In Scotland, Care Experienced is a term that is used to refer to children and young people who have either legally or informally had alternative arrangements in place in terms of their primary caregivers/parents.  The Promise Scotland highlights that the term Care Experienced is used in reference to the following:

• “a description of the situation [a child or young person] has grown up in;
• a recognition that this situation may grant them additional support and protection under law, and
• an understanding of their personal identity.”

Under the ‘Care Experienced’ term, children and young people will sit within one of the following groupings:

Looked after at home (previously referred to as LAC)

These care experienced children and young people will have been identified through legal process.  They will be subject to a compulsory supervision order (CSO) and living with their birth parent(s).

Looked After Away from Home (LAAC) / Looked After and Accommodated

These Care Experienced children and young people often will reside in foster care, kinship care (formally through a CSO and/or a residency order), residential care, or secure care.

Adopted

These Care Experienced children and young people will have previously been looked after and are now adopted. Schools and the Central Team will only be aware of these pupils if:

• they were adopted within Dumfries and Galloway;
• adopted after the age of 2 years; and/or
• parents/guardians have chosen to share this status with education.

It is important to note that while the school may be aware a child has been adopted, the young person may not.  Therefore, it is essential that school liaise with parents/guardians around their wishes in terms of sharing a child or young person’s status/background.

Kinship

(informal, for Kinship placements with legal basis please see looked after and accommodated)

These Care Experienced children and young people live with a relative or close family friend through an informal family arrangement i.e., no CSO or residency order.  Therefore, these children may or may not have social work involvement and any involvement is likely to be voluntary.  Social Work often refer to these pupils as ‘children in need’.

As these are informal arrangements, they may be on a short or long term basis and there is no formal requirement for this to be shared with schools.

Select link to further explore The Promise Scotland’s description of Care Experience