The number of teenagers reaching “positive destinations” through higher education, training and employment once they are out of the care system has dropped, according to reports.
An audit and performance paper presented to the West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) shows that only 50% of 16 and 17 year olds in the last financial quarter had gone on to attend higher education courses or training opportunities “at the point of leaving care”.
The number of “positive destinations” reached was 100% in the previous two quarters for 2022/23 and 100% in quarters one to three in 2021/22. There were no young people aged 16 or 17 left in care for quarter four in 2021/22.
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Council leader Martin Rooney said: “I was quite surprised to see the drop. The table in the report shows how stark it is.
“It seems odd that we have gone from 100% to 50% as we have commented on this very positively in the past about how well we really do in supporting our young people.
“I don’t really understand why we are monitoring this in quarters.”
The report also confirmed that the HSCP throughcare and aftercare service will continue to support care experienced young people to access education, employment and training alongside a range of support in relation to housing, finances and developing confidence and life skills.
HSCP officer Lesley Rousselet said: “I think we have demonstrated a fairly high performance in terms of this measure. I do think in terms of further analysis we are talking small numbers from one quarter to the next.
“Arguably it starts to become a wee bit less meaningful when you look at it on a three month basis. I am happy to report on the numbers rather than the percentage to give more of a sense of what we are looking at here.”
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