Official Report 966KB pdf
The next item of business is a debate on motion S6M-15205, in the name of Natalie Don-Innes, on keeping the Promise. I invite members who wish to participate to press their request-to-speak button now or as soon as possible.
14:52
Thank you, Presiding Officer, for the opportunity to bring the debate to the chamber. As minister for the Promise, I have seen progress, listened to heart-warming stories and witnessed the energy and activity that are under way across Scotland to bring change. I have also listened to what needs to improve. I am delighted to have the opportunity for members to come together across the chamber to reaffirm the Promise that we all made, from every seat of the Parliament, to our children and young people with care experience.
The debate and the motion provide an opportunity for all members in the chamber to make clear to Scotland’s care-experienced citizens that each and every one of us has a responsibility to keep the Promise that we made to them four years ago. I welcome Martin Whitfield’s amendment to the motion, which upholds that core principle. The important thing when it comes to decision time this evening is that the Parliament comes together to reaffirm our commitment to the Promise.
On that note, I will start by addressing the children, young people, adults and families across Scotland with care experience. The Government is committed to ensuring that families receive the right support in the right way and at the right time. Both the First Minister and I are clear that keeping the Promise is not an ambition in isolation. It is aligned closely with our programmes of work to tackle child poverty and reduce the number of families in crisis.
I know that we need to keep moving to make change happen, and I know that we need to move faster in some areas. However, I also know that much work is under way and that there is an incredible drive across organisations, systems and our communities to bring the change that is required. I reassure members that progress is being made. I am committed to making that happen, and I am committed to working with you all to make it happen.
In that spirit of collaboration, I acknowledge all the people and organisations across Scotland who are focused on delivering change—our social workers, our teachers, our health workers, our emergency service workers, our volunteers, our local and national public sector, our third sector and our communities. Thank you—your commitment and hard work is evident, and it is so welcome. Let us keep going together.
I am sure that my colleagues across the Parliament are poised to provide the challenge that the chamber is so effectively designed for them to provide. However, let us keep in mind that, across the parties, we have all jointly committed to change, so we must move jointly in a solution-focused way to keep the Promise and build on its five foundations: voice, family, care, people and scaffolding.
In March 2022, the Government published a comprehensive plan that set out actions and commitments, and, in September this year, we published a detailed update on progress on each action. Since the publication of the Promise oversight board’s second report last year, there have been a number of developments, including the publication of “Plan 24-30” in June this year by The Promise Scotland.
I extend my thanks to Fiona Duncan, the independent strategic adviser on the Promise and the co-chair of the Promise oversight board, who continues to work hard with her team to set the route map for what needs to be done, by whom and when. Ms Duncan’s assessment that we remain on track to keep the Promise by 2030 furthers my confidence that we can do so and that, together, we will.
There is clear evidence that progress is being made. Indeed, early evidence demonstrates that there has been a 15.6 per cent reduction in the number of looked-after children in Scotland since 2020. Although I fully appreciate that that does not tell us the full story, it tells us that the system is changing. We are safely keeping more families together, and we are changing our approach to better meet the needs of children and families.
At the heart of that work is the whole-family wellbeing funding programme. For example, in South Lanarkshire, funding has supported the scaling up of centralised family support hubs, which have contributed to a more than 60 per cent reduction in the number of referrals to statutory services. That early support has avoided the need for crisis intervention.
For our children and young people who require to enter care, we know that, for some, that might be for short periods and that, for others, it might be for longer.
The Promise tells us that developing a universal definition of “care experience” will help more people to understand and relate to what it means to be a person with experience of care. That work is under way, and I thank Who Cares? Scotland, Barnardo’s and all the children, young people and stakeholders who are engaging in events across Scotland to inform it.
The contribution that is made by our kinship carers and by our foster carers and foster families, when it is not safe or possible for children and young people to remain with their birth families, is of the highest value. I reiterated that message when I met the kinship care advice services advisory group yesterday.
The definition of “care experience” is becoming one of the most important elements, and it is right that that definition is developed with people with care experience and those who surround them. Will the minister give an indication of how far we are along that pathway? Will there be a definition before we have to address the question of the proposed bill?
We are consulting on that matter, which will be considered in anticipation of the bill.
In August 2023, I was very proud to introduce the Scottish recommended allowance for kinship and foster carers, which benefits more than 9,000 families and ensures that, for the first time, every eligible foster and kinship carer receives at least a standard national allowance. Last week, we launched a new kinship care assessment framework, which is intended to assist social work practitioners to assess kinship carers and their needs.
I recently met foster carers and their families in Perth, where I launched the next stage of our work to set out a vision for the future of foster care in Scotland—a vision that prioritises children’s experiences in order to best meet their varied needs. It is vital that Scotland has enough capacity to provide loving care, so, in 2025, we will prioritise a national campaign to recruit more foster carers.
Scotland’s children’s hearings system continues to play a pivotal role in our support and decision making. I am grateful to the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration and to Scotland’s diverse pool of panel members, who continue to support children, young people and families who attend hearings. I am also grateful to Sheriff Mackie for the work that he has undertaken with those with lived experience of the children’s hearings system to lay the foundations for a redesign of that system that best meets the needs of our children and young people. The next stage of development in advance of the legislative and non-legislative change that is required is under way.
In May 2024, I was honoured to support the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 into law. That has already facilitated an end to the placement of children in young offenders institutions in Scotland. For our children and young people who are engaged with the justice system, we have taken a significant step forward with the bairns’ hoose pathfinders and affiliate test sites under way, backed by an investment of £10 million.
I recognise that young people who are transitioning out of children’s services might still need access to financial, practical and emotional support at that stage in life. We continue to work closely with corporate parents and our partners to better co-ordinate and make available the support that is required by those who are leaving care. We will continue to make improvements in the year ahead, including through the development of the care leaver payment, which will be co-designed with care-experienced people and those who support them.
We will also take action in response to what we have heard in the recent moving on from care into adulthood consultation and the Care Inspectorate thematic review of transitions for care-experienced young people.
As minister, I have had the privilege visiting a broad range of projects and meeting some incredible care-experienced children and young people along the way. I am encouraged by the quality of work that is under way throughout Scotland. In education, we have provided more than £60 million to local authorities through the care-experienced children and young people fund. We have also seen real successes in schools across Scotland through the virtual headteacher network and other supports that aim to increase attendance, improve attainment and reduce exclusion.
In housing, I have met staff and young people who are involved in the Midlothian house project and heard about the real impact that the team has had on their lives. The project won the outstanding corporate parent award at the first corporate parenting award ceremony that was held last August.
Through the Promise partnership fund, we have supported projects such as the Aberlour perinatal befriending service, which is an early intervention approach for mothers and mothers-to-be with mild to moderate perinatal mental health illnesses. I also recently visited Young Scot and spoke to young people about their experiences of transitioning out of care. I heard about the difference that the Promise is making and how those young people can see that changes are happening.
I know that good things are happening in every corner of Scotland on the Promise, and I encourage local systems to challenge themselves, to learn from each other and to continue to build a culture where the best of practice is the reality for all children and their families. Understanding the progress that has been made so far is essential in ensuring that we remain on track, but also so that we can flex and direct that attention where it is required, informing the oversight board for the Promise, as it holds all of Scotland to account on progress.
I also know that statistics alone are not enough. We will continue to ensure that the voices of our care-experienced children and young people remain at the heart of our story of change. For example, our joint work with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and The Promise Scotland to develop the Promise stories of progress project will launch by the end of this year.
As I have set out, implementing change requires partnership across the board. To help enable that, the Government is committed to introducing a Promise bill during the current parliamentary session and I hope that we will be able to pass it with cross-party support. Again, in the spirit of collaboration and keeping in mind the collective promise that all of us have made to care-experienced children and young people, I hope that all parties will commit to working constructively together on that legislation when it is introduced.
I lodged the motion to acknowledge the commitment that this Parliament made to keep the Promise to care-experienced people by 2030. The Government’s focus is on action that will help children, young people and families across Scotland. Keeping the Promise will have benefits for everyone in Scotland. That is why the legislation that we will introduce by the end of the current parliamentary session will provide the further direction that we need.
By voting in favour of the motion, members will send a message to the children, young people, adults and families across Scotland with care experience that their voice matters. They will be supported in the years ahead and the Promise that we made as a Parliament four years ago will not be broken.
I move,
That the Parliament reaffirms its collective commitment to Keep The Promise by 2030.
15:04
I thank the minister for bringing this important debate to the chamber. I welcome the opportunity to reaffirm the commitment of Scottish Conservative members to the Promise. I would also like to apologise for the small error in our amendment and I thank the Presiding Officer and her team for sorting that.
We must never forget that not only was the Promise made and agreed by all parties in the Parliament, but that a promise was made to make tangible change to the lives of care-experienced people in Scotland. That is a promise that we must not break.
It will come as no surprise to anyone that the topic that we are debating is of personal interest to me. I have listened to many care-experienced people over the years, and it is just as important now that action is taken as it was 20 years ago, when my husband and I embarked on our journey to foster and adopt.
I note the tone of the motion, which we will vote for, but it would be remiss of me not to take the opportunity to express the concerns that have been raised by stakeholders—Ms Don-Innes is well aware that I take every opportunity to do so—about the lack of progress and time delays regarding implementation of various parts of the Promise, so I will do so in today’s debate. We rarely have a chance to debate the issue, so forgive me for taking the opportunity when it arises.
