Participation for our Care Experienced Parents theme is now open!
Our next theme is open and we want to hear from you! Across October and November, Who Cares? Scotland wants to find out more about the experiences of being a Care Experienced parent, including how supported you have felt by professional services.
How to get involved
There are several ways for you to get involved! You can:
Get in touch with our Policy Officer Beth Agnew to have a chat at policy@whocaresscotland.org or call us on 07980 956139
Our influencing goals
Your experiences will go towards shaping real-world policy and practice. Some of the areas we’re directly feeding into are the Pregnancy and Parenthood in Young People Strategy (PPYP) and the Funded Early Learning Childcare expansion. You can read in more detail below!
We’ll also using this information to inform Corporate Parents, as well as continue to shape The Promise’s implementation plans. This will ensure more supports are given for Care Experienced parents in Scotland. and that Who Cares? Scotland can campaign on issues that we know are important to our members.
What is the Annual Participation Calendar?
The Annual Participation Calendar contains all the opportunities across the year which you can choose to take part in to influence change. These opportunities are based on themes which are important to Care Experienced people and which policymakers need more real-life information about in order to make positive changes. It is up to you how much or how little you want to get involved!
The Annual Participation Programme invites all of our Care Experienced members to get involved. Not a member yet? You can sign up here!
You can take part in these themes by:
Survey – We will send out links to an online survey at the beginning of each theme.
Local Group Session – You can ask your group if they want to discuss one of the themes in your weekly or monthly groups.
Focus group – We’ll send dates and times of focus groups so you can discuss the themes with other Care Experienced people.
Other work – You might have a letter, poem or a song about one of the themes you would like to have included in our work on a specific theme Please send anything you feel is relevant to policy@whocaresscotland.org by the end of the theme’s engagement window (see the calendar above).
Each theme will have a specific time where we will be running participation activities. Please keep an eye out on social media and in your email from Who Cares? Scotland for links to surveys and dates of focus groups.
You can learn more about the Annual Participation Programme from your NRB Representative Marissa Roxburgh
How’s this information used?
At the end of each theme the Policy team at WC?S, alongside your National Representative Body, will spend a couple of weeks analysing and writing up reports/ briefings/ position papers/ videos to be sent to the various people in Government, Corporate Parents and The Promise. We will then send you summaries of what you told us, the findings and recommendations via emails and notices on social media. Please keep an eye out for these updates!
