Care Experienced Young People

The Scottish Government and local authorities are committed to ensuring that all care experienced children and young people receive the vital support they need, to improve their life experiences and their educational outcomes. This is underpinned by the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) approach in order to improve outcomes and support their wellbeing.

As part of that commitment, South Lanarkshire are developing a Champions Board to support young people who are care experienced to work alongside those who make decisions about the care system, with the aim of ensuring these services are tailored and responsive to their needs. By building relationships with their corporate parents, young people are empowered to set the agenda, learn leadership skills and advocate on behalf of their peers.

As the Champions Board grows, we hope that every care experienced person realises the power of their voice and helps to ensure that South Lanarkshire is the best place to grow up.

South Lanarkshire Champions Board have launched their social media platforms. Find out what’s happening on Facebook or Twitter.

Care Day

Care Day is the world’s largest international celebration of children and young people with care experience. Care experience includes children and young people who are or were cared for by family members with the support of social workers; by foster carers; or children and young people from children’s homes and residential units.

They deserve to be celebrated, on care day, every day.

You can read all about our Annual Care Day where the main focus was making sure care experienced people from South Lanarkshire knew they are loved and valued.

Care Experienced Week 

Care Experienced Week is an opportunity to showcase and celebrate the successes of care leavers from across the UK and to inspire them to achieve their full potential.

Further information

There is lots more information available on our Children and Families webpages including: Corporate Parenting, Kinship Care, our new Throughcare and Aftercare team and much more.

Advocacy

Now more than ever we know some of our care experienced young people will feel like they are not being listened to or that your voice is not heard as easily.  Our independent Advocacy service provided by Who Cares? Scotland is a voluntary organisation who work directly with Scotland’s children and young people who have been or are in care. They listen to what young people say, support them and speak on their behalf.