3 Impacts of care experience

Placement moves

The process of coming into care is disruptive to a young person’s education and this can be compounded by moving placements. Each story is different, some young people may never experience a move, some more extreme examples may have more than ten moves.

Looked after children are likely to experience more than one placement. In Scotland, 6% of looked after children undergo three or more placements in a year (SCRA, 2018 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ). In a recent poll, Who Cares? Scotland members from Renfrewshire said they had moved an average of 4.9 times since they came into care.

These moves can be abrupt, unplanned and stressful. Young people can be moved away from friends, family, schools and community links. This brings with it an ending of relationships, experience of loss and an uncertainty about the next place.

A planned move where the young person is fully informed gives time for transitions to take place. Care-Experienced people have a right to stay in their accommodation up until the age of 21 under the Children and Young Person’s (Scotland) Act 2014 – this is called Continuing Care.