ProjectChange
An introduction for Scotland
A starting point for questions and conversation.
What does care experience mean? How might people understand it differently? Explore the terms, the Scottish context and some questions that leave room for more than one answer.
01 / Starting with the term
Care experienced is a broad term used to describe people who are in care or have experienced care during childhood. It can include children, young people and adults of any age.
In Scotland, it commonly includes being looked after at home, foster care, kinship care, residential care, secure care and adoption. Some broad definitions also include informal kinship arrangements, where a local authority was not involved.
These settings cover a wide range of circumstances. Someone may have experienced one arrangement for a short time, or several over many years. The name of a setting tells us relatively little about the relationships or everyday life within it.
Organisations sometimes use the term differently. It can help to ask what someone means by it, especially when discussing access to support.
Sources: Who Cares? Scotland and Scottish Government information on kinship care.
A child lives at home while subject to a formal supervision arrangement through the Children’s Hearings system. Ordinary contact with social work does not, by itself, establish this legal status.
A child lives with approved foster carers. Experiences differ between families, placements and the relationships around them.
A child lives with relatives or people with an existing connection to them. Arrangements can be formal or informal; the legal status and available support vary.
A child lives in a residential home or school with care staff. This describes a setting, rather than a single kind of experience.
A setting in which a child’s liberty is restricted under specific legal arrangements. Its legal safeguards and the reasons for its use need separate, careful consideration.
A legal route to becoming part of an adoptive family. Adoption is included in broad understandings of care experience; adoptees choose for themselves whether that identity fits.
Sources: broad definition, kinship care, looked after at home.
02 / Identity and everyday life
Care experience may be central to someone’s sense of who they are. It may be one part of their history, or something they rarely think about. Its significance can change over time.
People may associate it with belonging, loss, stability, uncertainty, relationships, opportunity or several of these at once. Some find community in a shared identity. Others prefer different words or choose to keep this part of their life private.
People also have interests, relationships, cultural identities, work and ambitions whose connection to care may be strong, slight or absent. There is no single balance to get right.
A common term can help people find one another, describe experiences and access opportunities. What might make that useful for someone?
The same term may feel incomplete, unfamiliar or unwanted to someone else. How could a conversation leave room for that?
03 / Experience and understanding
Living within a care arrangement can offer a particular view of relationships, decisions and institutions. What someone takes from that experience will vary.
A person might notice how decisions are explained, how trust develops or how a rule affects different people. They may draw connections between their own experience and the experiences of others. They may also have questions they have never had an opportunity to explore.
Care experience is one possible source of understanding alongside study, work, family, friendships and other parts of life. People may interpret similar events differently. An insight can be valuable while still being partial or open to discussion.
Some people want to use this knowledge publicly. Others have little interest in doing so. Neither choice tells us how much they know.
Try choosing an everyday question: what makes an explanation clear, a meeting useful or a relationship trustworthy?
People can respond through an idea, an example, something they have read or a question of their own. A personal account is another option if they wish to offer one.
Notice whether different ways of contributing bring different things into the conversation.
04 / Words and assumptions
Words can help us describe a situation, find support or feel connected. They can also carry meanings the speaker did not intend.
Some people are comfortable with “care experienced”. Others use more specific language, or no label at all. Preferences can depend on the person, the setting and who is listening.
It is worth being curious about both the words and the assumptions around them. A term might be useful in a form and feel very different in an introduction.
What particular circumstances are being described? How might the word be heard when it is used to describe a whole person?
Is this how the person describes themselves? Could the word recognise something important, overlook support they need, or do both?
What kinds of knowledge does this phrase make visible? Could it leave other experience or expertise out of view?
Are we using the term for a particular legal or service purpose, or as a description of someone’s identity? Does everyone in the conversation understand it in the same way?
There may be no single phrase everyone would choose. Ask what someone prefers in the situation you are discussing, and explain any legal term that needs to appear in a record.
A useful question is: “How would you like this described here?” Another is: “Is there anything you would prefer us not to share?”
There is no need to settle a community-wide debate before listening to the person in front of you.
05 / Definitions and support
A word can describe an experience, a personal identity or a category used by a service. These meanings can overlap. Understanding which meaning is being used helps clarify a conversation.
A broad term spanning different care arrangements and people of all ages. Organisations may use different criteria for a particular service or opportunity.
Ask how someone describes themselves. Explain any eligibility criteria separately, including the evidence actually required.
A child has this status through specified legal arrangements, with duties on a local authority. A child can be looked after while living at home or away from home.
Check the relevant arrangement and duties. Where someone lives does not, on its own, establish their legal status.
In Scottish Government leaving-care guidance, this refers to someone who stopped being looked after on or after their 16th birthday.
Support depends on the scheme, circumstances and rules in force. Someone may have care experience without meeting the criteria for a particular service.
Sources: looked after at home, leaving-care guidance and mygov.scot support guide. See the 2026 reform note below before relying on older eligibility summaries.
Advice, guidance and assistance with the move from care into adult life. Published Scottish Government guidance distinguishes the duties towards eligible care leavers under 19 from needs-based support for those aged 19 to under 26. “Everyone gets support until 26” is too simple.
A route for eligible young people to continue receiving the accommodation and assistance they had before they stopped being looked after. The 2024 guidance describes provision up to the 21st birthday, with eligibility conditions and exceptions.
