Exploring the delivery, experience and impact of services when young people are planning to leave care and after they have moved on.

The Care Inspectorate has now published a final report of a thematic review in relation to the experience of young people in throughcare and aftercare. 

The review reports on how well services were supporting young people and making sure that their rights were respected. We were specifically interested in how young people were supported as they planned for leaving care and after they had moved on. These services were supporting young people with housing, health or in relation to education or employment. They were also working with young people who had decided to stay put, including young people in continuing care. At the heart of our approach was ensuring that we elevated the voice of people with lived experience of these services.   

Earlier in 2024 a ‘national survey’ was sent to all local authority areas in Scotland. It provided a wealth of information that helped us to direct the next stages of the review. We particularly welcomed the good practice examples that were highlighted and we have referenced these in our final report. 

In August and September we were able to take a closer look in four participating areas. In August, the review team met with lead professionals for five young people in each area to read records. In September, we had two weeks of local engagement where we met young people and staff. Alongside this, a survey was open for young people and frontline staff. 

Thank you to the young people and the staff who supported them from the four areas that participated in this review - Shetland, Edinburgh, North Lanarkshire and Dumfries and Galloway. We really appreciated the time they took to complete our survey and to meet us in person. Thank you also to the young people in our regulated housing support services who completed the young people’s survey.

The final report was published on 5 November 2024 and we will be hosting an online event to present the findings from the review.

More information about this review can be found in the following links: