Useful Contacts

They say it takes a village to raise a child… We certainly think that we can give children and young people the best possible experience when we work with others. Visitors to our page might find the following links helpful to understand the children and young people we support, our services, our carers and all the support that is out there.

Fostering and Continuing Care

The Fostering Network – Fostering charity and membership organisation supporting foster carers, children and young people and fostering services.
Citizens Advice (Fostering) – Free, independent, confidential and impartial advice is available to everyone and applies to Scotland.

AFKA –
Support for practitioners and organisations working in fostering, kinship and adoption to promote safe and loving care.
Coram BAAF –
Adoption and fostering academy supporting agencies and professionals who work with children and young people.
UK Government –
Government support for foster carers with tax arrangements and claiming benefits.
Your right to continuing care – Videos and stories explaining the rights of young people to continuing care in a number of scenarios.

Separated Children

CELCIS (Supporting child refugees and their families) –
A knowledge bank for people supporting children who have been separated from their families and arrive in the UK on their own.
Scottish Guardianship Service –
Help for child refugees and victims of trafficking to navigate the immigration and welfare processes.
The Fostering Network (Looking after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children) – Advice and information from The Fostering Network.

Care experienced young people and care leavers

The Promise Scotland – The organisation responsible for driving the change demanded by the findings of the Independent Care Review.
Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum (STAF) – Membership organisation for people involved in the lives of young people leaving care.
CELCIS – An innovation centre for supporting people and organisations responsible for children with experience of care.

Children’s Hearings Scotland – The organisation that recruits, trains and supports panel members across Scotland. Panel Members make legal decisions for children and young people.
Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration – The organisation that receives referrals of children and young people who are believed to require compulsory measures of supervision. They decide whether a child or young person should be referred to a Children’s Hearing and provide information and support .
Citizens Advice Scotland (Children who are looked after by the local authority) – Free, independent, confidential and impartial advice is available to everyone and applies to Scotland.
Clan Childlaw – Scotland’s law centre for children and young people.
Who Cares? Scotland – National voluntary organisation to support care experienced people to have their voice heard.
Young Scot (Support for Care Leavers) – Benefits, support and places to go for help if you’ve been in care or are a care leaver in Scotland.

Trauma and therapeutic resources

Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families – Resources for carers who support children and young people needing extra help to feel safe and secure.
Beacon House – Freely available knowledge about the repair of trauma and adversity.
National Trauma Training Programme (NTTP) – Training and education resources to support the skills and knowledge of the whole Scottish workforce.
Scottish Attachment In Action – Resources to increase understanding of the fundamental importance of attachment relationships.

Children and young people’s wellbeing

GIRFEC – Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) is the Scottish Government’s national policy approach to supporting the wellbeing of children and young people and improving outcomes.
SHANARRI – SHANARRI are the eight wellbeing indicators for practitioners and organisation to consider in collaboration with children, young people and their family.
Together Scotland – An alliance of Scottish children’s charities that improves the awareness, understanding and implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Winning Scotland (Growth Mindset) – Partnership work across education, communities and sport to pilot an approach to creating a growth mindset culture in Scotland.

Support for children and young people

Childline – National helpline for children and young people in need of support.
Samaritans – Mental health support helpline open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Young Minds – Mental health help and support for children and young people.

Online Safety

Think U Know – Child Exploitation and Online Protection command (CEOP) education website with specific information aimed at children, young people, parents/carers and professionals.

Education

Reach – Information for children and young people on their rights to additional support for learning at school.

Regulators

SSSC – The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the regulator for the social service workforce in Scotland.
Care Inspectorate – Regulates and inspects care services in Scotland to make sure that they meet the right standards.
OSCR – OSCR is the Scottish Charity Regulator and registrar for Scotland’s charities.