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.
Planning
The Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund has been allocated for the duration of this Parliamentary term until March 2026 and the Scottish Government has committed to this funding continuing as part of the Scottish Attainment Challenge programme in 2026/27. Consideration should be given to interventions which support the mission to improve outcomes for children and young people impacted by poverty, with a focus on tackling the poverty related attainment gap and to improve educational outcomes for care experienced children and young people. Opportunities to implement short and long-term interventions to support this commitment should be considered.
Funds will be allocated to local authorities and it is the role of the Chief Social Work and Chief Education Officers to ensure that the funds improve attainment in a way that is consistent with the Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) approach.
The money can be used to fund initiatives that benefit a number of children or families or activities that are specific to an individual child’s or family’s needs and impact positively on their attainment. Use of the money for individual children should be discussed within existing planning processes for children in accordance with their local authority’s additional support policies and/or GIRFEC. Examples of this include additional support plans, Child’s Plans, Looked After Children reviews, or integrated children’s services plans.
It would be beneficial for local authorities to work with their Champions Boards or other groups of care experienced young people to co-produce approaches, interventions or activities which could be funded in line with the guidance above.
All support should be planned through a trauma-responsive lens, with acknowledgement that most care experienced children have experienced developmental trauma and are protected under article 39 of the UNCRC: Article 39 (recovery from trauma and reintegration).
Scotland’s Equity Toolkit aims to provide an accessible and adaptable resource for local and sectoral needs to support the mission of the Scottish Attainment Challenge.
The toolkit has been designed to support practitioners in their practice and decision making by providing access to a range of evidence, research and practice, and importantly identify the conditions contributing to success in one place. It includes key information which may be helpful to consider or guide implementation and sustainability in different settings.
The toolkit is underpinned by existing research and evidence. It is reviewed and updated regularly to ensure high quality information that is relevant and impactful.
Children and young people should be involved at the planning and evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions stages of local approaches and have the opportunity to have their views heard and influence local decision making. This should be inclusive of all children affected by poverty, including those where alternative communication methods may need to be considered and children and young people within ASN provisions and special schools.
A key way in how to involve Children and young people in the planning process can be found via Education Scotland’s Youth Voice Toolkit. It presents a practical approach to implementing Article 12 of the UNCRC, ensuring that children and young people’s voices are included in decision-making in a meaningful, representative and non-tokenistic way. The toolkit can be applied to any theme or topic, providing consistency in how educators facilitate youth voice within school, community and organisational contexts.
Planning can also be supported by the SAC logic model, which shows how a programme produces change. The logic model can help bring detail to programme goals, aid planning, evaluation, implementation and communication. It incorporates outcomes reflecting the mission, which encompasses child poverty, broader achievement and an increased focus on health and wellbeing and family and community support which can be found as a supporting document to the Framework for Recovery and Accelerating Progress.
The planning cycle will follow the academic year, aligning with the annual Service Improvement Planning cycle.