Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 part 11 - continuing care: guidance

11. Managing the end of Continuing Care

A young person can choose to leave Continuing Care at any point. If Continuing Care is assessed as the best option for the young person, practitioners should make this clear to them, and should ensure that the young person understands that if they leave the placement the local authority will no longer have a duty to provide Continuing Care.^[42]

The duty to provide Continuing Care ceases when the young person leaves the placement of their own free will^[43]. The local authority can consider other suitable options appropriate to the young person’s needs, including Aftercare under section 29 of the 1995 Act.

Young people from all backgrounds need support when they first start to live independently. Many young people with no care experience find that they need to return to the family home at some point. Local authorities should consider how best to support young people with care experience making the transition to independent living if they need to be re-accommodated. It may be through section 25 of the 1995 Act in alternative accommodation, or if the Continuing Care placement or looked after placement is still available, there is no reason why the young person cannot return to it as accommodation provided under section 29 (Aftercare) of the 1995 Act.

The duty to provide Continuing Care may also cease if the accommodation in which the young person is staying ceases to be available^[44], such as:^[45]

a) in the case of a care placement, where the carer indicates to the authority that the carer is unable or unwilling to continue to provide the placement,

b) in the case of a residential establishment provided by the local authority, where the authority closes the establishment,

c) in the case of a residential establishment provided under arrangements made by the local authority, where the arrangements come to an end.