Exploring qualitative outcomes to support progress towards keeping the promise

4. Outcomes

4.1 Vision Statement 2: Carers and Stability

“Scotland must limit the number of moves that children experience & support carers to continue to care”.

Proposed outcomes:

• Children experiencing care articulate what ‘loving and attentive’ means to them.
• Children experiencing care describe or demonstrate feeling safe, settled, and secure where they live, without disrupted routines, schooling or friendships.
• Children and carers describe children ‘owning’ or influencing decisions made about them, including about where they live.
• Children, carers and professionals describe strong, trusting, nurturing relationships during and beyond the time they experience care.
• Children and carers express feeling supported before and during changes.
• Carers describe how their training allows them to manage changes, behaviours and trauma-related needs, and support child development.
• Multi-agency collaboration considering the best interests of the child at their developmental stage is evident.
• Improvements to services can be attributed to regular feedback from children and carers, who see their complaints and concerns being addressed constructively and promptly.

4.2 Vision Statement 3: Education

“Schools in Scotland must be ambitious for care experienced children and ensure they have all they need to thrive, recognising that they may experience difficulties associated with their life story”

Proposed outcomes:

• Children experiencing care describe feeling safe, welcomed, included, and valued in their school community.
• They describe positive, consistent relationships with trusted school staff who understand, respond to their needs and allow their views to influence decisions affecting their learning.
• Children experiencing care describe themselves as confident, motivated, and ambitious in their learning and future opportunities.
• Carers and teachers describe children experiencing care as confident, motivated, and ambitious in their learning and future opportunities.
• Children experiencing care describe how the practical and emotional support they receive at school can enable them to achieve their potential.

4.3 Vision Statement 4: Brothers and Sisters

“Where living with their family is not possible, children must stay with their brothers and sisters where safe to do”

Proposed outcomes:

• Children experiencing care describe support from, and ability to support, their sibling(s), and describe benefits from maintaining those relationships.
• Children and young people experiencing care who are living with their brothers and sisters feel positively about this and describe positive support from services to do so.
• Children experiencing care who do not live with their brothers and sisters trust those making this decision with them, describing joint ownership of the decision and ways they can maintain their sibling relationship(s).
• Carers describe being well supported to nurture sibling relationships whether or not they live together.
• Professionals demonstrate understanding of evidence around the importance of keeping siblings together and feel empowered to support the nurture of these relationships.

4.4 Vision Statement 5: Physical Restraint

“Scotland must strive to become a nation that does not restrain its children”^[1]

Proposed outcomes:

• Young people experiencing care feel loved, safe and supported to manage experiences and emotions through their relationships with carers and professionals.
• Young people’s accounts of being restrained are consistent with an act of care within a framework of rights, with the least restrictive option being applied.
• Young people describe feeling well supported to self-regulate or seek support before, during and after reaching a crisis point.
• Carers, professionals and young people experiencing care describe the voice of the young person being heard in discussions about care plans, current triggers, and which de-escalation strategies or restrictive practices best help them.
• Young people experiencing care describe easily accessing information about the use of restrictive practices that is clear and helpful to them.
• Staff in all services that might use restraint describe how training, supervision and a culture of wellbeing have helped them support young people to cope and made more coercive forms of holding less necessary.
• Staff in all services that might use restraint and young people describe their debrief influencing the culture and practice of the service to support restraint reduction.
• Staff in all services that might use restraint describe using the least restrictive option when they have restricted a young person in a way consistent with robust governance, with a clear reason why this was necessary and appropriate follow-up support.

4.5 Vision Statement 6: Mental Health & Wellbeing

“Scotland must seek to uphold the wellbeing of care experienced children and young people and ensure that there is timely access to mental health support before crisis point so that children can enjoy good mental health”

Proposed outcomes:

• Children, young people and those who care for them describe feeling supported before reaching crisis point.
• Children, young people and those who care for them attribute improvements in children's emotional regulation and relationships to early help.
• Children, young people and those who care for them describe being able and actively supported to access mental health provision when needed, without barriers or delays, and the difference this has made for them.
• Children and young people share accounts of when timely mental health support has positively impacted their wellbeing
• Children, young people and those who care for them describe trauma-informed approaches to treatment, including young people being offered a choice of therapeutic options, being involved in decisions, only having to tell their story once and feeling listened to and respected during the process.

4.6 Vision Statement 7: Health

“Care experienced children and young people have access to support ensuring that their health needs are fully met and potential for good health is maximised”

• Carers, families and professionals describe children consistently receiving timely and accessible medical services, including immunisation and preventive dental treatment, with clear communication and support, including during moves in where children live
• Young people describe feeling supported to make positive choices about behaviour affecting their health and wellbeing.
• Carers describe feeling supported in understanding and managing their child’s growth and nutrition
• Families report co-ordinated care and feeling empowered in managing complex health needs
• Young people/carers describe feeling included and supported in accessing routine health services and feeling listened to and respected during such treatment
• Families describe being able to access urgent care without fear or stigma.
• Young people/carers describe positive experiences with healthcare staff who are attentive and proactive in addressing concerns early

4.7 Vision Statement 8: Justice

“Scotland must stop locking up children who have often experienced the failures of the state in the provision of their care”

• Young people experiencing care positively describe the support systems and relationships that have played a role in diverting them from involvement in (serious) crime.
• Young people experiencing care describe or display trust in professionals and services in the ‘justice system’ (e.g. police, courts).
• Young people experiencing care don’t feel ‘labelled’.
• Young people experiencing care describe how access and support to access community services and spaces helped prevent them having any/further conflict with the law
• Young people experiencing care who have received rehabilitation and support as an alternative to imprisonment know how they can avoid reoffending and why this is important.
• Carers describe the rehabilitation and support the young person has received as restorative, supportive and person centred.
• Police officers and community service staff describe strong relationships with young people experiencing care through which they can help them make positive choices.