These are summaries of the published guidance, rather than a decision on anyone’s entitlement. The 2026 reforms also affect this landscape. Check the applicable law, commencement dates and current guidance with the local authority or an adviser.
Read the Scottish Government guidance and The Promise Scotland’s account of the reforms.
The Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 15 May 2026. It includes reforms affecting aftercare and wider understanding of care experience.
Royal Assent and a particular provision taking effect are different stages. This guide does not confirm commencement for each reform. For an individual decision, check the provision and rules currently in force. Older summaries may not capture subsequent changes to eligibility.
Sources: Scottish Parliament: the Act and The Promise Scotland: implementation and changes.
Ask the relevant service to explain its criteria, the decision it has made and how you can request a review or challenge it. Ask for the explanation in writing if that would help.
mygov.scot points to local council offers and other support. Who Cares? Scotland provides information about advocacy and its helpline.
This is a general guide to the landscape. An independent advocate or qualified adviser can help with your circumstances.
06 / Looking at our own assumptions
A useful next step may be to look at a familiar situation and ask what you know, what you assume and whose perspective could add something.
What has this person told you matters to them? What have you inferred from their history or circumstances? What would be useful to ask, with their permission?
Whose experiences informed the design? What happens when someone’s circumstances do not fit the usual route? Which parts would benefit from further discussion?
What does your definition make possible? Who might sit outside it? How do you distinguish a legal requirement from a choice your organisation has made?
You may find something that needs changing, something that is working well or a question that needs more time. Each is a useful place to continue from.
07 / A conversation together
A 60-minute conversation for a team or group. Use it to compare understandings, explore different perspectives and notice questions worth returning to.
Care experienced is a broad term used for people who are in care or have experienced care during childhood. In Scotland, it commonly includes being looked after at home, foster care, kinship care, residential care, secure care and adoption. Some definitions also include informal kinship arrangements.
A description of a setting tells us relatively little about the relationships or everyday life within it. People may have different feelings about similar experiences, and may describe themselves differently. The significance of care in someone’s life can also change over time.
The meaning someone gives to their experience and the criteria used by a particular service are related but distinct questions.
Further reading: Who Cares? Scotland, “About us” — https://www.whocaresscotland.org/about-us/; Scottish Government, “Kinship care” — https://www.gov.scot/policies/looked-after-children/kinship-care/.
Allow 60 minutes. Bring paper or a shared document. A facilitator can help keep time and make room for different views.
No one needs to disclose care experience or explain their personal history. People can pass on a question. Avoid sharing identifiable accounts of others, and agree how any notes will be used.
If people are invited to contribute expertise, discuss payment, expenses and access needs beforehand.
Write down what “care experience” means to you and one thing you are uncertain about. Compare answers without trying to agree a definition immediately.
Read the opening notes below, or the guide’s sections on meaning and identity. What was familiar? What added something? What would you like to understand better?
Choose one or two of these questions. Invite examples, differing views and further questions. People can draw on professional knowledge, reading, observations or personal experience if they choose.
If views differ, explore what each person means and what their view draws on. Agreement is optional.
Choose a question that came up. Make three short lists: what we know and its source; what we are assuming; what remains open. Avoid filling gaps by guessing what an absent person would say.
Each person can name something they understand differently, a view they are still considering or a question they want to pursue. Agree whether any follow-up would be useful, and who could help.
The aim is a fuller conversation. You do not need a shared conclusion to have learned something.
08 / Read further
The factual notes draw on the sources below. The discussion questions are invitations to explore different perspectives; they are not findings about every care experienced person.
Sources checked for this draft: 16 September 2026. Commencement of each 2026 reform has not been confirmed here.
ProjectChange · 60-minute discussion guide
Care experienced is a broad term used for people who are in care or have experienced care during childhood. In Scotland, it commonly includes being looked after at home, foster care, kinship care, residential care, secure care and adoption. Some definitions also include informal kinship arrangements.
A description of a setting tells us relatively little about the relationships or everyday life within it. People may have different feelings about similar experiences, and may describe themselves differently. The significance of care in someone’s life can also change over time.
The meaning someone gives to their experience and the criteria used by a particular service are related but distinct questions.
Further reading: Who Cares? Scotland, “About us” — https://www.whocaresscotland.org/about-us/; Scottish Government, “Kinship care” — https://www.gov.scot/policies/looked-after-children/kinship-care/.
Allow 60 minutes. Bring paper or a shared document. A facilitator can help keep time and make room for different views.
No one needs to disclose care experience or explain their personal history. People can pass on a question. Avoid sharing identifiable accounts of others, and agree how any notes will be used.
If people are invited to contribute expertise, discuss payment, expenses and access needs beforehand.
Write down what “care experience” means to you and one thing you are uncertain about. Compare answers without trying to agree a definition immediately.
Read the opening notes below, or the guide’s sections on meaning and identity. What was familiar? What added something? What would you like to understand better?
Choose one or two of these questions. Invite examples, differing views and further questions. People can draw on professional knowledge, reading, observations or personal experience if they choose.
If views differ, explore what each person means and what their view draws on. Agreement is optional.
Choose a question that came up. Make three short lists: what we know and its source; what we are assuming; what remains open. Avoid filling gaps by guessing what an absent person would say.
Each person can name something they understand differently, a view they are still considering or a question they want to pursue. Agree whether any follow-up would be useful, and who could help.
The aim is a fuller conversation. You do not need a shared conclusion to have learned something.