'Moving on' from care into adulthood consultation a consultation response from SASW

Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW) is part of the British Association of Social Work (BASW, the largest professional body for social workers in the UK. SASW’s key aims are:     

• Improved professional support, recognition and rights at work for social workers,     

• Better social work for the benefit of people who need our services, and     

• A fairer society  

Social workers are uniquely placed to support young people in leaving care and transitioning to adulthood. They often have pre-existing relationships with care experienced young people, understand their pathway into and through care, understand attachment, transition and change theory and have a professional understanding of the importance of continued key relationships.  

However, high social worker vacancy rates, high caseloads and service thresholds mean that there is very limited capacity to provide support for transitions into adulthood. This, coupled with the demarcation of children and adult services, mean young people fall through the cracks in provision. 

For young people leaving care, the availability of practical advice, support and help are key. In order to provide this, social work teams need to have adequate capacity to plan and the right resources to meet the needs of young people leaving care. It is striking to note that 29% of young people leaving care did not have a pathway plan, with 48% not having a pathway coordinator to help them navigate this key transition. Whilst identifying new systems and supports is important, without adequate resources these developments will not achieve the aims of The Promise.

Are there any barriers to starting the process of planning and preparing for young people leaving care at an early stage? 

There are multiple barriers that prevent important transition work with young people. The focus on providing statutory social work services means that transitions work which would support young people and act as a preventative measure to exploitation, offending behaviour and substance use sometimes doesn't happen due to lack of capacity.  Social workers tend to become involved only when a young person is in crisis, with focussed work on resolving the current issues rather than being able to proactively plan for a positive transition to adulthood. 

Lack of clarity about a young person’s plan, particularly where there is no permanence plan in place, means that young people and the professionals around them are often unclear about what they are planning for, eg continued care with foster carers, supported accommodation, independent living etc.  Where possible long term plans for young people should be agreed as early as possible with decisions about permanence being made in a timely manner in order to support ongoing relationships with people important in the life of the young person. 

The nature of teenager years and moving towards adulthood is in itself inherently uncertain, with decisions about education, employment, living circumstances and relationships often dependent on matters which are changeable and transient. For example, a young person studying towards exams for entry to university may not know until a month or so before starting that they have achieved the grades required to attend - leaving very little time to plan accommodation etc or to enact any contingency plan.  Teenagers and young adults living within their family environment have support to navigate such uncertainty, along with financial and practical support to deal with unexpected outcomes and find alternative pathways. Young people in care do not have the same access to ongoing practical and emotional support, with pathway plans often not having the degree of flexibility needed to support them at a very uncertain time in their life. The rigidity of the system creates an unnecessary barrier. 

How can we ensure young people receive the right support and guidance to build the life skills they need for adulthood before they move on from care? 

Young people usually develop life skills in the context of their family home where they learn by example and through a gradual extension of responsibilities at a pace appropriate to them. Ideally care experienced young people would receive he same support to learn from the carers responsible for their welfare and development. They need the ability to try things out, and to make mistakes, without that being seen as an indication of their capability or indeed a moral failure.  

These skills can best be learned in the context of secure, safe, enduring relationships with carers who know and care about them. Social workers are ideally placed to offer support and guidance into adulthood in a way that reflects the young persons ambitions and life choices by working with young people and their carers. 

While the availability of supports and services is important, as it is to any young person, these cannot take the place of secure, supportive relationships as the context for developing life skills.  We all need to learn how to set and maintain boundaries, manage our money, navigate health care, gain employment and practically set up and run a home. 

What services and support should be considered and provided to a care leaver who returns home to live with their birth family? 

The provision of services should be informed by the known needs and wishes of the young person and their birth family. There may be a need for therapeutic or family support  services as well as financial support and advice. As parental relationships shift and change as the young person reaches adulthood, there may also be the need for parenting support.  Continued support from social workers can ease the transition back to the family home and provide constancy during a time of significant change.  

A community model of social work, whereby social workers practice across specialities and have an holistic knowledge of the family and the wider community can support reintegration to the family home where this is in the best interests of the young person. 

Can you provide examples of good practice where services have worked together in a holistic way to support birth families and young people moving on from care when the young person returns to live with their birth family? 

No response

How do we ensure that young people with care experience, and those who provide them with care, can easily access information about entitlements and support? 

Information needs to be available freely and with clear explanations of criteria, thresholds and referral processes, eg where young people or families can self refer and where a professional referral is required. Information about all relevant services should be provided along with any referral/treatment pathways where services are offered on an incremental or stepped basis to enable families to identify supports that may be relevant to them. Social security and health and social care should make their offer to people with care experience clear. 

Are there any changes you would like to see as part of the eligibility criteria for Continuing Care? 

The eligibility for Continuing Care should be extended to include young people in a kinship care placement under Section 11 of the 95 Act. They often experience the same levels of trauma and disruption but without the security of knowing they can remain in their kinship arrangement beyond age 16, which can force a return to their birth parents without the support and services available to care experienced young people. This is particularly pertinent as local authorities seek to increase the use of kinship care under Section 11, thereby appropriately reducing the need for Childrens' Hearings etc but without kinship carers understanding the important legal protections and supports available for looked after children and young people. 

What additional support do you think is required for families, professionals and practitioners who are responsible for providing Continuing Care arrangements? 

Support needs to be given to carers to understand the transition to providing care to a young adult, negotiating boundaries and building life skills. Professionals need to be trained in supporting this transition and adjusting expectations and boundaries from a parental type relationship towards a supportive adult role in the young person's life. Therapeutic support should be offered to young people at all key transitions to support emotional regulation and development. 

How do we ensure that young people, and their views, are heard during discussions on Continuing Care which impact them? 

We should consistently seek the views of young people/young adults throughout the continuing care process. Social workers are well placed to hear and, where necessary, represent the young person’s views as part of the pathway planning process., Formal advocacy should be considered where there is an identified need eg due to learning difficulties, disability or or the presence of undue influence on the part of others involved with the young person. 

How can we make sure young people can access the range of support they need when they leave care through the provision of Aftercare? 

There are barriers throughout the Aftercare process starting with provision of information about the range of supports and services available.  Information is often unclear, complex and difficult to access unless the young person knows what they are looking for and where to find it. Information should be held in one place, easily accessible and comprehensive. This should be signposted by all professionals involved with the young person to ensure they can independently seek support where needed. Eligibility criteria should be publicly available so that young people know what to expect when asking for support. 

While The Promise states that decisions should be made on a "best interests" basis, where resources are stretched eligibility criteria tends to become more restrictive meaning only the most significant need is met. If we are to adequately support young people in their transition to adulthood, services need to be resources appropriately to enable preventative and early intervention work which may avoid crisis intervention further down the line, which is costly both in financial and human terms. 

Access to services needs to reflect the lives of young people who may be balancing work, education, uncertain living circumstances and financial restrictions which make travelling to support services impossible. 

Are there any changes you would like to see as part of the eligibility criteria for Aftercare? 

While there are no changes we would suggest to eligibility criteria, we would stress the need for local authorities to provide consistent, continuing services to meet the needs of care experienced young people on a planned, person centred basis. Easily accessible community based resources need to be made available to ensure that services are available in a timely and non-stigmatising manner. 

 What do you think the challenges would be in changing the eligibility criteria for Aftercare? 

There are obvious financial challenges in extending eligibility criteria, particularly at a time of strained resources for existing services whereby current need goes unmet. Any change to eligibility criteria may result in young people falling out of the scope of the new criteria resulting in some young people becoming ineligible for a service they previously would have received.  Changes to eligibility criteria must be accompanied with sufficient resources to provide services. 

What do you think would be the best way to provide long term support and services to adults with care experience? 

Long term support would ideally be provided through the existing framework of care and support services, with appropriate training and guidance for staff in the needs of people who are care experienced. This would require adequate resourcing of existing services along with staff availability to attend necessary training and development. While specialist services for care experienced adults may be beneficial in terms of developing expertise in this area of work, it requires adults to identify as care experienced which they may not wish to do. Furthermore integrated services can provide an holistic approach to support which takes account of care experience without stigmatising people further. 

14. What do you think the challenges would be in providing support and services to adults with care experience? 

There are obvious financial challenges in providing support for care experienced adults, whereby services that are already struggling to meet current need will find themselves with increased demand but no increased capacity. There are also challenges in service provision which would require someone to disclose their care experience to access services when they might not want to identify as care experienced. 

What improvements do you think could be made to the support given to those leaving secure accommodation? 

The commitment to continued social work support upon leaving secure care is an important one, however social workers need to be resourced to enable the provision of ongoing, person centred support to some of our most vulnerable young people. There needs to be access to a range of supports and services with transition work beginning long before the young person is due to leave secure care, including life skills work and step down arrangements to allow a more gradual transition to the community and independent living. 

How do we ensure all young people in Scotland get equal access to the support services they need during the transition from and after leaving secure accommodation? 

There needs to be a national approach, taking account of local need and access to services. Particular consideration needs to be given to young people from rural areas where service provision may be less accessible or accessible at a geographic distances from the young person's living circumstances. There should be a focus on continued stable, secure, enduring relationships with professionals who can scaffold the young person as they re-enter their communities and transition to adulthood. 

