Throughcare and Aftercare Services

The Throughcare Aftercare Team offer support and advice to all Looked After young people, aged 15 - 20 years old, in planning for their future.

Throughcare is the support offered to young people Looked After, either living with family, in a residential or foster care placement.

Young people need to be offered the time and space to grow towards adulthood, things like:

• understanding what they need and want
• health & well-being
• education, training & employment
• getting on with others
• having fun, hobbies and interests
• understanding & dealing with problems
• practical skills like cooking & budgeting
• making mistakes and learning from them

Aftercare is the support offered from the whole Local Authority, when young people are no longer Looked After and 'ready' to take on greater independence or even still facing crisis. Aftercare is offered if you, are or were Looked After, when reaching school leaving age, it has nothing to do with age 16. It is a duty, meaning we must offer support to you up until your 19th birthday, and if needed further support can be offered until your 21st birthday.

Service Standards In addition to adhering to the Children & Families Service Standards, we will:

• Respond to all enquiries within 5 working days; (or on the same day for duty enquiries)
• Allocate a worker if you are aged under 19, where staffing levels permit within 5 working days of accepting your referral
• Offer to meet with you and the person who referred you at a convenient location within 5 working days of allocation
• Record your views using the Pathway process and offer you access to an advocacy service (someone to speak on your behalf)
• Invite you to appropriate meetings concerning you
• Offer you an Information Sharing Agreement if you are using the Pathway process
• Ensure you have a Pathway Plan if you are no longer Looked After and transferring to us
• Review and discuss your Pathway Plan every six months or more often if required
• Offer an informal and formal appeals service, alongside the Council's and Care Commission?s complaints processes
• Offer every young person with a TCAC worker face to face contact as follows - - When not receiving LA benefits, at least every two months - When receiving LA benefits, at least once a month
• Consult with you about your experience of the Pathway service every six months
• Consult with you before ending your Aftercare service at your 21st birthday
• Ask whether you consider these standards to be relevant to you and whether you believe we are meeting them with our annual customer survey - we will also ask about your satisfaction with our services. We aim to deliver at least 95% customer satisfaction overall
  
  Contact us
  Emma Clater (Acting Team Manager), Throughcare/ Aftercare Team
  Email:  TCACReferrals@westlothian.gov.uk 
  Telephone:   01506 775 746