Care Experienced Children and Young People funding: national operational guidance 2026/2027
Guidance to support local authorities plan how they will most effectively spend their Care Experienced Children and Young People funding.
Considerations for using Care Experienced Children and Young People Funding
When utilising the Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress to implement interventions, Chief Social Work Officers and Directors of Education should consider the wider landscape supporting Care Experienced Children and Young People.
The Independent Care Review, which resulted in the creation of the Promise, listened to the voices of 5,500 people engaged in the care system. The Scottish Government, our partners in local government and across the public sector are committed to acting on what they told us needs to change. And this Parliament too has confirmed its commitment.
The Scottish Government signed up to all of the conclusions set out through the Independent Care Review and we remain committed to making sure each and every child grows up feeling loved, safe and protected.
In March 2022 the Scottish Government’s published the Promise Implementation setting out how we will Keep The Promise by 2030. The Plan has a wide range of actions and commitments across nearly all Ministerial portfolios that we will take to Keep The Promise.
The Plan provides a framework for the rest of Scotland to plan around as well as setting out the actions we are taking across Government.
An update to this Plan was published in September 2024, which outlined progress against actions and commitments.
We will continue to work with all partners across our local authorities, The Promise Scotland, and organisations like Who Cares? Scotland, Our Hearings Our Voice, and others to implement the change required, and to ensure that the voice of the care experienced community informs the actions we take.
Additionally, all care experienced children and young people are identified as requiring additional support through the amended Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2009 until they are assessed as not requiring that support. Angela Morgan’s review of Additional Support for Learning is a useful resource. Review of additional support for learning implementation: report – gov.scot.