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

6. Planning

At the earliest opportunity, and well ahead of the young person’s 16^th birthday, young people and their carers should be made aware that Continuing Care is an option. Young people should be encouraged, enabled and empowered to stay in their current home until they are able to demonstrate their readiness to move on.

Planning must be a meaningful process that takes a flexible approach to supporting a young person to move towards independent adulthood. There should be a pathway plan for each young person who ceases to be looked after.

It is critical that planning continues throughout the young person’s time in Continuing Care. With effective planning, Continuing Care will ensure that the young person experiences ongoing preparation and support for transition to independent adulthood, tailored to their individual circumstances, maturity and development, so that their transition does not include a “cliff-edge” at any point.

Planning for moving on from care should be informed by the values and principles of Getting it right for every child using the GIRFEC National Practice Model^[25], as this applies to all young people up to the age of 18. The key values and principles within the GIRFEC approach are:

• Placing the child or young person and their family at the heart, and promoting choice, with full participation in decisions that affect them;
• Working together with families to enable a rights-respecting, strengths-based, inclusive approach;
• Understanding wellbeing as being about all areas of life including family, community and society;
• Valuing difference and ensuring everyone is treated fairly;
• Considering and addressing inequalities;
• Providing support for children, young people and families when they need it, until things get better, to help them to reach their full potential; and
• Everyone working together in local areas and across Scotland to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families.

For some looked after children who have complex needs, planning will require detailed discussion and collaboration by all relevant parties to agree a level of support that meets the needs of the young person and is supported by the carer. All corporate parents have a duty to collaborate in order to meet the needs of looked after children under their Corporate Parenting responsibilities

in Part 9 (Corporate Parenting) of the 2014 Act^[26].

The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004^[27] sets out the responsibilities of education authorities specifically in relation to post-school transition planning for children and young people with additional support needs.