![\"SCLC\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/relationships-matter\/files\/2016\/02\/SCLC-300x121.png\")
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I\u2019m proud to be part of, and passionately believe in the Scottish Care Leavers Covenant<\/a>, which we launched in October 2015 as part of National Care Leavers Week. The Covenant is the result of work from a cross-sector alliance of organisations and it supports corporate parents to fulfil their duties and responsibilities under Parts 9 and 10 of the Children & Young People (Scotland) Act 2014<\/a>.<\/p>\n Part 10 of the Act focuses on Aftercare<\/a> support to care leavers as they move to adulthood, and effectively moves the upper age that care leavers can ask for advice and support from 21 to 26.<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s not an automatic right to get help and support \u2013 the young people have to request an assessment to identify any unmet \u2018eligible\u2019 needs. As I write this (February 2016) we\u2019re still waiting on the publication of the accompanying guidance, which will give clarity to issues that are concerning some local authorities, such as who carries out the assessment and what an eligible need is.<\/p>\n However, despite these caveats, the Act is positive and acknowledges that the transition to adulthood and independence doesn\u2019t just happen at 16, 18, or even 21, the ages which until now have governed access to services for care leavers. It\u2019s a great start to have this recognised in legislation.<\/p>\n Aspirational legislation<\/strong><\/p>\n But it is just that \u2013 a start. In Scotland, we\u2019re really fortunate to have some very aspirational legislation, and we\u2019ve got a good record in developing positive policy and supporting guidance to help practitioners and organisations make sense of it and know how to apply the legislation in practice. The issue we have is that we don\u2019t implement consistently across the country. And unfortunately this is particularly true for care leavers. Our CELCIS research<\/a> published in 2014 highlights this.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the alliance developed the Covenant and its Agenda for Change, detailing what needs to be done and offering a framework of key actions across a number of aftercare policy areas, or pillars. This is designed to bring consistency to practice and to close that \u2018implementation gap\u2019.<\/p>\n So what has this got to do with relationships?<\/strong><\/p>\n To be really effective these policy pillars need to be built on firm foundations \u2013 upon the foundation stones of full and meaningful implementation of Staying Put and Continuing Care; and gradual and extended transitions to independence.<\/p>\n However, the bedrock to all of these is relationship-based practice. It\u2019s continued positive relationships, which are, often as not, the key to successfully helping young people achieve and live positive lives.\u00a0 Young people moving on from care are often at their most vulnerable \u2013 moving home, leaving school, making new friends, moving into a new area \u2013 multiple, accelerated, abrupt transitions. The importance of maintaining positive relationships throughout this journey can be absolutely critical to their success.<\/p>\n The individuals and organisations involved in the development of the Covenant, and those who have signed up to endorse it since its launch have all made a commitment to helping recognise and promote relationship-based practice as the bedrock of good practice. The success, or otherwise, of its ambitions to transform culture and practice for Scotland\u2019s care leavers rests on getting the basics right \u2013 firm foundations, with relationship-based practice at its core.<\/p>\n I\u2019m hoping that you\u2019ve already heard of the Scottish Care Leavers Covenant and you\u2019ve signed up either individually or on behalf of your work place or organisation. If you have you\u2019re probably already using the Agenda for Change to inform your corporate parenting plan to improve services and opportunities for care leavers in your area or setting. If you\u2019ve not yet had the chance, why not do it now?\u00a0 Sign up here<\/a> or email us for further information at: info@scottishcareleaverscovenant.org<\/p>\n Kenny McGhee, Throughcare & Aftercare Lead, CELCIS<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m proud to be part of, and passionately believe in the Scottish Care Leavers Covenant, which we launched in October 2015 as part of National Care Leavers Week. The Covenant is the result of work from a cross-sector alliance of organisations and it supports corporate parents to fulfil their duties and responsibilities under Parts 9… Read More »Why Relationships Matter to The Scottish Care Leavers Covenant<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":""},"categories":[62,13497,5791],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/relationships-matter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/relationships-matter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/relationships-matter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/relationships-matter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/relationships-matter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/relationships-matter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/relationships-matter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/relationships-matter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/relationships-matter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"pillars\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.iriss.org.uk\/relationships-matter\/files\/2016\/02\/pillars-300x193.png\")
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