What improvements could be made to the support given to people with care experience at the transition point from leaving young offenders institutions or prison? 

Young people leaving YOIs or prison need security of housing, finances and safe, enduring relationships to support the transition back into the community. These need to consider how prepared the young person is for independent living with support provided for daily living eg budgeting, cooking, cleaning and the tasks associated with running a home. They will also need support to address any offending behaviour, support with employment, education and/or training and the social supports in place to successfully transition to independence. 

How do we ensure all young people get access to the same support services when they are leaving young offenders institutions or prison, regardless of where they are located in Scotland? 

There needs to be a national approach, taking account of local need and access to services. Particular consideration needs to be given to young people from rural areas where service provision may be less accessible or accessible at a geographic distances from the young person's living circumstances. There should be a focus on continued stable, secure, enduring relationships with professionals who can scaffold the young person as they re-enter their communities and transition to adulthood. 

Can you share details of any services that are already working well to support unaccompanied asylum seeking young people transitioning out of care? 

No response

What supports and/or improvements do you think could be implemented to ensure we meet the particular needs of unaccompanied asylum seeking young people transitioning out of care in Scotland? 

Unaccompanied asylum seeking young people have particularly complex needs. While they need the very practical supports in terms of secure housing, financial support and being able to transition to independent living, they also need to be able to access education and/or training and have purpose in their daily lives. They also need strong supports for recovering from trauma and displacement, a sense of community and connection. A community based approach to social work could provide much needed support to transition not just to independent living but also to living in a different country/culture with all the complexities this can bring.  

Can you tell us about any specific services or supports that already work well for disabled young people or people with complex health needs leaving care? 

No response

What improvements do you think could be made to ensure disabled young people leaving care have the support they need when they make the transition into adulthood? 

Young people with disabilities need the same provisions as any other young person leaving care, however they also need support appropriate to their disability, clear transition processes to adult services. They may need a lot of scaffolding to help manage the impact of their disability over a long period of time. 

What improvements can you suggest in the support provided to young people with care experience as they prepare to give birth or become parents? 

While being care experienced can impact parenting capacity, services should approach supporting care experienced parents with an open mind, rather than with the assumption that they will struggle with parenthood. Pre-birth assessment should take a supportive stance, seeking to develop and build on parenting capacity rather than purely focussing on potential risk while acknowledging the need for additional support. Services should consider the parent’s own experience of care and of professional involvement in their childhood and offer flexible, approachable services. Any lack of engagement should be considered as a natural consequence of the parent’s lived experience rather than a risk indicator in it’s own right.  

How can the workforce be better supported to help care experienced people as they become parents? 

The workforce needs adequate resources to provide person centred, relationship based support to young people leaving care, along with appropriate training to understand the complexities of care experience. The social work workforce needs to develop a community based approach rather than having siloed adult and childrens services – this would enable an holistic approach to services by professionals who understand the community and resources available to support young people towards independence. 

How can children’s and adults’ services better work together to provide whole family support for parents who are care experienced? 

In the absence of a community based social work model, which would be ideal, childrens and adults services need to have flexible criteria, ensuring that the service most appropriate to the young person’s needs offers the right support at the right time, eg where there is an existing relationship in childrens services, this should be used to bridge the young person into adult services with joint visits and meetings where appropriate for as long as is needed.  

In what ways would you like to see peer support used by people leaving care and/or caregivers during a young person’s transition from care into adulthood?  

Peer support can be very valuable for young people transitioning from care, however it should be a supplement to, not a replacement for, enduring professional relationship. Peer support should be something wanted by the young person, not imposed on them, with an acceptance that they may not want to identify with a care experienced peer group and may need other routes to building a peer group of their own choosing. 

Do you know of any examples where peer support networks have had a positive impact on the experience of leaving care, either for care leavers or those who supported them?  

No response

How can we better enable young people and the supportive adults in their lives to maintain healthy relationships once the young person has moved on from care? 

Young people leaving care may need support to maintain relationships, supportive adults need to be available, with discrete opportunities to maintain relationships and for the young person to seek support without needing to make a “request for support”. Regular catch ups, coffee dates, lunch etc that are in place without a particular purpose can reassure  young person that the supportive adult wants to maintain a relationship with them. This should be the case for professionals, peer supporters, former carers and other adults in the young person’s life. 

29. What types of support and advice do you think should be available to care leavers as part of an out-of-hours service? 

