Care Experienced Week: Working for ILF Scotland

This year’s Care Experienced Week theme is rights.

ILF Scotland is committed to continuously doing our part to uphold the rights of Care Experienced people.

Some of our staff are themselves Care Experienced and we have many members of the team who look after a child outwith that child's regular home.

What is Care?

Care Experienced can mean many things:

• a young person placed in the care of relatives (this is known as Kinship Care)
• someone who is supported in their own home
• someone living with a foster family
• someone spending time away from home in residential care

Someone can be, or have been, informally or formally in care. It can have been for a long time or short time. There is no one-size that fits all for what it means to be care experienced and everyone’s story is different.

What ILF Scotland do

We have a large suite of staff policies to ensure that our team, including those with caring responsibilities, are able to work in a way that suits their lives. We call this life-friendly working.

Our well-being at work policy, time off for dependants policy, flexible working policy and carers leave entitlement, ensure that someone can focus on their caring responsibilities, working how and when suits them best.

We are also the first organisation in Scotland to achieve the Gold Standard Kingship Friendly Employer Status. The Kinship Friendly Employer scheme supports kinship carers who want to stay in work to maintain their income, job security and career prospects whilst stepping up to take on caring responsibilities for children they love. Employers who join are publicly recognised as organisations that want to support their employees with balancing their work whilst looking after their children.

Aileen McNiven, Head of Business Services, is delighted by what ILF Scotland offers:

“I am really proud of what ILF Scotland can offer to staff who have either been in care themselves or are currently looking after a care experienced child.

“As well as all the policies in place that allow our staff to prioritise their family life, we also offer access to a wide range of wellbeing initiatives, including specialist webinars, videos, podcasts, counselling, a listening service and access to the BHSF Connect app knowing that sometimes the trauma from being in care continues into adulthood.”

Follow us on our social channels to find out more about Care Experienced Week and how you can get involved.