What is care experience?
‘Care experience’ is a term used to describe when a person has lived in care at any time in their life. It’s a broad term that covers lots of different life experiences.
Care experience includes:
- Foster care
- Kinship care – living with a relative or family friend who isn’t your birth parent
- Living in a residential home
- Being ‘looked after at home’ – living at home with support from social work
- Adoption
- Secure care
We use the term ‘care experienced’ to describe people who are currently living in care as well as people who have lived in care in the past. Anyone with any experience of care, no matter when this was or for how long, is care experienced.
Language choices
Everyone has the freedom to choose how they describe their identity and experiences. Some children and young people will be proud to call themselves care experienced, while others might not identify themselves that way.
We must always listen to and respect the language people choose to describe themselves.
Learn more about language and countering stigma with the 🔗Each and Every Child Toolkit
Legal definitions
Most education laws in Scotland still use the term ‘looked after children’. This is an older legal term describing children and young people who are currently experiencing care.
It is important to remember that all care experienced children and young people have a right to support with their learning if they need it. They have this right even if they are not currently ‘looked after’.
The Scottish Government are working on a legal definition of care experience, something which was recommended by 🔗The Promise. A legal definition will help everyone understand care experienced people’s rights and make sure that anyone who meets the definition can access the support they need.
For more information, see 🔗 The Scottish Government’s consultation on creating a definition of ‘care experience’.
Is care experience an additional support need?
Being care experienced often, but not always, means a child or young person will need additional support with their learning.
For more on this, watch our short video that explores whether care experience is an additional support need:
▶️ For more on this, watch our short video that explores Is care experience an additional support need?