Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: fairer Scotland duty statement

Summary of Aims and Expected Outcomes

The aim of the Bill is to make the legislative changes required to keep the Promise by 2030. In doing so, the groups that this Bill is most likely to impact are:

• Children and young people who have experience of care
• Adults who have experience of care
• Families

The Promise directly addresses socio-economic inequalities experienced by care-experienced children and young people. It acknowledges that poverty, inequality, and systemic disadvantage are both causes and consequences of care experience. The Promise also recognises that care-experienced children face compounded disadvantages in education, health, housing, and employment and that to address this, support must be made available that goes beyond age-based cutoffs.

Although the scope of the Bill is wider than the concerns above, it aims to make progress in addressing these concerns in several key areas:

• Extension of eligibility to receive Aftercare support and financial support for education or training expenses, and the expansion of corporate parenting duties for those previously ‘looked after’.
• Introduction of a right to advocacy for children, young people and adults with care experience.
• The language of care, including a definition of ‘care experienced’

It is expected that this Bill will make positive improvements to address inequalities faced by care experienced children, young people and adults.

This initial assessment has been completed during the pre-introduction stage of Bill development and will be reviewed at each stage of Bill development to ensure that any disproportionate impact to specific groups is mitigated and addressed ahead of implementation.