Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014: Continuing Care Amendment consultation analysis

Introduction

Consultation summary

The consultation took place over the period 19 December 2016 to 20 January 2017. The public consultation resulted in 13 responses from 10 organisations and 3 individuals. We have published the responses with respect to the handling permissions provided to us.

At initial implementation on 1 April 2015, eligibility for Continuing Care only applied to a single age cohort of care leavers, aged sixteen, to facilitate sustainable service provision within existing resources. This is the second annual amendment to The Continuing Care (Scotland) Order 2015 and is in line with our publically stated policy intention to increase the higher age limit for Continuing Care on an annual basis.

There was unanimous support from respondents to increase the higher age limit for persons eligible for Continuing Care from eighteen to nineteen years of age from April 2017. This ensures the current cohort of young people continue to be eligible as they increase in age and will continue to rise until the duty to provide Continuing Care extends from sixteen to twenty-one years of age. This positive support provided a definite basis for proceeding with laying The Continuing Care (Scotland) Amendment Order 2017 in draft in the Scottish Parliament on 27 January 2017. Subject to final scrutiny and parliamentary approval, the Order is expected to come into force on 1 April 2017.

This Order will mean that Continuing Care applies to those young people in foster, kinship or residential care who ceased to be looked after aged between sixteen and nineteen years of age. Annual increases in the age range will follow until eventually the entitlement to remain in Continuing Care extends up to twenty-one years of age.

The consultation allowed respondents to offer any additional comments on the content of the Draft Order or Continuing Care more broadly. Some respondents used this opportunity so we have summarised the points raised and where appropriate offered a response.

Engagement approach

As this is simply a procedural amendment we followed the same process of consultation conducted last year for the 2016 Amendment Order. Our engagement was proportionately managed by email targeting COSLA, all Scottish local authorities and stakeholders from the child social care sector, including the Third Sector, and Corporate Parents listed in schedule 4 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.