Policy and Influencing Staf aims to promote policies that will support an environment with love at its heart; that promotes recovery from trauma; and where life chances are not determined by care experience. By doing so, we hope to achieve an environment where policy and practice ensures that our young people and workforce feel loved, safe and supported. To deliver this, we will hear, reflect and act on the views of our members, care leavers and all of those who support them. All of our influencing work will support our vision of a Scotland where the wellbeing and success of young people leaving care across Scotland is indistinguishable from that of their peers in the general population. Where we’ve influenced The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 This is the biggest legislative influence on service delivery in our sector in the last 10 years and drives a lot of our work. The Act defined new Corporate Parents, giving more people and organisations duties towards care leavers, and provided a new category for leaving care. We have a whole section to help you understand the key areas and identify potential responses. Find your way around the Act and our work around it Staf has been working as part of a consortium of organisations discussing the implementation of Continuing Care (Part 11 of the Act). After our Supported Lodgings and Supported Carers Focus Group highlighted similar concerns, including a very confused landscape of language and terminology, we produced a report to sum up problems – and potential solutions. Follow the progress and read our report on Continuing Care, published in May 2018 Staying Put Scotland: Providing care leavers with connectedness and belonging Young people leaving care continue to have poor outcomes despite the efforts and investment by services. Research clearly shows us that the transition period towards interdependence is when young people are most vulnerable. This is the time when responsible Corporate Parenting can make a difference to a care leaver’s life. Believing firmly that end-of-care planning decisions should be based on meeting the needs of the individual rather than age or legal status, Staf was directly involved in the development of this guidance. The guide aims to help local authorities and Corporate Parents develop and implement strategies to enable care leavers to remain in secure, stable care placements until they are ready to move on. Discover what the Staying Put guidance means for you Growing our members’ voice Over the next three years, in addition to a continued focus on the transition to adulthood for care leavers, we will also work to influence policy and practice to achieve better outcomes for care leavers in terms of poverty, education, employment, housing, justice and health. We deliver a range of opportunities for members to participate in this work: the Care Leavers into Employment Focus Group; the Implications of Continuing Care Focus Group; the Supported Lodgings, Supported Carers Focus Group; a Local Authority Members’ Forum; and networking events for senior leaders, including Dinner with Dialogue. In addition, we are establishing a Policy Engagement Group, which will bring together representatives from across our membership to develop policy positions, advise on event content, scrutinise political output and amplify the voice of members within key sectoral debates. Find out how you can get involved here. We also have a range of policy resources on our website where you can find out more about the following policy areas. Education Employment Poverty and Social Security Justice Health Housing Relationships Trauma Children's Rights Be a part of our platform By becoming a Staf member and joining our network of more than 65 organisations, you can help us make sure we are advocating for the care legislation the sector needs. You’ll be able to contribute in a number of ways, including: Forums Focus groups Contributing to consultation responses Online and telephone enquiries Become a Staf member