However, before I do that, it is only right and fair that I recognise the good work that has been done so far. There has certainly been a pivotal change in the way that children and families are supported. The drive to keep siblings together has meant that more and more young people are cared for with their brothers and sisters, which is a good thing. We know that attachment is essential to the building of strong relationships, and that such family bonds play a crucial role. I am looking forward to the remaining quarter, who do not stay with their family and are separated from them, becoming a thing of the past.
There has been a move towards redesigning the children’s hearings process. Although I have some reservations about whether the intentions will be met, it is right that we listen to children, families and care-experienced adults, and that we place them at the centre of decisions about their lives.
I want to raise concerns about the treatment of volunteers and the lack of transparency in relation to staffing decisions, which could be taken into consideration as part of the redesign process. With the increased role of children’s hearings, we must be mindful of the fact that everyone who gives of their time for the good of our children needs to be respected and offered the same protections as employees.
Even though there is a long way to go, it is excellent to see the shift in provision of support for young people who are moving on from care into adulthood. The understanding that corporate parenting, just like any form of parenting, does not stop when a person reaches 18 is a welcome shift towards supporting care-experienced adults, which should be applauded.
I thank the Promise oversight board for its continued work in ensuring that The Promise Scotland is continually assessed. It is concerning that the board has raised fears about a lack of focus. That sentiment is echoed by The Promise Scotland in relation to what more is required from the Scottish Government. I thank it for its briefing for today’s debate, in which it states:
“there needs to be a step change in pace and scale”.
I agree.
At a recent meeting with the Promise oversight board, I recognised its frustration at the lack of drive to achieve the remaining objectives, and its disappointment about the absence of the next steps for “Plan 24-30” and the dearth of grass-roots changes from “Plan 21-24” that will actively make immediate improvements for the experiences of those who are on the edge of care.
The oversight board correctly highlighted its concerns earlier this year, when it said that “Plan 21-24”,
“the strategic implementation of what needs to happen each year to achieve the Promise, will not be fulfilled”,
and it has concluded that the original aims of the plan will not be achievable by the end of the year. We are at the end of the year, and I fear that the oversight board was right.
It cannot be acceptable, as Who Cares? Scotland highlighted in its report from October 2024, that income gaps for care-experienced individuals have grown from 25 to 29 per cent to as much as 38 per cent, which amounts to nearly £10,000 a year. The issues are all still there, and they must be addressed. We must make sure that the same thing does not happen again when we implement the objectives over the next five years to ensure that the deadline of 2030 is met.
I would like to take a moment to look specifically at the whole family wellbeing fund, which was mentioned by Ms Don-Innes. That £500 million fund is to make on-the-ground support for families as accessible as possible. It is solely for projects in the community and will be in place until the end of this session of Parliament. It was even highlighted to me by the then First Minister, Ms Sturgeon—I am glad that she is in the chamber today—that that important fund is instrumental in keeping the Promise.
I note The Promise Scotland’s comments that
“There must be a renewed effort, building on the strong emphasis on whole family support in the recent Programme for Government, to ensure that all families are able to access emotional, practical, and financial support to stay together, wherever it is safe to do so.”
It is therefore concerning to find from a freedom of information request that most councils are currently using the fund to supplement their staffing requirements, which is not the purpose of the fund, and it raises concerns that the original objectives might not be met by the full funding allocation. It would be a pity if implementation were again to be the downfall of the project, so I urge the minister to look at how outcomes of the fund will be measured rather than look at money spent. The minister alluded to that in her opening remarks.
Barnardo’s highlights in its briefing for today that
“the Scottish Government’s Promise Plan Progress Update 2024”
says that the
“investment in the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund will remain static, and that the £500 million commitment will not be delivered by 2026.”
That is disappointing to hear. Although I understand the financial limitations—which the Scottish Government will undoubtedly mention—it is incumbent on this Government to put its money where its mouth is and to show its full commitment to keeping the Promise.
Presiding Officer, I realise the time, so I will wind up.
Who Cares? Scotland highlighted in its February report that 2023 had the highest levels of social worker absence due to sickness. In 2021, 65.2 per cent was the greatest rise in one local authority, and in 2023 the rise was 83.3 per cent in one local authority. That highlights a problem in social work in our local authorities. Each year, a different authority has the highest level of staff absence, which shows that it is a nationwide problem. The United Kingdom market rate average for employee sickness is 2.6 per cent, which demonstrates that there is an alarming crisis among social workers in our local authorities.
We know that we do not have enough social workers, and we know that the retention rate is low, with most newly trained social workers leaving the profession within four years. We also know that we cannot keep the Promise without them. I urge the minister to ensure that strategic leadership is at the forefront, moving forward.
I recognise the work that has already been done, but there is so much more that we need to do. Now is not the time to step back: it is the time to step up. I am up for the challenge. I am sure that the Government is, too.
I move amendment S6M-15205.2, to insert at end:
“; notes with concern the findings of The Promise Oversight Board’s second report, which raised doubts about Scotland’s progress towards delivering The Promise by 2030; acknowledges the February 2024 report from Who Cares? Scotland highlighting that in one local authority area over 83% of social workers experienced sickness-related absences in 2023; is concerned that local authorities lack adequate resources to ensure sufficient staffing, thus impacting support for care experienced children, young people and families; notes The Promise Oversight Board’s call for a focused approach to effective implementation, sufficient resources, and workforce recruitment and retention; understands that care experienced pupils are often removed from school to attend social work meetings and hearings, resulting in 1,304,088 days of missed school across 22 reporting local authorities; acknowledges Who Cares? Scotland’s October 2024 report, which found that income gaps for care experienced individuals have grown from between 25% and 29% to as much as 38%, amounting to nearly £10,000; highlights persistent health inequalities among care experienced people, who face greater risks of chronic illnesses like hepatitis, depression, lung cancer and heart disease due to adverse childhood experiences, and calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that funding reaches those in need to implement effective, empowering solutions for care experienced individuals.”
15:12
I am a proud member of the Children’s Parliament “unfearties”; I stand with children to make rights real in day-to-day life. Today, as part of that journey, I stand here and reaffirm Scottish Labour’s commitment to keeping the Promise by 2030. I will join all those across the chamber who want to reaffirm at decision time this Parliament’s commitment to keeping the Promise by 2030.
The journey has not been easy, and I am minded of the care-experienced children and young people who do not feel that the Promise has changed anything for them. I hope that this rapidly becomes a historical feeling. However, it is the reality of where we are today that we must look at.
The cultural shift that we have begun to see around how we support care-experienced young people is not insignificant, and seeing the importance of capitalising on any momentum is essential. The momentum must not abate: we are but 2,191 days from that date in 2030.
Members will recall—indeed, they might balk at recalling—my contributions during the passage of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill and the constant reminder of the time that had passed.
We are but 2,191 days from the date in 2030—that is all the time that we have until then. That is a long time in a young person’s life. It will take them from birth all the way through to primary 2. It will take them from P1 through to P6, and from secondary 1 to S6. However, it is not so long when it comes to the time that is required to implement the Promise.
To that end, I am extremely grateful to the minister for her assurances about the Promise bill and, indeed, my amendment to the motion. I welcome that openness.
I echo the remarks of The Promise Scotland, and acknowledge and celebrate the fact that,
“Over the last 4½ years, substantial progress has been made towards keeping the promise—change has happened.”
We have dedicated and hard-working people going the extra mile—actually, in all probability, going an extra 10 miles—to implement the Promise. They work on the relationships with care-experienced young people and they support young people in the important transition into adulthood, doing all that they can—as we have heard—to keep siblings together, to ensure that children and young people feel loved, and to see that care-experienced adults receive the support that they need. I want to take a moment to celebrate them and to thank them because, without them, no change is possible.
I also thank the 5,500 children, young people, families, care-experienced adults and members of the paid and unpaid workforce who shared their stories with the independent care review. I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to do that. It is up to us and up to the Government to act on what they have told us.
We have heard time and again how important getting this right is; we have been reminded of just how important the Promise is to those who are directly affected. Yet, instead of acting—for example, by introducing legislation with urgency and properly funding and resourcing the workforce—we are here again, reissuing the Promise. It is important. It is arguably one of the most important things that we can achieve as a Parliament, but it is also important for the Government. It is important for the Government to show up and to show how important it is, not just to repeat the messages.
When the Promise oversight board came to meet MSPs last month, it highlighted the reality that is still faced by social workers, children, young people in care and those around them. The job is not yet done. As the Conservative amendment in the name of Roz McCall correctly highlights, there is so much that we still have to do—so many ways in which we can continue to fail care-experienced children, young people and adults if we let that continue.
We can see the educational outcome for care-experienced young people. The percentage of looked-after school leavers who are staying on after S5 is down by 2.7 per cent. The percentage of looked-after school leavers with one or more qualifications at Scottish credit and qualifications framework level 4 or better has gone down by 2.6 per cent year on year. Exclusions are going up and attainment is falling.
I am grateful to the minister for her offer to work cross-party on the Promise bill and I look forward to those conversations and discussions, as well as to the debates that we will have in the chamber, to which I will bring contributions and ideas. I am heartened by the latter stages of the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill, which was passed only yesterday, that show that the Government can operate in a cross-party manner. The bar has now been set for the minister.
We can stand here in the chamber and discuss how much we want to keep the Promise, but without the Promise bill—without tangible and measurable action and progress—it is nothing more than wishful thinking. The foundations include clear and transparent funding that shows us—and, more importantly, that shows the children and young people and their families who so desperately need the Promise—that the Scottish Government is serious about keeping the Promise. Hence the disappointment that the Scottish Government’s promised planned progress update for 2024—the investment in the whole family wellbeing fund—will remain static, and the £500 million commitment will not be delivered by 2026. The Scottish Government cannot make a legitimate promise or, indeed, make a promise with legitimacy, and expect it to be delivered without taking substantive action towards delivering it.
