We are delighted to announce that #YSAttain will soon be moving into phase three – thanks to the support of the Scottish Attainment Challenge and Tackling Food Insecurity at the Scottish Government.

Since 2018, we have been working in partnership with the Scottish Government, Local Authorities, Transport Scotland, the National Entitlement Card Programme Office and the Improvement Service as part of our ‘Attainment Challenge: National Strategic Partnership’ #YSAttain.

Together, we’ve been using the smart card capabilities of the Young Scot National Entitlement Card (Young Scot NEC) and our young.scot website to support the health and wellbeing of young people, a key element in closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

The first phases of #YSAttain were built on the successful outcomes of Renfrewshire Council’s Youth Services Model. They used the Young Scot NEC and young.scot to provide free travel entitlements for young jobseekers and care leavers.

Since then, we’ve supported Dundee, Falkirk, Highland, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire councils to provide practical, local entitlements to young people who are facing significant barriers to their attainment.

The entitlements offered included local information, travel tickets, out of school food provision, access to leisure and extra-curricular activities, and help to reduce the cost of the school day. These are all known to improve health and wellbeing – drivers to improving attainment, reducing inequality and challenging poverty. As they are delivered via the Young Scot NEC, young people can access these entitlements free of stigma.

These partnerships with Local Authorities have allowed us to create models of delivery using the Young Scot NEC and young.scot that can be adapted within local areas across Scotland during #YSAttain Phase Three.

This new phase builds on almost £1,000,000 of Scottish Government investment in the Scottish Attainment Challenge over the past three years directly to Local Authorities, with support from Young Scot to deliver #YSAttain.

This latest phase lasts until March 2022. Core to this next phase will be the creation of a #YSAttain Learning Community. This virtual community will allow partners and young people taking part in the programme to share knowledge and learn from each other. It will also allow us to share the extensive learnings we’ve gained during the first two phases with partners across Scotland and inspire them to develop their own programmes adapted to the needs of young people in their communities. We will also develop new digital resources to showcase models and share learnings.

It’s been so powerful to see the impact of #YSAttain in helping to change the lives of young people and support them to overcome the barriers that are placed in their way. We are immensely grateful to the Scottish Government for enabling Young Scot to support our Local Authority partners to continue this vital work. Louise Macdonald OBE, CEO, Young Scot

In this phase of work, we are looking to adapt and implement #YSAttain models of delivery across Scotland. If you are interested in getting involved, please get in touch by email. If you’re interested in getting involved, come along to our online information session on Thursday 29th October at 11:00 to find out more. Click here to register to attend.