Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the age at which local authorities cease to track the outcomes of care-experienced young people.

The Scottish Government collects data from local authorities on children and young people who are looked after and/or in receipt of aftercare services, which includes data on their health, housing status and employment status.

The Scottish Government data collection from local authority social work departments ends when either 1) the child leaves care (majority at or before age 18) and does not take up aftercare services; 2) the young person is no longer in receipt of aftercare services (at or before age 26).

We are unable to say what information local government may collect that is not requested by Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government commissioned resources for young people and promotes those developed by other organisations including the Children and Young People's Commissioner in Scotland and Who Cares? Scotland. These have been specifically developed for children and young people to help them understand their rights.

As part of the Whole System Approach, we would expect the rehabilitation of under 18s to be supported as set out in the answer to S5W-11415 on 2 October 2017.

A number of organisations are working together to provide support to young people both while in custody and upon their release. This advice and support includes education, employment, housing, access to addiction services and general support with practical matters to deter the young person from further offending; to support them to make positive choices and to maximise their life chances.

The Scottish Government provide funding to Up-2-Us to deliver their Time for Change project which supports extremely vulnerable high risk girls and young women to improve transitions and achieve a more settled and positive lifestyle. Funding is also provided to the Wise Group to deliver a Get the Life You Want pre-release course for young people in Polmont Young Offenders Institution. The course is aimed at fostering an increased motivation, a more positive mind set and development of coping strategies.

The Scottish Government has funded a group of dedicated through-care services for over 18s. In these projects, third sector organisations are working in partnership to provide a voluntary service for those leaving prison. These services provide a one-to-one service between the individual and a professional mentor, who will meet with the individual to help plan their release, before meeting them on the day of release to assist them with any practical problems. The mentor will continue to offer support, advice and encouragement, as required, for up to 6 months. The Scottish Government and its partners have invested £18m in these services over 2012-17.

In addition the Scottish Prison Service provide Through-care Support Officers within prison to work with individuals not only prior to release, but upon release from custody and for up to 3 months thereafter release, meeting them in the community and providing practical support and advice to assist their rehabilitation and reintegration.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government is committed to keeping as many young people as possible out of the criminal justice system.

Substantial progress has been made over the last 10 years in keeping young people, including care-experienced young people, out of the criminal justice system:

• The number of young people (12-17) prosecuted in Scotland’s courts has fallen by 78% from 9813 in 2006-07 to 2203 in 2015-16;

• The average number of under 18s in custody has decreased by 77% from 223 in 2006 to 51 in 2016;

However, we know that care-experienced young people are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system, and in custody. The Scottish Prison Service 2015 Prisoner Survey found that of the 327 young men under 21 in HMYOI Polmont who responded, 33% reported being in care as a child, while around 2% of all Scotland’s children are looked after.

Our priority is to improve life chances for children and young people involved, or at risk of becoming involved, in offending. Implementation of the youth justice strategy Preventing Offending: Getting It Right For Children and Young People will secure further progress for vulnerable groups. It includes a strong focus on supporting young people with complex needs - many of whom are looked after children.

The Independent Care Review will help shape further improvements as we continue to drive a preventative, whole system approach to offending to improve life chances and help keep communities and young people safe from crime and disorder.

The Scottish Government has paid £4.2 million to Scottish local authorities in 2015-16 to support costs of implementing Continuing Care and this funding commitment rises to £9.3 million by 2019/20.

Taking into account the 2017-18 local government finance settlement, including the extra £160 million announced at Stage 1 of the Budget Bill, plus the other sources of income available to councils through reforms to council tax and funding for Health and Social Care Integration, the overall increase in spending power to support local authority services now amounts to over £383 million (or 3.7%).

The majority of funding to local authorities is provided by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate resources on the basis of local needs and priorities.

In order to reduce the death rate of care-experienced young people, it is vital to address inequalities in their life chances and wellbeing. The Scottish Government is committed to improving outcomes for all care-experienced young people in Scotland and to making Scotland the best place to grow up. The Getting it Right for Looked After Children and Young People Strategy (published in 2015), outlines our priorities of early engagement, early permanence, and improving the quality of care. This approach ensures that looked after young people will receive the support they need when they need it, that they receive support services which meet their needs, and that they are provided with safe, stable settings which allow them to thrive.

Specifically, we have a range of work underway to reduce trauma and to support some of our most vulnerable children and young people. The Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 outlines the importance of responding appropriately to the emotional distress linked to both the circumstances that led to a child becoming looked after, and the experience of being looked after in any setting. The Strategy also emphasises that professionals working with looked after children and young people should have the necessary knowledge and skills around issues such as trauma and attachment. Scottish Government officials are working towards setting up a system in Scotland to ensure that all child deaths, whether those children are looked after or not, are reviewed and to learn lessons to prevent avoidable deaths.

The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 introduced Continuing Care, extended Aftercare support and put Corporate Parenting on a statutory footing. These provisions support a more graduated transition out of care settings and encourage a focus on maintaining supportive relationships.

It is important to emphasise that GIRFEC – Getting it Right for Every Child – underpins all work by the Scottish Government to reduce inequalities experienced by looked after children and young people. GIRFEC puts the rights and wellbeing of children and young people at the heart of the services that support them to ensure the right help is offered at the right time from the right people.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to review the funding allocation process.

I refer to the answer to question S5W-11399 on 2 October 2017. The Scottish Government has paid £4.2 million to Scottish local authorities in 2015-16 to support costs of implementing Continuing Care and this funding commitment rises to £9.3 million by 2019/20 at which point, we expect the net total cost each year to stabilise.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government funds CELCIS (almost £5 million in 2017-18), to provide capacity building in the sector to improve the care and support provided to care-experienced young people on the basis of what is known about what works and how improvements can become sustainable in the long run.

We also fund the Realigning Children’s Services programme (approximately £450k per annum). This provides support to community planning partnerships to improve local collaborative decision making, to ensure the total available resource meets the needs of - and improves outcomes for – vulnerable children and families.

As corporate parents, local authorities have duties under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 to ensure they safeguard and promote the wellbeing of Scotland's looked after children and care leavers. The Scottish Government committed to support these, and other, measures in the 2014 Act.

Scottish Local Government Finance Statistics show that overall gross revenue expenditure on Children and Families Social Work by Local Authorities in 2015-16 was £923 million, an increase of £39 million compared to 2014-15 (3.7 per cent increase after adjusting for inflation).

I refer you to the answer to question S5W-11400 on 2 October 2017. We do not yet have detailed information on the number of young people who have requested Continuing Care. The first full year of data will be collected in 2017-18 and, depending on data quality, published from 2019 in the annual National Statistics publication Children’s Social Work Statistics. We will monitor this information and any other evidence offered by Scotland’s local authorities to clarify numbers in the years post-implementation.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

We do not yet have detailed information on the number of young people who have requested Continuing Care. The first full year of data will be collected in 2017-18 and, depending on data quality, published from 2019 in the annual National Statistics publication Children’s Social Work Statistics. We will monitor this information and any other evidence offered by Scotland’s local authorities to clarify numbers in the years post-implementation and will use this evidence in our collaborative approach to policy development.