The Government has a destination, the Government has a route map, and the Government has the support of this Parliament, but it is up to the Government to start driving the Promise forward. Today, we are voting to reaffirm the whole Parliament’s commitment to keeping the Promise. We must now move from the foundation of keeping the Promise to the structure that will deliver the Promise. Delivery requires action today, not just a promise of action tomorrow. It is about delivering on growing up loved, on growing up safe and on growing up respected, and delivering all of that before 2030—a mere 2,191 days from today.
I move amendment S6M-15205.1, to insert at end:
“, and welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment that the proposed The Promise Bill will be in place before the end of the current parliamentary session, and its commitment to productive cross-party engagement on the Bill’s contents.”
Thank you very much indeed, Mr Whitfield. I call Gillian Mackay, who joins us remotely.
15:19
I, too, thank the minister for holding this hugely important debate. Like others, I reaffirm the Scottish Greens’ commitment to achieving the Promise.
I do not think that anyone could argue with what the Promise is at its heart. The recognition that important structural and societal barriers remain for care-experienced people reminds us of the urgency with which such barriers should be dismantled. What we have done so far and how we have pushed progress forward are really important. If the importance of an issue could be measured purely by the number of briefings and emails that we receive on it, this issue would be a high priority for the chamber.
With regard to steps forward, The Promise Scotland, in its briefing ahead of the debate, highlighted the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024. My colleague Ross Greer managed to secure amendments to that legislation that sought to improve the way in which secure transport is delivered and scrutinised, because the transport provision for young people in secure care had been a bit of a missing link in the gradual raising of standards, quality and accountability over recent years.
The hope instead of handcuffs campaign raised the profile of the issue, too, highlighting that children in Scotland were being inappropriately restrained when in the care of secure transport providers, with handcuffs, for example, being used in situations in which they simply were not necessary. The use of restraint against children has, rightly, been the subject of significant scrutiny and debate in the Parliament and in council chambers across Scotland, and I am glad to note that progress has been made specifically in relation to schools, with greatly improved guidance being produced.
The availability of secure transport has also been an issue. The Education, Children and Young People Committee heard that, due to the lack of specialist providers in Scotland, transport providers were coming from hundreds of miles away to take young people relatively short distances. That was not good either for young people or for providers themselves. However, as the “Plan 24-30” document says:
“Keeping the promise will never not be urgent. Childhood is short, and precious. ”
That should focus minds on how we continue the pace of change and adapt current plans when issues arise.
Support for families and early intervention have been raised by several organisations. Helping families to thrive, and giving support and guidance before a crisis, are essential to keeping the Promise. The whole family wellbeing fund has been hailed as a positive step forward, but many families are still finding it difficult to navigate systems when they need help.
We must also remain aware of how budgets impact on the financing of third sector and other organisations that provide support and advocacy to families, as well as the effects on funds such as the whole family wellbeing fund. Projects under that fund cannot sustain many third sector organisations on their own. We know that financial positions are difficult, but often it is all too easy to cut funding for some of that vital work in order to plug gaps in statutory services. The reality is that many third sector organisations are either catching people who do not qualify for support, or preventing people in need from accessing statutory services in the first place.
I have attended a few events with organisations such as Who Cares? Scotland at which I have spoken directly to young people who are care experienced and have heard from them what they need from us, and I have found kinship care and relationships with siblings being mentioned often. There is a perception that kinship care is often dismissed as it can be too difficult to establish, or that only immediate family were considered for it. The definition of “kinship care” in the Scottish Government’s guidance is actually pretty broad, but it seems that, in certain cases, it might not be being explored to its full extent. I was going to ask the minister for an update on work in that space, but I am grateful to her for outlining some of the measures that are under way. I am particularly interested in the guidance to the social work sector to support kinship care. If she has any further information, either now or at a later point, I will be hugely grateful to get that detail.
As Roz McCall mentioned, there has been some progress on keeping siblings together, but the briefing from The Promise Scotland once again raises the issue of the lack of contact with siblings for care-experienced people. It is an issue that I have heard repeatedly from children and young people right across the country, and it appears that we are not yet getting it quite right every time. There needs to be a consistency of approach for siblings who have individual plans and orders through the hearings system to ensure that the system that is supposed to support them is not putting in place competing orders with different contact requirements. Not taking wider circumstances and important people in the care-experienced young person’s life into account is not getting it right for that child or young person.
The language that we use around care experience can also carry stigma. In the process of preparing for the debate, I read about some work that Clackmannanshire Council has undertaken to make the language that it uses about care experience more accessible. That could be the language used in reports, or in meetings, and it would ensure that the young people being talked about know what it is that people are saying, so that they can have meaningful input into their care. That very much prompted me to go back through this speech to see whether I had lived up to those accessibility standards.
We are talking about the simple things—things that we know make a lot of what we do more accessible, such as not using jargon or too many abbreviations, and making sure that the child or young person understands what is being said before moving on to the next topic. That might sound patronising, but the entire document is about how those little things encourage children and young people to be equal partners in their own care, to be able to participate and to explain their own view and experience.
I know that I am rapidly running out of time, and there are several more things that I wanted to cover and which I hope to be able to address in closing. In the interests of time, though, I will leave it there for now.
15:35
Of course, we in the Liberal Democrats recommit ourselves to the Promise, which is why we will support the Government’s motion this afternoon. However, we will also support the two amendments. We are particularly drawn to Roz McCall’s amendment, which details some of the challenges that we face.
There is no doubt that progress has been made. Who Cares? Scotland tells us that the situation is “encouraging”, particularly with regard to
“the rights of brothers and sisters, work to re-shape the youth justice system and ... challenging stigma.”
However, there is a disconnect. When I, along with others, met care-experienced young people earlier this year, they were seething at the slow pace of change—indeed, I was quite taken aback at the degree of frustration that they felt. They left me in no doubt that they were losing faith in the Promise.
It is the responsibility of those of us in this Parliament to raise the issues that are being raised today. Doing so is not an attack on the Promise or the system; it is about providing robust scrutiny and challenge to make the change, so that those young people do not still feel frustrated the next time that we meet them.
Children First says:
“we are still a long way from Keeping the Promise.”
In fact, it believes that the wider problems have become so severe that it has declared a childhood emergency. Last year, the Promise oversight board said that it did
“not believe that delivering the original aims of Plan 21-24 is realistic”
by the end of the plan period. Kezia Dugdale, a former member of the Scottish Parliament and a member of the board, said, in a personal capacity:
“the experience of too many children and families is of a fractured, bureaucratic, unfeeling care system that operates only in a crisis.”
That is certainly my anecdotal experience from my casework in my constituency. We see evidence of constantly changing social workers and a system that does not respond to pleas for help and responds only in a crisis. That pattern is repeated on numerous occasions.
Who Cares? Scotland, which brought those care-experienced people to the Parliament, has produced an excellent and grounded piece of evidence on the lack of progress on “Plan 21-24”. As we have heard already, there should be a presumption of brothers and sisters staying together, but the report showed that one in four siblings are still separated. That is an improvement on the three out of four who were separated at the start of this process in 2017, but seven councils did not know how many were separated. How could they not know? We are talking about one of their main responsibilities, and they admitted that they did not know.
The Promise made a commitment to end school exclusions for care-experienced children. However, 23 local authorities said that they continued to formally and informally exclude care-experienced pupils. One has ended the practice, and three will do so soon, but five did not even answer the question, which was asked by the main organisation that lobbies on behalf of care-experienced young people.
Restraint is supposed to end, but there is concern from Who Cares? Scotland that there is an attempt to redefine restraint as “safe holding”. Daniel Johnson’s proposed bill on restraint could clarify that area. In fact, clarification is important, especially as, alarmingly, three councils did not know how many incidents of restraint there had been and nine did not even respond. There was also a lack of knowledge of practice in non-council facilities.
Out of the 29 local authorities that responded to Who Cares? Scotland, 13 said that they did not currently provide independent advocacy services for care-experienced people at all stages of their lives, services that they are supposed to provide. Moreover, on kinship and foster carers and their being paid at the same rate, 10 councils confirmed that they paid the same, while two responded that they did not.
From the 28 local authorities that responded, 75 to 108 children and young people have experienced a breakdown of their adoption since the publication of “The Promise”. However, two councils did not even record that those breakdowns were happening. How can we understand how the system works if we do not record the data necessary to scrutinise it?
Trauma-informed training is very important; nine councils provide it, but 11 councils do not know whether they do. There is a commitment to valuing staff, but, as we heard from Roz McCall, absence rates in one particular council were going up at a shocking rate—from 65 to 78 to 83 per cent. That was just one council, but I know from my local authority in Fife that there are significant problems, and it is a sure sign of a system under considerable strain. Throughout the committee’s scrutiny of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill, we found that that was certainly the case. I also note that, of the 32 local authorities, 10 did not provide any trauma-informed training to corporate parents, pupils or families.
A thematic review from the Care Inspectorate published yesterday found that, although
“the rights of care experienced young people are being upheld as they move on from being in care ... The experience of moving on from care, envisaged by the Scottish Care Leavers Covenant ... has yet to be achieved for all young people. Variable approaches to keeping in touch also means that not all ... have equity of access to all the necessary information during the stages of transition.”
