Care experienced students

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• Foster care

  Foster care refers to a temporary arrangement, either long or short term. If you have been fostered you may have returned to your birth family, or have been subsequently adopted.

• Residential care

  Residential care is where placements have been provided by the local authority, religious organisation or charity.  This may also be known as List D Schools, Borstal, a close support unit or a children’s home.

  Residential care gives a safe place for young people to live away from their birth families.  Young people are placed in residential care on the recommendation of a Children’s Hearing, or on an emergency (short term) basis to guarantee their safety.

  Please note that for Admissions Purposes Residential Medical Care is not considered Care Experienced. This type of care would be considered extenuating circumstances as outlined in our Admissions Policy.

• Kinship care

  Under the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009, kinship carers are defined as “a person who is related to the child (through blood, marriage or civil partnership) or a person with whom the child has a pre-existing relationship”.

  You may be considered to have been in Kinship Care if extended family or close friends have looked after you as you were unable to live with your birth parents, either short-term or for a longer period.

  Kinship Care could be either:

  • Arranged by the Local Authority - This means your local authority or social work team has arranged or mandated the kinship care.
  • Not arranged by the Local Authority - This is a private arrangement, which was not arranged or mandated by the local authority or social work department but must involve contact with them regarding the arrangement.

• Compulsory supervision order with no condition of residence (looked after at home)

  This is where a young person, through the Children’s Hearing system, is under a Compulsory Supervision Order, and continues to remain at home with their birth family.  This is also known as Looked After at Home.

  This happens when the panel at a hearing decides that it is in the best interests of the young person to continue living with their parents.  Local Authorities, the child and the family then work together to achieve the objectives set out in the Supervision Order.

• Compulsory supervision order with conditions of residence

  This is also known as Looked After Away from Home.

  There are certain cases where a child is cared for away from their normal place of residence, by foster or kinship carers, in residential care homes, residential schools or secure units. This is where they have:

  • been through the Children’s Hearings system and is subject to a Compulsory Supervision Order with a condition of residence.
  • is subject to an order made or authorisation or warrant granted by virtue of Chapter 2, 3 or 4 of Part II of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995
  • is being provided with accommodation under Section 25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (a voluntary agreement)
  • is placed by a local authority which has made a permanence order under Section 80 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 which allows those caring for the child to have some or all of the parental rights and responsibilities needed to make day-to-day decisions affecting the child