Chamber and committees

Thank you, Linda. Foysol, do you have any further questions?

We move on to our final theme, on which Miles Briggs has questions.

Before we conclude, I want to pick up on a point that we have not fully covered. The whole family wellbeing fund, which was included in the 2021-22 programme for government, is not solely focused on kinship care, but it is aimed at tackling issues that families face before they need crisis intervention. How might the fund be used to offer improved support to kinship families?

Welcome back. We will now continue taking evidence on kinship care. The format for this session will be the same as the format for the previous session. I welcome our second panel of witnesses, who are also joining us remotely. First, we have Micheleine Kane. Have I pronounced your name correctly?

Thank you. Micheleine is chair of the Scottish Kinship Care Alliance. We also have Gill Westwood, who is manager of Peebles and District Citizens Advice Bureau, and Alison Gillies from the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland.

I hope that you all had an opportunity to tune in to the previous evidence session. If so, you will have an idea of the issues that have been highlighted.

I will again go over a few housekeeping points. Please allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn on your microphone before you start to speak. When you want to respond to a question, you can indicate that by putting the letter R in the dialogue box in BlueJeans or simply by putting your hand up. Everyone should check that they can see the dialogue box on the right-hand side of their screen.

I urge you all to be mindful of time. We are not too bad for time, and I will keep an eye on the time as we go through the session, but we have a lot to get through. Please do not feel that you all have to answer every question. If you have nothing to add to what others have said, it really is okay. You are also welcome to write to us after the meeting with any points that you feel have not been covered, or if you want to supply further information on any point.

I invite members to direct their questions to particular witnesses. I will again invite members to ask questions in turn. We will begin with Jeremy Balfour.

Gill Westwood and Micheleine Kane want to come in on those points.

I believe that Gill Westwood wanted to come in.

I reiterate that any further information that you have would be very helpful, Alison.

Sorry, Miles. Before we go on, I will just bring in Alison Gillies on that final point.

Thanks, Micheleine. I am sorry to have to interrupt you but we are running short of time, so I have to ask for succinct answers. I believe that Foysol Choudhury asked another question but, before I move on to that, Alison Gillies wants to come in.