The Care Inspectorate also found that
“Access to suitable housing was the most significant challenge”.
Indeed, we know that those who have had care experience have a particular problem with accessing housing.
Children First says:
“too many are ... struggling to find help when they need it.”
The whole family wellbeing fund was slow to get off the ground and be spent. We need it to be more transparent, and we need to get it out the door, so that we can invest in families and make sure that they stay together.
There is much more that I could say, but I hope that the minister understands that scrutiny is essential if we are to deliver the Promise by the end of the period.
We move to the open debate.
15:32
I am pleased to speak in the debate. Hard as it may be for folks in the chamber to recognise, I was first elected to Aberdeen City Council in May 1999—some 25 years ago. I know that I look much younger, Presiding Officer.
In the first few weeks after I was elected, a very senior social worker asked me how many children I was responsible for. I said to the social worker that I had no kids, so I was responsible for none. I learned very quickly from that woman that I was responsible for a great number of children. The words “corporate parenting” were not used in those days, but it came as a bit of a shocker to me that I had responsibility for so many young people. I took that responsibility very seriously indeed—so much so that some folk said that, for a while, I never shut up about the situation.
I quickly came across practical issues, such as inadequate provision. In particular, in Aberdeen City Council at that time, there was too much use of care homes, and many of them were not of a great standard. A number of years later, I had the great pleasure of closing the Netherhills children’s home and replacing it with a facility that was fit for purpose and could be called a home. All of us, whether in this chamber or in council chambers across the country, must realise our responsibilities and realise that we should do the very best for the children and young people for whom we are responsible.
I have a confession—I was unable, for good reason, to attend a seminar on the Promise that was held in Aberdeen recently. I made the effort afterwards to speak to the organiser, Georgette Cobban of Aberdeen Council of Voluntary Organisations, and to listen to organisations that were involved in the day. The conversations were very interesting, and I hope that the minister will address in her summing-up some of the suggestions that I will highlight.
One of the organisations that I talked to was Home-Start Aberdeen, which is an immense organisation. Many members will have experience of Home-Start in their constituencies. One of the things that Home-Start Aberdeen said—I thought that it was a bit unusual at the time but, the more I thought about it, the more I saw that it was right—relates to Roz McCall’s point about pay gaps. Home-Start Aberdeen said that the seminar had been good and worth while, but there was disappointment that no private organisations were there. We need to pull in private organisations to help us to deliver the Promise. I have already spoken to the minister and written to Fraser McKinlay about that, because we should pick up on it.
On a visit to Befriend a Child, the differences between the treatment of kinship carers in Aberdeen city and their treatment in Aberdeenshire were highlighted to me. As in Mr Rennie’s experience, there was a comment that, far too often, social workers are changed suddenly, which can cause real difficulties for families in building trust. It was highlighted to me that getting support for kinship carers is easier in Aberdeenshire than it is in Aberdeen. We must ensure that support and knowledge are provided to kinship carers, no matter where they are in the country.
I was also told that some kinship carers—particularly older kinship carers—are scared to ask for help for particular things, in case that leads to them losing their children. We must take cognisance of that and ensure that people know that asking for help is the right thing to do and that they should not feel threatened if they have to do so.
A key point that comes up in all such debates is that we must all listen. By listening, we can make real changes to people’s lives. I will give members an example. A number of years back, I talked to and—more important—listened to a young woman with lived experience. One of the difficulties that she had experienced was in paying council tax—council tax came as a surprise to her. I fed the issue through the system, because it was obviously a problem, and I was pleased when the then First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, announced that care-experienced young folk would be exempt from paying council tax.
Through listening, every single one of us can make that change—sometimes a very small change; sometimes a life-changing change. I hope that we will all continue to listen and to be good corporate parents.
15:39
On reflection, I wonder whether I have been in the Parliament for too long, because I find debates such as this one quite hard. I do not want to sour the tone of the debate, but sometimes when we discuss topics such as this, we go round in circles and go through the motions, and we pay lip service to the Promise.
I do not doubt that the minister is committed in this area. I have listened to members speak of the progress that has been made, and I have read a number of the briefings that have come in. There are things to welcome, but I look round the chamber and see that colleagues are not here for the debate. All 129 of us should be pretty ashamed of the situation that still persists when we hear some of the points made by Willie Rennie and Gillian Mackay. We are not keeping the Promise. The amount of action does not match the commitment that we have collectively made, and I worry about the chronic implementation gap that Claire Burns from the University of Strathclyde talked about.
I do not think that anybody is arguing that we have kept the Promise; we are on a journey to keep the Promise by 2030. I welcome hearing about the challenges in the chamber, and I wanted to have the debate so that I could hear about members’ priorities. However, I do not think that we can deny that there has been clear progress and clear change—we have heard some stories of that today—and that our children and young people are benefiting from many of the policy changes and the direction that we are moving in. The member has to at least appreciate or acknowledge that fact.
If the minister was listening, she would have heard that I did say that there are some things that we can be pleased with. However, although I do not want to be unkind, we need to be challenged and we need to keep challenging ourselves to keep the Promise. The Promise is not like an ordinary pledge that political parties or politicians make; it is of a different character and nature. We should not be forced to do it kicking and screaming or because facts and anecdotes from around the country make us feel uncomfortable; we should be driving it forward at great pace.
The ground will probably open up and swallow me, but I have a lot of respect for Nicola Sturgeon in relation to the policy. Some of the symbolic action that she took while she was First Minister—for example, she brought 1,000 care-experienced young people into Bute house to spend quality time listening to them—sent out a very strong message. Without being too political, I note that the changes that have happened since then have meant that there is not the same priority in this area, and sometimes it feels as if the foot has come off the pedal a bit. That is not good enough.
During the past week alone, I have seen examples of issues in my constituency work. I was contacted by a foster carer who has a young person who is well settled and doing well at a school. They were told by their local authority, Dumfries and Galloway Council, that it can no longer provide transport for that young person to get to the school where they are settled, because another school that is nearer could meet their educational needs. That completely ignores all the friendships and bonds of attachment that that young person has, and the potential changes that might come for that young person in the future.
In other bodies that the Scottish Government is responsible for—I am not talking only about councils—the bureaucracy that Willie Rennie spoke about has kicked in. Cost and an easy-life culture mean that, when such problems appear, they are too difficult to address. A mindset shift is needed to deliver the Promise to the timescale that Martin Whitfield was right to speak about, which is coming down the line. It does not feel as if that mindset shift has carried forward from the Government down to the level at which things are delivered. That is why we have ended up with a delivery gap.
I do not want to go back through the points that Willie Rennie listed, but that we have councils that do not know where siblings are cannot possibly be right. There are 80 recommendations in the care review. Some of the easy ones have been implemented, and some of the ones that can be delivered most straightforwardly have happened, but the Promise cannot be kept unless all 80 recommendations are met.
We cannot say that we are on a journey or are moving towards things when, at this stage in the process, basic things such as knowing where people are and where they are based, and keeping them in touch with known siblings for whom the state is also responsible, are not happening. That is not good.
Although I will soon vote with my colleagues to support the motion, it is right that we question whether we are going to keep the Promise on the timeline that has been set out and whether the things that we have done to date are good enough. I do not think that they are. As colleagues have heard through their engagement, a lot of young people are not happy. They do not feel that we care or that we are getting it right.
15:45
It is easy to forget what a powerful statement it was when the Promise was launched and voices across the Parliament and our public services used the word “love”. “Love” is a word that is not often used in politics, so that was a powerful use of language that demanded and commanded our attention and action. At that time, we, as a Parliament, collectively made a promise to children and young people that they
“will grow up loved, safe and respected”.
Following on from the independent care review, the Promise was a radical statement, and it was clear that nothing less than systemic change would deliver it. The Promise Scotland sets out very clearly the case for why change was necessary and how outcomes for the care-experienced community could be improved by thinking, acting and investing differently. We should be proud of the collective achievements that have been made towards that aim, while remaining clear that the focus and pace of change must be sustained.
I welcome the opportunity to recognise the significant amount of positive and transformative work that is under way to keep the Promise across Scotland, which is making a difference to the lives of children and families, as well as the hard work and dedication of those who deliver services day in, day out. A lot has changed since the keeping the Promise implementation plan was published, in 2022. Services have continued to move forward from the pandemic and to navigate through other challenges, such as the cost of living crisis. We should recognise that the workforce is delivering services in an often extremely difficult context.
The stories of change conference held by The Promise Scotland earlier this year showcased and highlighted examples of excellent practice that is taking place across Scotland. The same was the case during the Who Cares? Scotland care experienced week at the end of last month.
South Lanarkshire Council, where my Rutherglen constituency is based, was an early adopter of the champions board model, which is set up to enable care-experienced children and young people to articulate their views and experiences and to be heard. It has already played a key role in helping to shape and adapt practice in my local area.
I thank members of the care-experienced community in South Lanarkshire and across Scotland for their time and engagement through fora such as that. Their experience and voices are imperative in making sure that change is delivered in the right way and that we make progress together.
So far, 2024 has been a significant year for the planning and the system-focused work that is required to keep the Promise. “Plan 24-30” launched in June, and work to develop it continues, led by the Promise board. “Plan 24-30” complements the work of the Scottish Government and is founded in realistic delivery. It sets out what success will look like, what should happen next and a route map, which, crucially, has room to evolve and grow.
When aiming for complex systemic change, tracking and understanding progress can be very challenging. We have heard examples of that already in the debate. “Plan 24-30” is designed to be dynamic and iterative in its structure while being clear about which bodies must work towards change, who is doing what and where collaboration must happen.
