We have been supporting the Staying Put agenda since 2013 and our role as corporate parents under the Children and Young people (Scotland) Act 2014 includes supporting young people moving from care to adulthood and independence.

We have updated our rules for adult placement services, with changes to fees and combined service status. These changes support young people to remain in their family placement and support providers.

Where a fostering service and an adult placement service operate as one service solely in order to support young people who have been cared for in the family on a fostering basis and who now wish to remain with the same family on a continuing care basis, this will be treated as one service, for the purposes of fees.

The level for application and continuation fee will be set at the fostering agency service level. (‘Solely in order to support young people who have been cared for in the family on a fostering basis’ means that the adult placement service does not provide throughcare or aftercare.)

This supports the legislation which states that the accommodation and service should be the same for the young person as they move from being a looked after child to continuing care. On this basis, we are able to treat the services as one. This will mean one fee and one inspection, with a single report published under both categories on our website.

The updated guidance for care services, which includes the policy statement and guidance for staff is available here.