Consultation on the draft of the Continuing Care (Scotland) Amendment Order 2017

Introduction

Children and Families Directorate
Care and Protection Division

T: 0131-244-7445
E: carolyn.younie@gov.scot

To:
All Corporate Parents
Stakeholder Representatives

Our ref:

December 2016

Dear All

CONSULTATION ON DRAFT SECONDARY LEGISLATION AMENDING THE CONTINUING CARE (SCOTLAND) ORDER 2015

I am pleased to enclose a draft version of The Continuing Care (Scotland) (Amendment) Order 2017, which is the second in the series of planned annual amendment Orders, for your information and to invite any comments.

This draft will further increase the higher age limit for persons eligible for continuing care from eighteen to nineteen years of age from April 2017 to ensure the current cohort of young people continue to be eligible as they increase in age until the duty to provide continuing care extends from 16 to 21 years of age. This relates to powers set out in Part 11 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 ("the 2014 Act").

The Explanatory Notes at the back of the draft Order explain the provisions and are in line with our policy intention, stated during development of the 2014 Act, of increasing the higher age limit on an annual basis. I have summarised this below in Annex A as a reminder of the provisions included in the 2014 Act and what is set out in secondary legislation.

An online version of this consultation is available on the Scottish Government website and please send any comments to me at looked_after_children@gov.scot by Friday 20 January 2017. Unless you state otherwise your response will be made public but if you ask for your response not to be published we treat it as confidential.

You should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and must consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely

Carolyn Younie