This year’s programme for government shows the Scottish Government’s commitment to driving progress through its multiyear approach to the whole family wellbeing fund. Its vision of support is that the fund will be readily available to families so that they can access the help that they need, where and when they need it. The Government this year has confirmed its commitment to introduce additional local flexibility to the ways that budgets and services can be reconfigured in the pursuit of a whole-family approach.
In my home local authority of South Lanarkshire Council, increased investment and buy-in has seen a range of actions move forward via the children’s services partnership. Those include the development of family support hubs to enable easier access to support; a refreshed parenting support pathway; the pathfinders project to deliver early interventions; and more initiatives that are all designed to shift the focus towards supporting families via prevention and reducing the need for crisis intervention. The case for prevention over reaction is, of course, not a new one, and prevention is not an easy thing to deliver in the context of running crucial day-to-day public services, but the Government’s focus on a whole-family approach and the action that that is driving across Scotland demonstrates the power and ability of prevention to sustainably change outcomes for children and families, both now and in the future.
The implementation plan also told us that “a strong legislative framework” would be crucial to achieve the aims of the Promise, and important progress has been made in key areas. That has included the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots law, which strengthens a key commitment of the Promise that protecting and upholding children’s rights will underpin all approaches to improving outcomes for those with care experience. The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 will enable improvements to youth justice, secure care, aspects of the children’s hearings system, victim services and the criminal justice system. In particular, the provisions to end the inappropriate placement of 16 and 17-year-olds in young offenders institutions and the extension of provisions on the children’s hearings system to further uphold the rights of older children are significant steps forward.
The next few years will see more crucial developments in our collective drive to deliver the Promise. With “Plan 24-30”, which sets out a dynamic route map, along with the Government’s key strategic aims and drivers, the commitment and hard work of those on the front line of service delivery and the voices of the care-experienced at the heart of everything that we do, more progress can be made and the Promise kept.
I will close on the theme that I started on: love. It must be at the core of the work that we do to fulfil the Promise. Although we can debate and disagree over policy, guidelines or legislation, we must all remember that at the heart of this work should be our shared commitment to improving outcomes for children, young people, adults and families with care experience across Scotland to ensure that they do, indeed, feel safe, respected and loved.
15:52
I welcome the news that the much-needed Promise bill will be introduced during this session of Parliament. That will be a relief to care-experienced campaigners, who have for years been calling for legislation to be strengthened to better support care-experienced people throughout their lives. The bill has been a long time coming since the launch of the care review and the publication of the Promise report, in February 2020.
There has clearly been some progress, which we should all welcome. I listened to what the minister said, but I wonder whether we are as close to keeping the Promise as we should be. We now know categorically that the first phase of the Promise has failed and that the objectives that were set in “Plan 21-24” were not met. The research report “Is Scotland Keeping the Promise?” makes it clear that Scotland is not keeping the promise that was made in 2020. Care-experienced children are still being excluded from our classrooms, which leads to those children having some of the poorest attainment levels in the country. While we continue to exclude care-experienced children from education, that will have a huge impact on their ability to reach a positive destination when they leave school.
We know that Scotland is in the grip of a housing emergency and that care-experienced people are twice as likely to experience homelessness. “Plan 21-24” stated:
“Housing pathways for care experienced young people will include a range of affordable options that are specifically tailored to their needs and preferences. Youth homelessness will be eradicated.”
We have to wonder how close we are to keeping that promise. It went on:
“Scotland must avoid the monetisation of the care of children and prevent the marketisation of care”.
That was at the centre of the Promise, as we know how greed in the care sector can lead to a race to the bottom to maximise profits for shareholders, and the impact of the huge cost of private care placements on local authority budgets. That has not ended. Can the minister outline what the plan is and when that will end?
Although the decision to stop sending under-18s to Polmont is to be warmly welcomed, we also know that there can be issues in secure care settings—for example, the reports of abuse and children facing what was described as a “serious risk to ... life” at St Mary’s Kenmure.
The importance of truly independent advocacy should not be underestimated, as it can have such an impact on the lives of care-experienced people of all ages. We know that being in care as a child can have lifelong consequences, but the Scottish Government almost always puts arbitrary age limits on the support that it offers. We need the introduction of a truly lifelong advocacy service, to build on the good work that is currently done by the helpline run by Who Cares? Scotland. That radical change would really make a difference.
The Promise Scotland, an arm’s-length company owned by the Scottish ministers, does not have any powers to hold Scotland to account on keeping the Promise. It does not seem to take responsibility for the failure of “Plan 21-24”, despite the millions of pounds of public money that have been ploughed into the organisation. Does the minister still believe that continuing to fund the organisation and the expense of consultants attached to it is the best value for the public pound, given the policy failures that have been outlined today?
We must do all that we can for care-experienced people, and we must ensure that the Scottish Government is doing everything that it can to keep the Promise. This has to be a promise made and delivered, or we have let down every care-experienced person who has put their faith in us. We have to say very clearly, in relation to that group in particular, that if we make a promise, we have to keep it.
15:56
Children and young people across Scotland deserve the very best that there is to offer in all aspects of their lives. It is our job as members of Parliament to do everything that we can to ensure that no child is left behind.
As we know, one group in particular that can face challenges that many of us in the chamber cannot begin to imagine are children from a care-experienced background. That is why the Promise to care-experienced children and young people that they will grow up loved, safe and respected is such an important commitment that is agreed upon by all parties across the chamber.
Since that initial commitment in 2020, we have seen immense changes to the world that we live in, not least due to the Covid pandemic. In turn, those changes have had a direct impact on all our young people, but the Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to delivering on the Promise to care-experienced youngsters by 2030.
The Promise drives the Government to implement transformational change that will look to make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up, and to ensure that every child feels safe, loved, respected and able to achieve their full potential. That is why I am delighted that, since 2020, the Scottish Government has spent £235 million on the Promise-related initiatives, including The Promise Scotland whole family wellbeing fund and the Scottish recommended allowance for foster and kinship carers.
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting a friend of my granddaughter, and I am sure that she will reach her full potential. In fact, I would go so far as to say that she has the potential to be a future leader. Alishba Malik is 13 and probably the most focused and driven young girl that I have ever met. She has her future planned out. She told me that she will go to the University of Glasgow to study English and politics, which is a subject that she is passionate about. She even has an internship at Harvard lined up, and there are no limits as to how high she wants to fly. Alishba is care-experienced, and we talked about the Promise, Who Cares? Scotland and what they both mean to her. She is inspirational, and I am in awe of her.
I realise that not every youngster has confidence or self-belief to Alishba’s level, but I tell her story to highlight that it can be done, with love and support, and that the work that is being done on the Promise is working for youngsters of all backgrounds. The independent care review told Scotland what change was required, and the Government is delivering that change. The key areas are listening to children, families and care-experienced adults, and placing them at the centre of decisions that affect them. That includes redesigning the children’s hearings system, for which I volunteered 12 years ago, and transforming the way in which children and families are supported.
We know that sibling relationships and attachment are crucial, as is, where possible, keeping siblings together. I agree with Oliver Mundell’s point about local authorities not having a record. That is simply not acceptable. Support for young people moving from care into adulthood is imperative, as is removing stigma and creating a positive attitude around the language that is used when talking about care-experienced people.
I welcome the continuation of care-experienced student bursaries, which have been available to students in higher education since 2017-18 and for students in further education since 2018-19. That helps to close the attainment gap. However, we cannot be complacent as we approach the midway point to 2030; much more must be done so that change can be felt more consistently in the lives of care-experienced children, young people and families.
Although I recognise that much progress has been made so far, the shifting economic context and the persistence of poverty mean that, for Scotland to achieve its collective ambition, we need to step up the pace. I acknowledge the issues raised by many members and by Who Cares? Scotland. It is crucial not to lose the overall vision for the transformational change set out by the independent care review, which outlines a smaller, more specialised care system.
The Promise will ensure that those who need it can receive person-centred support, place-based activity and universal service provision. As we heard earlier this year, “Plan 24-30” was launched to map the responsibilities and timelines. It requires the Promise to be on the road map to success for Scotland’s care system and makes clear its responsibilities. That also demonstrates to organisations the flexible and dynamic approach that will be necessary to ensure that families receive appropriate support.
The Promise also aims to reduce the number of children who are in care while ensuring that those in care have more positive experiences. However, to achieve that, we will require a consistent approach that revolves around values and understanding across the workforce to ensure that the right support is available for care-experienced young people whenever they need it. Success is also dependent on our ability to shift from intervention to prevention to ensure that families receive the support that they need before reaching crisis point.
The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024 and the forthcoming Promise bill will build on what has already been achieved. The Promise has the ability to change the lives of thousands of care-experienced young people across Scotland for the better, and it is a Promise that we are determined to keep for children who deserve no less.
16:02
Four years have passed since the introduction of the Promise. Although I was not a member of the Scottish Parliament then, I was pleased to see parties united in the shared ambition that care-experienced children and young people grow up safe, loved and respected. I join members in reaffirming my commitment to that today.
I spoke during the debate on the implementation plan for the Promise two years ago. I discussed several areas then and will come back to some of those today. I will first focus on the care workforce. The Promise highlighted that many in the workforce felt overwhelmed and anxious, and were boxed in by professional language that made it difficult to build relationships with young people and their families.
