Each young person has enormous talent, however care-experienced pupils often struggle to engage with school because of instability in their personal lives. They may not have positive adult role models to look up to and they lack access to social networks that can introduce them to the workplace.
In 2013/2014, prior to the introduction of mentoring, only 22% of Scottish care-experienced young people stayed on in school after age 16. International research shows that the longer young people stay at school past the statutory leaving age the better their longer-term outcomes. And the evidence is substantiated – prior to the introduction of mentoring, fewer than half of our care-experienced young people progressed to full-time employment, college or university, now 86% of our mentored young people do. By connecting each young person with a mentor, we can give pupils the support they need to succeed.