Care Experienced (current and former)

You might identify as being Care Experienced if you have experienced formal care at some point in your life, including:

• at home with social work support
• in kinship care with family or friends
• in foster care
• in residential care
• in secure care
• in adoption

The Scottish Government are currently consulting on the definition of care experienced and this page will be updated to reflect any changes made at a national level.

If you are care experienced, then you may be be entitled to receive advice, guidance and support, including financial support from this local authority or from the local authority where you lived when in care. If it is another local authority, then we will help you make contact with them.

Children’s Hearings

If you are currently involved with Children’s Hearings, please CLICK HERE for information, to ask questions, and access resources.

Continuing Care

If you are currently in foster, kinship or residential care from age 16, you have a right to request that you remain there until aged 21. This might be because this is the place you call home, feel safe and feel supported and that this feels right for you. You might not feel ready to leave care or live independently, and this might not be in your best interests either.

A young person receiving Continuing Care will no longer be defined as ‘looked after’ but will continue to receive the same support.  If the placement cannot be maintained, or if it is in your best interests to start an alternative placement, a welfare assessment must be provided to show why staying in your current placement would significantly negatively affect your wellbeing.

Accessing Continuing Care and ‘Staying Put’ in your current home is known to have a positive impact for your long-term outcomes and supports you to transition when you are ready, rather than because you reach a specific age. If you would like to find out more about ‘Staying Put’ in your current home, please discuss your wishes with your Social Worker or Advocate.

Throughcare and Aftercare

Just as a parent's responsibility for their child does not stop when they leave home, local councils have a responsibility to look out for the welfare of young adults up to age 26, even after they leave its care.

Help and support can include:

• finding the right kind of accommodation, or continuing the care placement
• help getting into college
• help to find work
• help to plan for the future
• help to access financial support, grants bursaries and emergency funds

Above all, we want to prevent you from experiencing poverty, disadvantage and exclusion by improving the support available to you when you leave care.

Financial Support

When you become a care leaver, we can advise you about the financial support you can access. You may be entitled to:

• Accommodation and maintenance costs,
• A one-off grant to help you furnish your property if living independently,
• Universal Credit – which your Social Worker will help you apply for,
• Cost of Living Payments, and
• Financial supports to access work, training and higher education

A birthday allowance is also made available to all care leavers. The amounts are as follows:

• 17th Birthday = £25,
• 18th Birthday = £50,
• 19th Birthday = £25

Learning and Work

We want to help you achieve and succeed beyond education. We can if you wish, continue to work with your teachers, career advisors, youth services and college lecturers to ensure you have the best support possible. 

We have employability programmes to specifically support young people with care experience to progress into apprenticeships.

As an employer, the council is currently working on a policy to guarantee care experienced young people an interview if they apply for a job with the council.

If you want to find out more, email employability@cne-siar.gov.uk.