February’s Who Cares? Scotland report on the Promise found that 22 local authorities have implemented destigmatising language in their practice, and that 27 have training courses for school staff on understanding care experiences. However, training levels differ and courses are not always mandatory. Although there are positive steps, improvements need to be made across the board. We cannot have a postcode lottery of support for care-experienced young people.
Members will note the impact of care experience on education prospects. The most recent outcomes data for looked-after children shows that attainment and attendance rates are down 3.5 per cent year on year. That is greatly concerning, because those are key outcomes. If the Promise is to be delivered, improvement is needed urgently.
Education and training can do a great deal in tackling prejudice and creating the conditions for care-experienced people to succeed. That extends to my next point. Project Esperanza, with which I hosted a round-table meeting earlier this year, offers training to practitioners to deliver race-sensitive and faith-sensitive services. The Promise called for shifts in the culture around care, and that should include building understanding and creating an anti-racist culture. Training on race and faith for social workers is needed, because the Promise must be fulfilled for all, including people with minority ethnicities, who are overrepresented in the care system. Supporting the workforce with training relating to stigma and the care experience is one of the themes of “Plan 24-30”, and we should put that into practice over the next five years.
Third sector organisations play a vital role. The Promise oversight board’s second report called for greater use of the support that is provided by third sector partners. That should be taken on board. The Scottish Government delivers funding to third sector organisations via the Promise partnership fund and other funding streams. The Corra Foundation, which administers the Promise partnership fund, found that 36 per cent of organisations in receipt of funding experience staffing issues, including burnout, and that 39 per cent stated that short funding cycles and time constraints affect work on systems change. I recognise that those are common issues across third sector organisations, but those organisations’ key role in delivering the Promise should be recognised and treated as such.
I will conclude by discussing data. The Promise oversight board noted that there is a range of data sources, which are not always shared between agencies, and it recommended that we improve the quality and completeness of the data. The blueprint on the creation and control of data was due to be released in June 2023, but it has yet to be delivered. Although care should be led by those who receive it, a strong data environment can inform future practice and allow greater transparency.
Ultimately, many of the issues that have been raised today can be resolved through legislation. Today’s debate and the fact that the 2030 target date is fast approaching make it all the more clear that the proposed Promise bill is needed. Members know how serious and wide ranging the subject is and how important it is that we get this right. We cannot let the Promise be broken. We cannot let down our young people.
16:08
Few, if any, issues matter more to me than this one. I know that that is true for the minister, too, and I commend her for her leadership on this mission.
The Promise is not just another Government policy; it is much more fundamental than that. It is of a “different character”, as Oliver Mundell said. We all made a solemn commitment to some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our country—a Promise to care-experienced children and young people that they will grow up loved and valued, with the same life chances as their non-care-experienced peers.
As the person who, when I was First Minister, metaphorically—and, in many cases, literally—looked young people in the eye and made the Promise, I feel a heavy responsibility to see it delivered in full. Indeed, some of the young people whom I met in the early stages of this work are in the public gallery today, and I want them to know that I will always stand with them and with their peers across the country.
I also pay tribute to the Promise organisation—Fiona Duncan, Fraser McKinlay and the oversight board. I believe that they are doing vital and very good work.
However, it is not just down to the Promise organisation—it is down to all of us. I feel this responsibility no less heavily today than I did when I was in the Government. I feel it even though I no longer have Government responsibilities, and I think that that is appropriate, because the Promise will not be delivered by Government action alone. Of course, the Government must inspire, provide leadership and funding—a topic that I will return to—and hold public services to account, but delivery is down to each and every one of us. It requires a whole-system, whole-society approach.
As we approach the midway point to 2030, by when the Promise must be delivered—I say “must be delivered” deliberately—there is much to be positive about. For example, the care-experienced student bursary, ending the incarceration of young people in Polmont, progress towards the care leaver payment and the new allowance for foster and kinship carers are all important.
What is perhaps more important than any individual initiative is to challenge ourselves to make sure that those measures add up to more than the sum of their parts. It is the plethora of tactical interventions, vital though they might be, that are delivering the strategic change that we need to see and the transformation for care-experienced young people that the Promise is all about. That is a question that we must always have at the forefront of our minds.
I am optimistic. I firmly believe that, with the right strategy, leadership and funding in place, the Promise is deliverable by 2030, but—and this is a significant but—believing that it is deliverable is not the same as being convinced that it will be delivered. At this stage, that is a much more open question, which is why it is so vital in this moment that we significantly increase the scale and pace of change. I agree with many of the more challenging points that have been made across the chamber today. We must decide collectively, as one Parliament, that the breaking of the Promise is not an option that we are willing to countenance.
There are many issues that I could focus on today, but in the time that I have, I want to mention three. The first is prevention. Delivering on the Promise depends on significantly reducing the number of young people who are going into care and building on the progress that has already been made. That means supporting families to stay together, helping them to overcome the challenges that often force them apart and addressing the long-term drivers of family breakdown in a preventative way that is real, meaningful and accessible, not just as a response to crisis. Central and critical to that is the whole-family wellbeing fund.
The down payments that have been made are welcome. The money is already supporting positive change, but it is profoundly disappointing and it potentially jeopardises delivery of the Promise that the full £500 million will not be delivered by the end of the current parliamentary session. I understand more than most the financial challenges that the Government is facing, but I very much hope that the forthcoming budget significantly increases the amount that is available in the next financial year, so that as much as possible is delivered in the current parliamentary session, and that we have a clear deadline for delivery in full. To be blunt, the commitment must be delivered in full well enough in advance of 2030 for it to have sufficient impact by 2030.
My second point is about the need to radically improve the experience of those young people for whom state care is unavoidable and to listen to their lived experience as we do so. We know what needs to be done—ending sibling separation—because, at one in four, there are still far too many separations, and ending, not redefining, the use of restraint and reducing school exclusions are some other examples.
A number of parliamentary questions that I asked recently confirmed that we still do not have clear enough data to know how much progress is or is not being made to hold public authorities to account. I agree with Oliver Mundell, Willie Rennie and others that it is simply not acceptable for any local authority not to be able to answer those questions. I believe that that particular aspect is urgent so that we can hold ourselves and others to account.
My final point is that, whatever disagreements there are in this Parliament—let us face it, there are many—or, indeed, in council chambers across the country, the mission of keeping the Promise should and must unite us all. As I know more than most, it is always easier to make a promise than it is to deliver on it. However, we will be much more likely, as a nation, to deliver on the Promise if we approach it on a genuine cross-party basis, as I believe that we have done so far. I agree with those who have said that that cannot be done in a lowest-common-denominator way or a not-rocking-the-boat way. It must be done in a way that provides the constructive challenge that will drive delivery.
The Promise has so much support outside the Parliament—indeed, it has massive support, and is the subject of massive interest, across the world. There are countless Governments that are looking to Scotland to see what we achieve. That support and commitment must be replicated here in Parliament.
To be blunt, we must not let the care community down. It would be unconscionable for us to do so. Today, let us recommit to keeping the Promise but, more importantly, let us recommit to doing whatever it takes to keep the Promise in full.
We move to the closing speeches. I call Gillian Mackay to close on behalf of the Scottish Greens. Ms Mackay joins us remotely.
16:16
It has been a good debate—it has been a challenging debate for us all, but it has certainly been a good one.
I absolutely agree with the minister that we need to ensure that care-experienced people feel that we are committed to change and that, as a Parliament, we are committed to making the system better for all care-experienced people. It is so important that we take a proactive approach to keeping families together, to alleviating poverty and, ultimately, to making those families feel supported and valued.
I echo the minister’s thank you to all those who have given their time and effort to make things better. In my contributions today, I have referred to many stories and personal experiences that people have given me to make things better for those who come after them. The sharing of those stories is selfless. Often, we cannot change that experience, but the people who share those experiences often want to make sure that it will not happen to anyone else.
The definition of care experience is important, but there has to be a balance. It is important that we ensure that it is specific enough to have meaning and to inform, but not so specific that it excludes some people’s experience. I am very glad that it is being developed with people with lived experience, to ensure that that becomes a reality.
I found Oliver Mundell’s contribution very interesting; I often feel that same sense of déjà vu in health debates. I think that that links to Roz McCall’s comments on the pace of change. We can never take comfort in the pace at which we are achieving change for care-experienced people. Martin Whitfield made a point about how long it takes for change to happen and what that time looks like in terms of the lives of young people.
I met the same young people as Willie Rennie met, and I think that the frustration of those young people is absolutely reflective of how long it takes for tangible change to be achieved. Some of the things that we have talked about this afternoon take time, and there is no way around that. Although it is true that we could certainly have gone quicker on some things and achieved more by now, we need to consider whether we are managing expectations and giving timelines to care-experienced children and young people as a whole, so that they can feel in control of the whole journey, too.
Kevin Stewart mentioned the need to listen and the small issues that we can help to resolve. We should never underestimate the extent to which things that we see as relatively simple can become all-consuming for people. At the same time as focusing on the large systemic change that needs to happen, we also need to solve the practical issues.
That is especially true for those young people who are moving on from care. On one of the first occasions on which I met Who Cares? Scotland, young people told me about all the things that they had found challenging on leaving care and moving into their own place, which involved having to deal with being adults long before many of the rest of us would have had to. Advice on the little things that I took for granted, which my parents gave me when I first moved out, was often never given to those young people. That should lead us to always stop and not make assumptions about anyone else’s experience. Crucially, we should listen to those who have already had to navigate that situation alone.
Clare Haughey mentioned the need to track change and progress, and no one will be surprised to hear me say how crucial data is.