Out of hours services need to be able to respond to crisis, with the acknowledgement that relatively minor or straightforward issues may present a crisis to young people leaving care who may not have easily accessible forms of support that others take for granted, eg from parents or extended family members. It should also be acknowledged that care experienced young people may experience poor mental health and/or poor emotional regulation and therefore need a higher degree of scaffolding and more immediate support than their peers. Out of hours services need to be flexible, empathic and responsive to the immediate need of the young person. 

What improvements do you think could be made to ensure care leavers have access to services which support their physical health, and mental health and wellbeing? 

Care experienced young people may need a high degree of scaffolding to access health services including mental health services and to navigate an often complex system of assessments and service provision. Services should be accessible, without extensive waiting lists particularly in terms of mental health services.  

31. What improvements do you think could be made to ensure a smooth transition is made between children and adult physical health services, mental health services and wellbeing services? 

Transitions should be planned as early as possible, with clear bridging into adult services. Clear information and explanation of changes in eligibility in adult services, appointment protocols etc should be made available with professional support to transition. Adult services need to give cognisance to the young person’s experience with health services, including mental health services and consider the young person’s capacity to manage multiple appointments, travel etc. Financial support may be needed to travel to health appointments. 

Please tell us about any good practice you are aware of that supports young people leaving care to find a home that meets their needs. 

No response

What do you think are the main barriers in securing appropriate housing for a young person with care experience? 

In May 2024 the Scottish Government declared a national housing emergency, this emergency will place a significant barrier for care experienced young people finding secure housing.  A lack of suitable, safe accommodation means young people often don’t have priority when it comes to housing allocation – they are often allocated the worst housing in the worst areas, with little choice about where they live and away from communities where their social supports are based. 

Young people with care experience should be given support to find housing appropriate to their needs and their life choices, eg support to find accommodation close to their social supports or compatible with their work, education or training needs, with the right level of support for independent living. 

How can we ensure there is sufficient support, planning and preparation provided to care leavers moving into their own accommodation for the first time? 

Planning needs to be started as early as possible both in terms of ascertaining the young persons needs and preparing them with the skills needed to run a home. They need access to household goods and furnishings and support to build their home including practical support that might usually be provided by parents, carers or extended family. 

What forms of support do you think would help someone leaving care and entering their first tenancy to stay in that property for as long as they want to? 

Practical support to make their properly feel like a home, which might mean help decorating, furnishing and setting up home. They will also need help to manage finances to ensure they can live with minimum of financial stress, they may also need help with practical issues such as cooking, cleaning and self care which would usually be provided in a family home setting. Helping a young person feel settled in their home, and able to manage the practical aspects of independent living will support them to continue in their own home. They may also need support with employment, education and/or training, support to make social links within the community to feel a sense of belonging. 

How can we ensure the views and needs of people leaving care are taken into account when decisions are made about where they should live when they leave care? 

Social workers are ideally placed to support young people in expressing their views and in representing these views where needed. A well trained and resourced social work workforce will go some way to supporting young people in having their voice heard, with advocacy services available where necessary eg for young people with learning difficulties or disabilities.  

In what areas would you like to see improvements to the service, support and funding for students who are care experienced? 

There is a strong package of support in place for care experienced young people, this should be extended to young people leaving kindship care arrangements under S11 of the 95 Act. These young people have experienced the same trauma and displacement as those on a Compulsory Supervision Order without the recognition that they need similar levels of support when this arrangement comes to an end. 

How can we better support care experienced students to complete their studies? 

The process of transition planning often starts around age 16, at the same time as young people are undertaking Nat 4 and 5 exams. They then face a high level of uncertainty about their living circumstances and financial supports throughout the final 2 years of high school, at the same time as they study for highers and are making decisions about futher study, employment and training. Given this, decisions about continuing care, after care and ongoing support should be made as early as possible with an assurance of long term support until the young person has completed secondary education  and has made a decision about their post-school plans.  

What would help young people with care experience find secure and fulfilling work, develop their skills or build their confidence? 

To gain employment young people need a good education base, see previous answer regarding uncertainty during exam years. They need information about career choices with services being both flexible and ambitious for our young people. Young people should be supported into employment and supported to sustain employment eg financial support for interview clothes and travel, help with application forms and CVs, reasonable adjustments made at interviews (eg interview practice, interview questions pre-supplied) and help to budget in the early stages of employment. 

Can you share any examples of good practice, in the private and public sector, where young people leaving care have been supported into employment or training, or have been supported to build their confidence? 

No response

How do you think employers can be better supported or encouraged to recruit, train, support and retain young people who are care experienced? 

Employers need to be given accurate, non-stigmatising information about what it means to leave care and gain employment, to be supported to understand the needs of care experienced young people in the workplace and encouragement to invest in our young people.