PEOPLE across South Ayrshire are being invited to a special event to celebrate Care Experience Week in the area.

Every year, on the last week of October, Scotland celebrates the care experienced young people in their communities and provides an opportunity for learning and connection.

This year’s theme for Care Experience Week 2023 is Lifelong Rights.

To celebrate Care Experience Week, this year the South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) will be working with partners across South Ayrshire to host a series of activities.

The main event will be run in partnership with Ayrshire College, with a celebration event taking place on Tuesday, October 24 at the college's Ayr campus.

Staff, partners, care experienced young people and the South Ayrshire community are all invited to come along to celebrate and learn from each other.

Councillor Lee Lyons, cabinet portfolio holder for health and social care at South Ayrshire Council, said: "We recognise the significance of Care Experience Week in South Ayrshire and are proud to celebrate our care experienced young people.

"We must ensure everyone in our community has access to the support they need, if and when they need it.”

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Linda Semple, chair of the South Ayrshire HSCP's integration joint board, said: “In South Ayrshire, we are striving for every care experienced person to have independent, relationship-based lifelong advocacy and support. Care Experience Week recognises this, which is why we’re very excited to celebrate it.

“As well as our main event at Ayrshire College we will be running a number of activities throughout the week for care experienced young people to come together, build relationships, celebrate talents and find out more about support available locally.

"I want to give thanks to our Champions Board who work extremely hard to build a solid support network for our care experienced young people.”

There will be a number of online activities planned throughout the week through the South Ayrshire HSCP social media accounts using the hashtag #CEW23

Mark Inglis, head of service, children and families at the HSCP, added: “Parenting does not stop at 18. We are consistently focusing on how to create greater equity and opportunity for care experienced young people.

"That consideration must involve finding ways to boost care experienced young adult’s access to employment, training, stable housing and necessary support.

“We have been working closely with our partners in South Ayrshire Council, NHS Ayrshire & Arran, VASA and Police Scotland to name a few. Our joint South Ayrshire Parenting Promise demonstrates how together we plan to drive continuous improvement for our care experienced community.”

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