It is hugely important, yet Willie Rennie highlighted how patchy data collection is in local authorities. It is simply not good enough that we do not know how, where or why some things happen. How will we know if the initiatives are having the effect that we want without effective data collection? We will not even know if something is a problem without having accurate standardised data from across the country that is collected and challenged at a national level.
Local variability also needs addressing, and tracking what is going on well—or not going well—in certain in areas is vital to ensuring that we keep the Promise everywhere.
Foysol Choudhury’s remarks about those from racial minorities and how people can be multiply disadvantaged are really important. We need to ensure that intersectional issues are taken into account for those young people and that we tackle all the barriers that they face.
Katy Clark talked about the arbitrary limits for support for care-experienced people. Many people do not understand why the age limits have been picked. For many of their peers, support from families does not just end at a certain date or age. We need to look at how we can support people throughout their lives. Giving them that value is hugely important to make them feel loved, as Rona Mackay and others mentioned.
Another issue that has been highlighted with me is health inequalities for care-experienced people. Again, that is about access and structural inequalities, but often stigma and cultural issues can be just as painful. I have previously spoken to care leavers who have become parents. Their perception of judgment and extra monitoring, because of their background of care experience, made difficult what should have been a positive and joyful time. They felt a level of suspicion and monitoring that others did not receive. They felt that people were concerned about how they were looking after their baby and that, as a first-time parent, they were under a huge amount of scrutiny and were concerned that it was implied that they might not know what they were doing.
That illustrates that it cannot be the responsibility of only one minister to ensure that the Promise fulfils its objectives. Many pieces cross into many other portfolios, so we must ensure that everyone is focused on this. We also must ensure that whatever systems we design are accessible for care-experienced people.
Nicola Sturgeon paid tribute to all those who have given their time, experience and lived experience. We would not be at this point without all those who have put their efforts into supporting all of us to be able to deliver on the Promise. We must live up to the expectation that they have so rightly placed on us to achieve the Promise, and the Scottish Greens look forward to continuing our work with the Government on the bill and on the issue going forward.
16:22
I am pleased to close today’s debate on the Promise on behalf of the Scottish Labour Party. We have heard from colleagues today, including the minister, Rona Mackay, Foysol Choudhury and, as Martin Whitfield has reminded us, from care-experienced young people, why this debate and, indeed, the Promise and its delivery are so important.
In that spirit, and with that delivery in mind, Scottish Labour will support cross-party collaboration to ensure effective implementation of the Promise. We welcome the Government’s commitment to introduce a Promise bill in this Parliament, and we look forward to working with it to ensure that the bill is the best that it can be. The fact is that the thousands of children and young people to whom it is crucial need action—and they need action at a pace and scale that, unfortunately, the Government has not yet delivered, as colleagues including Roz McCall, in her motion, and Oliver Mundell, Nicola Sturgeon and Gillian Mackay, in their speeches, have all highlighted.
Scotland is almost halfway through the 10-year plan to implement the Promise, but I am sad to say that the first phase of implementation is not quite on track. It is not just me saying that. We on the Education, Children and Young People Committee heard the same when we met young people with experience of care, who, as Willie Rennie has told us, are angry.
For example, when we asked them whether the Promise would be kept, one told us that
“I strongly feel that the Promise won’t get kept”,
whereas another said:
“After 2030 it will keep getting pushed back and pushed back until they say it’s unachievable.”
Most sadly of all, one young person said:
“They promised too much; they should have promised half of it and then they would actually achieve it and would be able to add more in 2030.”
I do not share that information to bring down the mood; I share it, because it reminds us of the importance of the Promise that we have all made. We do acknowledge some progress—all of us have; Labour does, too—but concerns about progress are impacting not just on young people every day. They now seem to be impacting on their belief in change and their aspirations, and that is something on which we must act.
For them—and, therefore, for us—there is an urgent need to deliver actions and, along with them, we ask the Government to ensure that keeping the Promise remains a non-negotiable priority, without delay or compromise, and that a relentless focus on action is its next step. Simply repeating the same words does not make something happen, and it does not keep promises. As Who Cares? Scotland has said, although it is encouraging to see various pieces of legislation being proposed that will benefit care-experienced people,
“it feels like Scotland is stuck in implementation purgatory. Decision makers need to ensure that they don’t continue to create legislation that isn’t fully implemented.”
Who Cares? Scotland is right. On a lot of things, we are, I am afraid to say, in implementation purgatory, and we must move on from that, particularly for care-experienced young people. Indeed, years on from the publication of the independent care review, almost halfway through what is supposed to be the transformative period, there are many frustrations at the pace of progress. Who Cares? Scotland, the Promise oversight board and Barnardo’s Scotland have all said that they welcome the progress but that more needs to change.
We need investment, not diversion of resource to plug gaps elsewhere. On housing and homelessness, as my colleague Katy Clark has pointed out, there must be high-quality accommodation and support before, during and after transitions to adulthood, yet one young person told the committee that
“When you leave care, there’s no support after. I was made homeless for 3 weeks.”
As for whole-family support, the young people who spoke to the committee told us that, despite some progress being made, too often they are still separated from their siblings. We have heard about such cases today. Indeed, in some cases, that separation was for more than four years.
On education, the attainment gap across Scotland is stark. However, for young care-experienced people, less than half of young people with experience of care have even one national 5 when they leave school. They are several times less likely to be able to access higher education, and they have much poorer rates of entering positive destinations after school—and that is if the Government knows where they are. We have just heard the points about data.
Such outcomes for care-experienced young people are not inevitable. The outcomes are this way, because of a failure to make the systemic change that is needed—a failure that puts a ceiling on opportunity. We have to change that—and through deeds, not through words. We cannot tolerate cuts to local authority budgets and programmes such as MCR Pathways that literally turn lives around for young people with care experience. We cannot have a system that means that young people miss out on school to attend social work meetings, which has an impact on their education, and we cannot have a system that means that care-experienced young people are at greater risk of chronic illnesses, as Gillian Mackay just pointed out. Those outcomes are unacceptable—and they are not inevitable.
We must, as young people with care experience tell us, listen to them and their families. We must change how we collect data. We must change how we speak about care experience. We must ensure that there is a laser focus on action to recruit and support the workforce—a workforce that I would like to thank today. Crucially, we have to take action to address the systemic barriers that those young people face.
The era of repeating words has to be over; now must be the era of action and of spreading opportunity for all. I believe that all of us across the Parliament will collectively reassert our commitment to the Promise, as we should and as we must. It is now for the Government to get on with the job, because—and the final word will go to a young person from Who Cares? Scotland—
“People need to see it happening to believe it”.
Thank you, Ms Duncan-Glancy. Miles Briggs will close on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives.
16:28
I thank the organisations that have provided helpful briefings for us ahead of the debate and I welcome to the public gallery representatives from them. As the minister stated in her opening remarks, today is an opportunity for the whole Parliament to reaffirm our collective commitment to Scotland’s children, young people, adults and families with care experience. Indeed, we have all made that point.
However, we need to be honest about where we are now with not only keeping the Promise but delivering it. I think that all members have emphasised that we are now at the delivery point, and we need to accept that we all have a responsibility for that—not only Government ministers but all the members, from every party in the chamber, who have signed up to this.
I welcome the Government’s commitment to introducing the Promise bill in this session of Parliament but, with only 18 months left of this session, we all have a role to play in making sure that the bill is the best piece of legislation that it can be. Across the parties, we have a lot of questions that we want to ask about what the bill will look like and how we can shape it, but those who are trying to deliver the Promise in our councils, education institutions and the third sector will push back at all of us and say that they do not have the resources and that they are getting cuts to their budgets.
Therefore, we also need to understand that funding needs to follow the delivery of the Promise, and we need to challenge ourselves and ministers on that. There has been substantial and welcome progress in recent years, but we have a huge amount of work to do if we are to say that we have kept the Promise by 2030.
I recently met a number of organisations to discuss the Promise and to talk about the peer support that is being provided. It is something that I am passionate about and which I know is making a difference. For example, Scotland’s only national mentoring programme for care-experienced children, intandem, which works with children who are at home or in kinship care, is inspiring Scotland’s young people, matching them with trained local mentors. The organisation works with and supports 280 care-experienced young people. It is a great example of where the Promise has already started to filter down to ensure that advocacy lies at the heart of the progress that we want to see.
I hope that the minister will engage with me and others on what will be in the proposed Promise bill about advocacy for young people. We politicians stand up to make our voices heard, but in doing so, we must ensure that children make their voices heard, too, and that they are listened to and respected. A huge amount of progress still needs to be made on that. Children in the hearings system should be granted better access to independent advocacy to ensure that they are provided with impartial information about their rights and their entitlements, and they should be given enough space to ensure that their opinions and feelings are communicated, within what is often a moving process.
That might require additional resources and potential changes to legislation, but I think that it is important for those changes to be made and for the system to be turned around to ensure that children’s voices are made paramount. It is also important in supporting better decision making by our young people. I hope that there is an opportunity for the minister to work with us on the bill, because I, for one, am passionate about changes to the advocacy aspect.
However, this is not just about process. What is always my concern when I stand up to make a speech and, indeed, when it comes to everything that we do in the chamber—and it is probably a concern for ministers on the front bench, too—is that process is one thing, but delivering an outcome is very much another. The policies that have changed and which are sitting with COSLA are doing just that—sitting with COSLA.
We need all institutions and organisations to move forward at pace to deliver the Promise. In 2017, I campaigned for a national kinship carer payment, but it was delivered only last year. The care leaver payment that ministers are introducing is a welcome step forward, and I hope that it can deliver, but there needs to be a different model for kinship carers, who are often grandparents. Their needs must be further taken into account.
