Story of Change from Aberlour

Aberlour received a grant of £99,500 to work collaboratively with organisations in the Highlands to improve access and quality of through care and after care support for young people in care.

Through mapping and consultation with young people, The Highland Strategic Partnership identified three priority areas for improvement. Groups were established to create change on each priority area. At the center of this redesign work are the experiences and voices of care experienced young people utilising the Scottish Approach to service design.

The Partnership involves Aberlour, Action for Children, Barnardos, Highland Council, Gateway and Right There.

What have the Residential Care group been working on?

The Residential Group was led by Aberlour and had participation from young people with care experience, Highland Council, Barnardos and Gateway.

Young people said that having a personalised welcome pack with information and resources that they could understand would make them feel wanted and valued when arriving in care.

Young people decided to create a ‘welcome box’.

This is a wooden box, that can be personalised and drawn on. It is filled with toiletries, a photo album, water bottle, colouring books and pens, a fidget spinner, and inspirational quote cards written by care experienced young people from the Highlands.

The welcome box is now provided to every young person arriving into care in the Highlands. Fifty boxes were produced using Promise Partnership Funding. Highland Council now provide these boxes to young people entering a residential care placement.

Young people also said that in emergency situations they can be taken into care without any of their personal belongings which affects their emotional wellbeing further. During the consultation they shared what things they would like to have with them. This might include photos, gaming equipment, or their favourite clothes. Through the residential subgroup, social work took the lead on developing a simple check list for social workers to ensure nothing is missed when a young person may be going into care.

What have the Moving on Group been working on?

The Moving on group was led by Barnardos and had participation from young people with care experience, Highland Council, Aberlour and Gateway.

Young people said they wanted to understand their rights better. Barnardos are commissioned in Highland to deliver the aftercare service and all young people have allocated pathways coordinators who they meet with regularly. The service has a Barnardos Rights Representative, and all young people are supported to understand their rights and ensure their rights are upheld.

Young people and professionals from The Barnardos Service spoke about the housing pathways for care-experience young people. From this, there are proposals to provide better support for care experience young people. This includes a simple step of adding a check box to the Highland Council Housing System to identify when a young person has experience of care and may need additional support.

Young people said that at times they feel like they have to repeat their care experience journey especially when they move on. It can feel like assessments are being done in the background, and they don’t know what these mean. At times they have felt their voice isn’t heard about whether they are ready or have the skills to move on.

Young people who participated in the Moving on sub-group had the idea of a ‘My Journey Book’. This is a journal for care-experienced young people to fill in that will help them feel in control of what is happening on their care-experience journey. The partnership is launching this journal on the 16th of February 2024 and a copy will be available for every young person in care in the Highlands. Visit Aberlour’s website for more for more information.