Since 2015, care experienced young people in Scotland have been entitled to accommodation and support to help them make the transition into adulthood. In certain circumstances, young people have the right to stay in care up to the age of 21 and are entitled to care support up to the age of 26. The law says that young people should be encouraged, enabled, and empowered to remain in positive care settings until they are ready to move on.
However, Clan Childlaw’s work with care experienced young people has shown us that these rights are not always being respected or realised. In reality, many care leavers are not being provided with the support they are entitled to and are forced to transition to independent adult life before they are ready. This can have devastating consequences, including an increased risk of homelessness for care experienced young people.
For this year’s Care Experienced Week, we wanted to highlight the different ways we are working to protect the rights of care experienced young people.
Legal Services
Most of our clients are under 18, but we work with care experienced young people up to age 26. Our lawyers are experts in care leavers rights and housing rights, and we’re here to make sure those rights are upheld.
Get in touch if you, or someone you know, needs our help.
Training
We offer training about the legal rights of care leavers to other lawyers and to those who support children and young people, including advocacy workers and support workers. We provide up-to-date information about the law in a practical and accessible way, with a focus on how the law can be used in practice to improve the lives of children and young people.
See our current training courses for more information. If you would like training on a different topic please get in touch on training@clanchildlaw.org.
Policy & Practice
Clan is working to raise awareness of the issues we see around the failure to implement care leavers rights for children and young people in Scotland. We have worked with partners like CELCIS to produce information and guidance to ensure the spirit of the legislation is carried through at all levels. We also seek to influence national policy to improve processes and systems and improve outcomes for care experienced young people women who are at risk of or have experienced homelessness.
Read more about our work on care leaver’s rights.
Find out more
To find out more about Care Experienced Week, including events, visit the Who Cares? Scotland website.
