Continuing care and aftercare

Our Continuing Care and Aftercare team is based at the Jimmy Swinburne Centre, Blantyre. We are committed to delivering continuing care in line the with Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. What this means in practice is all young people, aged 16 in foster or residential care have the right to remain in their home setting until they are aged 21, if this is something the young people consider to be in their best interests.

We not only support young people 16+ in care but also those who have left care up until the age of 26. In addition to this, the team has responsibility for providing support to our unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who arrive spontaneously or via the National Transfer Scheme.

Our main aim is to deliver a relationship-based service to our care-experienced young people across South Lanarkshire. The independent care review ‘The Promise’ states that young people’s transition should be relational, planned, and informed. This is something the team strives to deliver. For this to be achievable the Continuing Care and Aftercare team works alongside a whole host of multi-agency partners, partnership working has been enhanced by the opening of the new community-based hub in Blantyre. The Hub has been created to offer young people a safe, comfortable space in which they can connect with their corporate parents from across all sectors.