When the Social Justice and Social Security Committee held a private round-table meeting with kinship carers, I distinctly remember speaking to a lady from Glasgow. The police arrived at her home at 3am with her half-naked grandchild and told her, “This is your responsibility. You are the next of kin.” Her daughter had had an addiction and substance misuse issue; the police had intervened and had brought her granddaughter to her home—and that was it. It was a case of “Over to you.”
The financial support package for kinship carers is not really there. Many kinship carers, and many grandparents in our society who are bringing up young people, are concerned that if they reach out for help, social services will get involved and the children will be taken away. There are still barriers in our system to many of our fellow citizens, who are doing their very best by our young people and keeping families together, being able to reach out for help. We need to do something about that, because if we do not, some individuals will continue to not ask for help, and the outcomes will not improve for those young people.
A number of members have mentioned the progress that we need to make. I do not think that we have a clear route to delivering the Promise by 2030. I hope that the proposed bill can make that happen, and we can look towards that. In his excellent speech, Willie Rennie mentioned that we are starting to see the development of a postcode lottery in the delivery of the Promise. I know that we all hate using the words “postcode lottery”, but some individual leaders in our councils are delivering progress, while others are not. We need collective work to take the Promise forward.
Kevin Stewart made an important contribution with regard to public and private relationships within the delivery of the Promise. How can they be taken forward, especially in relation to employers? That is an important aspect that we all need to look towards, and we must challenge the private sector to come and help to deliver the Promise along with the public organisations that we are tasking with doing that.
There is still a lot of potential with regard to what can be delivered on housing. When I visited the University of Edinburgh recently, I was pleased to hear about the work that it is doing to ensure that care-experienced young people have wraparound housing for the whole year, not just during term time, if that is what they want. We have seen some good progress on that.
Oliver Mundell and Nicola Sturgeon made similarly challenging speeches, and I welcome their contributions. There is no point in our congratulating ourselves on what we are doing: we need to be honest about the delivery and the structural reforms that are needed, which will be difficult to put in place. As Nicola Sturgeon said, achieving our aims will need strategy, leadership and funding, but we have all voted for the mission that we are undertaking, and we should all unite behind it, because we need to ensure that we deliver it.
To conclude—and I welcome the extra time that you have given me, Deputy Presiding Officer—I do not think that the delivery of the Promise requires a great deal of legislative change. As The Promise Scotland said in its briefing, we must ensure that we do not see the landscape becoming more complicated and cluttered. I hope that the proposed Promise bill is broad enough in scope to ensure that the required legislative changes are made to enable Scotland to keep the Promise everywhere, every day and to everyone.
16:36
I thank all members for their considered contributions throughout the debate. I am encouraged to hear that cross-party support to keep the Promise remains strong.
I will begin with Miles Briggs’s speech, the tone of which I welcome. He spoke about engagement on the proposed Promise bill, and I can say that, as with my work on Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill, I am fully committed to engagement with other members on the legislation. If they have not already done so, they should receive an email inviting them to discuss it with me.
I fully appreciate the story that Miles Briggs recounted about kinship carers and the Social Justice and Social Security Committee—in fact, I think that I was sitting on the committee that day and heard those issues live. Those are issues that I hear regularly in discussions with kinship carers.
Kevin Stewart also mentioned kinship carers and the fear that they feel about asking for help. As I said, that theme has come up in conversations that I have had—most recently in my meeting yesterday with the Kinship Care Advice Service for Scotland. I assure members who have raised the issue that I am determined to ensure that kinship carers feel supported and able to ask for that help. I know that Gillian Mackay was looking for an update on that. In the interests of time, I would be happy to provide that update following the debate.
I thank all members for their contributions, which were positive and, at times, challenging, as I expected. On the issue of siblings being kept together, I know that we still have work to do, but it is important to say that we are seeing an improvement in the number of siblings who are being kept together: an increase of 3 per cent demonstrates that we are moving in the right direction. However, as I have said, I know that we have further to go.
On inconsistency in local delivery, I am aware of the issues in that regard and am committed to improving the situation. I have seen the good things that are happening, but we need to ensure that they are happening all across Scotland.
How are we going to spread good practice across Scotland? Quite often, we hear about amazing things going on in one place but find that, in the next-door local authority, something completely different is happening. How do we ensure that we get some uniformity in place and push up the best possible practice for all?
“Plan 24-30” is a good example of how that can be done. The more that develops and the more good practice is shared in that regard, the more we will be able to deliver that level of consistency. Also, stories of change will be published, which will allow further sharing of information on progress.
I attended a conference earlier this year—although it seems like longer ago—at which a lot of key stakeholders, local authorities, third sector organisations, children and young people came together to learn about the different things that were going on across the country. Such events are really important, and we need to have more of them in the future.
I absolutely agree that the use of restraint should always be a last resort. I confirm that the Care Inspectorate is preparing to publish, this month, data on the extent of physical restraint in residential accommodation settings. However, again, I know that we have further to go, and I welcome discussions with members around what is required as we progress towards introducing the Promise bill.
I am a big supporter of the whole family wellbeing fund, which supports a huge range of activity across a comprehensive programme to enable local system change. Children’s services planning partnerships can choose how to spend that money as best meets their needs. I have seen on the ground the impact that it has had on various services in local authority areas, which shows that transformational change can happen.
I agree with Ms Sturgeon and other members that the whole family wellbeing fund is absolutely fundamental to delivering the Promise. I recognise the urgency, and our ambition is to increase the scale of that investment but, of course, we have to take an evidence-based approach to funding decisions.
Mr Rennie and many other members spoke about how we can track progress best. The Promise progress framework, which uses the quantitative data that is held at the national level to inform progress, is due to be published by the end of this year.
Finally, Ms Haughey made an important point. We are in a different place now from where we were when the Promise was made. We have had a cost of living crisis and a pandemic, so delivery has been more difficult, but that does not take away from this Government’s emphasis, focus and determination to keep and deliver the Promise.
As I said, I thank members for their challenges today. This is a journey to 2030 and, even with all the progress so far and the upcoming Promise bill, there is still some way to travel. We are learning every day, and best practice is being created, duplicated and shared. In spite of our having a long way to go, I am confident that we are moving in the right direction.
We all have a responsibility to raise the profile and understanding of the Promise. There can be no denial that good things are happening across local authority areas, but a lot of people still do not know what the Promise is or what it means, yet it impacts on every one of us every day.
The “Follow the Money” report, which was published as part of the Promise in 2020, showed that Scotland spends £942 million per year on the care system. The universal services that are associated with care-experienced people cost a further £198 million per year. The cost of services that care-experienced people require, as a result of the current failures in care, is estimated to be £875 million per year.
Even if we are not care-experienced or do not know anyone who is care-experienced, keeping the Promise impacts on all of us. Keeping the Promise, supporting families to stay together and moving towards prevention, rather than reaction, will have huge benefits not just for our children and young people, but for our entire country.
That is entirely in line with our tackling poverty agenda. A disproportionate number of children who live in care are in poverty. Equally, tackling poverty and supporting families to thrive will mean that fewer children will be unable to be looked after at home. The two approaches go hand in hand with one another.
In line with that, it is hugely important to tackle the stigma around care, which Gillian Mackay mentioned, and to have understanding and awareness of what care experience means.
As we move forward, we must continue to ensure that our actions have a real and lasting impact. To do that, we must continue to listen to the voices of our care-experienced community.
I feel very privileged when someone is brave enough to share their personal experience with me, in the hope that they can improve things for others. The basis of the Promise is that the voice, the individual and the group conversations are making a difference, which is why it is important to share something back.
When I became the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, I had no idea how much the role would mean to me. I got into politics because I want to change the world for the better, and I want an independent Scotland in which children grow up happy and families are free from poverty. I have previously highlighted some of my personal experiences growing up in a difficult background, but I think that it is appropriate to do so again to drive home the point.
My childhood was not easy. I was very young when my dad passed away. From far too early an age I saw the problems that drug and alcohol abuse can cause, and I witnessed domestic abuse from an early age. Something that I had not considered prior to my first day in this role was that, during periods of my life when I was not able to be cared for at home, I sometimes spent months at a time in an informal kinship care arrangement at my grandparents’ house. I am very thankful to have had them, and they are a massive part of why I am standing here today.
I do not say this for sympathy, and I do not pretend to understand every experience that children and young people face in Scotland—not by any means—however, members can be sure that, as someone who has lived through some extremely difficult experiences growing up, and who has experienced a sense of unbelonging, fear and disconnection, I am here to fight for all the children and young people across Scotland who face similar issues.
Doing this role every day and speaking about such issues regularly—whether with colleagues, care-experienced people or the third sector—has been very difficult, I will admit, and it has raised a lot of emotions that I thought I had dealt with. However, over and above that, the trauma has driven me to work as hard as I possibly can to facilitate change for those who need it most. Keeping the Promise is a priority for this Government, but it is a personal commitment of mine to do everything in my power to improve the lives of care-experienced children and young people, to tackle poverty and to work towards our having a country that supports families to stay together and to be happy.
I look forward to working with all children and young people, care-experienced people, colleagues, third sector organisations and other stakeholders to ensure that our vision to keep the Promise remains laser focused. I give members my assurance that I will remain committed to driving forward that change.
I finish by urging members to use today’s decision time to reaffirm our commitment across the Parliament to keep the Promise. [Applause.]
That concludes the debate on keeping the Promise.
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