On an annual basis, SCRA publishes a one-year Corporate Parenting Plan and an Annual Report, both of which are written for young people. These are accessible and informative online documents that tell young people what they have been working on and have achieved in the past year.

Skills Development Scotland have introduced recording of care experience data for employees within the organisation. This is to identify if care experienced people are taking up opportunities, thus helping to refine and improve their approach, and highlighting where additional support and resources may be required. In their 2019 employee survey, 81% of colleagues who identified as care experienced agreed that SDS was a supportive employer.

Activities

Accountability

Some national bodies noted activity that outlined how they made themselves accountable to the care experienced children and young people they support. This was done through a number of different mediums, including:

• reports (paper and online)
• internal audits
• training materials
• online resources

Spotlight

SCRA produces an Annual Report for young people each year. This is an accessible and informative online document that tells young people what they have been working on and what progress has been made against the commitments made in their corporate parenting plan. SCRA have also committed to Our Hearings, Our Voice with progress updates against their 40 calls to actions.

The Scottish Prison Service developed an eLearning product to support all staff to have a clearer understanding of the role of a corporate parent and their obligations to support and assist those that identify as care leavers.

The Scottish Prison Service have designed an annual corporate parenting audit to support establishments to evidence their commitment, via reporting, of their corporate parenting responsibilities. This will provide greater confidence in their ability to identify care leavers and thereafter improve their opportunities and awareness as to refer them to their corporate parenting partners who provide services for them.

Activities

Practice Development and Improvement

Some national bodies used their role and remit as corporate parents to challenge practice development, both internally and with other corporate parents.

Particularly positive activity here involved some corporate parents reaching out to specialist partners (e.g. disability organisations) to help understand how to improve services for specific communities of care experienced children and young people. It is also positive to see evidence of the involvement of children and young people in many of these service improvement areas.

Examples include:

• Internal improvements to services
• Development of training materials
• Internal response and reflection on the Independent Care Review Promise
• Improvements to qualification frameworks

Spotlight

SCRA worked with the Scottish Government to ensure information about national advocacy services for children and young people is available in multiple formats, including a website and leaflets, all of which SCRA designed and delivered. This ensures that children and young people are increasingly aware of their rights to bring an advocacy worker to their Children’s Hearing and are supported in exercising their rights during the Hearing.

SQA made changes to their replacement Scottish Qualifications Certificate (SQC) service to remove barriers and ensure any care experienced learner (26 years and under) could make a request for a replacement certificate without charge as quickly and as easily possible. This is following awareness that care experienced learners were often not receiving their certificate after moving placements and changing address.

Skills Development Scotland have designed and introduced a range of resources for training providers delivering their apprenticeships and other programmes, specifically focused on identifying need and supporting individuals who have a care experience background. SDS delivered workshops to providers covering recruiting care experienced young people, and advice on how to ensure the appropriate support is put in place for the young person. When asked to evaluate these workshops, 96% of participants said they would recommend the training to someone else. In written feedback, participants also highlighted they would integrate learning into their everyday working practices and share their learning with colleagues.

SSSC have worked with Police Scotland and Social Work Scotland to create a training programme for carrying out joint investigative interviews.

Education Scotland have established collaborative partnerships with a range of national, regional and local working groups, other corporate parents, relevant national networks and third sector organisations to engage in professional dialogue with, give advice to, and influence the priorities of other agencies.

SCRA worked with REACH> for Autism to produce sensory kits to be available in all Hearings rooms to support children and families with sensory needs. These tools can help children in situations of anxiety to self-regulate, focus and support participation.

Sport Scotland host a network of over 400 managers and coordinators dedicated to developing and supporting the delivery of quality sporting opportunities. As part of these networks, they host specific sessions for teams to pass on learning for engaging young people with care-experience. This includes how they determined the young person’s needs, what action they took and what they learned.

Activities

Governance

National bodies demonstrated changes to their business planning and corporate governance to develop a stronger internal understanding of the needs of children and young people. These activities were aimed at improving processes around monitoring and reporting of corporate parenting duties. Examples include:

• Incorporating corporate parenting into business planning, strategic groups or corporate objectives
• Adjusting the focus of internal working groups in areas such as equality, diversity and inclusion to also consider care experience.
• Adopting ‘care experience’ as a protected characteristic in their planning
• design and structure of corporate parenting groups and leadership groups.

Spotlight

SQA has made a commitment to care experienced young people in its Corporate Plan to ensure that as part of their operational planning, activity teams will continue to consider and meet their responsibilities.

Sports Scotland have integrated care experience into their equality impact assessments and guidance. This ensures care-experienced young people are given the same priority as the protected characteristics within the equality legislation, when assessing their policies or programmes.

Scottish Legal Aid Board’s (SLAB) applicant research questionnaire includes a question inquiring as to the care status of the applicant. This is aimed at increasing knowledge about the number of care experienced people accessing legal aid.

Accountancy in Bankruptcy have put in place a corporate parenting working group with a focus on more local engagement and plans to help promote the activity of other SG corporate parents.

Skills Development Scotland has established a cross-directorate monitoring group which meets regularly to review progress against the implementation of commitments made within their Corporate Parenting Plan. This reviews progress against a range of data sources including apprenticeship participation statistics.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has a Corporate Parenting Working Group which supports the delivery of the Corporate Parenting Plan and its actions. The Group reports to the Good Governance Board and includes annual performance updates to their board. ‘Care experienced’ has been added to the equality monitoring process on Scottish Fire and Rescue internal system to assist in informing their policies and approach.

In Summary

With such variance in the size, remit and focus of national bodies, it is perhaps unsurprising that the survey returns demonstrate a similarly varied picture of corporate parenting activity. Whilst some with a less direct role struggled to wholly fulfil their role as a corporate parent, many others were able to evidence strong activity. Some other national bodies work alongside care experienced children and young people daily and had many positive examples to share. Whilst there are many good examples, improvements can still be made in key areas such as participation, collaboration and in promoting the interests of care experienced children and young people. Irrespective of remit, the strongest returns illustrated a willingness to engage with and listen to care experienced children and young people, think innovatively in respect to understanding their needs, and be creative in providing opportunities.