Chamber and committees

We have not published, and could not publish, a supplementary financial memorandum ahead of today, not least because the data for 2022-23 is not yet available. This will become—

I have said that my priority is keeping the Promise by 2030, and the bill is a key part of that. The financial side can be progressed in further stages—

We thank James Withers for his thorough and comprehensive review, which provides critical and compelling insights into the current skills delivery landscape. The review highlights challenges within the current system and makes recommendations about how it should be changed to ensure that it is fit for the future.

We have heard loud and clear the calls for significant reform and we will not shy away from decisions that will deliver better services for learners and employers. However, decisions about reform of public bodies cannot be taken lightly, so we must work with the affected bodies, unions and legal professionals to consider the practicalities of implementing the review’s recommendations and to inform our next steps.

Investing in skills across people’s lifetimes is absolutely critical to our future productivity and success as the economy and our labour market continue to evolve. That is underlined by our commitment to having a skilled workforce, as set out in the national strategy for economic transformation. Our priority now is to ensure that apprenticeships are of high quality and lead to sustainable employment opportunities, including in craft roles.

The Scottish Government and other agencies continue to engage with key stakeholders, including Lantra. The Scottish Government is committed to promoting inclusive growth and to creating opportunities for all—including through use of apprenticeships—in order to ensure a vibrant, sustainable and productive rural economy. I would be happy to ask the relevant minister to write to Jim Fairlie with further detail of the support provided to Lantra.

As of 31 May 2023, 28 apprentices out of 801 from the 2017 cohort and 205 apprentices out of 862 from the 2018 cohort remain in training.

The Scottish Government has agreed the Skills Development Scotland budget for 2023-24 and SDS has completed contract awards to support up to 25,500 new modern apprenticeship starts in 2023-24, which will include modern apprenticeships in craft roles.

I thank Mr Johnson for his questions. The challenges that have been experienced with the 2017, 2018 and 2019 construction apprentice cohorts completing their apprenticeships are being carefully monitored. As the member rightly noted, the delays are related to changes in the qualification assessment that were introduced in 2017, the knock-on effect on college capacity to deliver the changes, and the impact of Covid-19.

Work has been undertaken by partners to address and reduce the backlog. We have seen some improvement, but it is not progressing as quickly as it should. The Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with all agencies to improve the rate of completion while maintaining the quality of the apprenticeships.

I understand that Mr Dey is alive to the need to address the backlog and that he has had useful dialogue with the CITB and is seeking to meet the SQA to explore solutions for clearing it.

I thank Rona Mackay for initiating this debate and I thank members for their contributions. This is a really important issue and I am completely supportive of ensuring that workplaces are more flexible for foster carers.

This debate, which is my first as a member of the Government, has provided us collectively, as a Parliament, with an opportunity to recognise the Fostering Network’s annual foster care fortnight. It is also an excellent opportunity for us all to recognise foster carers and acknowledge the vital difference that they make to the lives of our children and young people.

Today, I published a letter to all foster carers thanking them for all that they do, but I would also like to put on the record my sincere and heartfelt thanks to all foster carers and practitioners who work in the sector. We absolutely recognise the key role that you play in providing secure, nurturing and supportive homes for children and young people across Scotland. What you do day in, day out positively transforms lives.

I also take this opportunity to add my thanks to the Fostering Network Scotland—members of which are here with us today, and whom I met before the debate—for all the work that it does in organising foster care fortnight and raising the profile and awareness of fostering more generally.

As Rona Mackay highlights in her motion and as others have mentioned in their speeches, there are challenges, including with the retention and recruitment of foster carers, but there are also opportunities for everyone across the chamber, local and national Government, the third sector, local communities and, importantly, employers in supporting our foster carers.

There is absolutely no doubt that the pressure within the foster care system is an area that we need to address collectively in order to fully deliver on the Promise, and I am absolutely clear that it is vital that the Scottish Government leads from the front if we are to ensure that all care-experienced children and young people are supported to grow up loved, safe and respected.

We set out our commitment to do that in the Promise implementation plan, which was published last year. In the plan, we outline our vision for delivering a good childhood to ensure that

“Every child lives in a safe and loving home where families are given support to overcome difficulties and stay together.”

We are also clear that investing in a programme of comprehensive, on-going support for care givers is key to ensure that they have the skills, knowledge and confidence to continue to nurture the children in their care and build stable and loving relationships.

Work has begun on delivering that vision. We have committed to an investment of £500 million over the current session of Parliament in our whole-family wellbeing programme of activity. That will transform services to ensure that families, including foster families, can access the support that they need where and when they need it. We also allocated £50 million in this year’s budget, including £32 million that has been provided directly to children’s services planning partnerships, to enable work at local level.

We provide funding to the third sector to support foster carers. That includes over £150,000 to the Fostering Network Scotland this year to support the Fosterline Scotland service, training for foster carers and encouraging the recruitment of new carers.

The Scottish Government is also working with a small group of partners including the Fostering Network, the Promise Scotland, local authorities and others to look at how we attract and retain foster carers and what action we can take collectively to make that happen. The group is expected to conclude its work over the coming months, but I know that it is considering a package of support for foster carers that includes both financial and practical elements so that care givers feel better valued and supported.

On the financial side, I reassure Parliament that it remains a priority of this Government to deliver a Scottish recommended allowance for foster and kinship carers to meet the needs of children in their care as soon as possible. It has taken far longer than was originally anticipated and I recognise the frustrations of care givers and stakeholders, but positive progress is being made with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and we are working at pace to make that happen.

Allowances are important, of course, but they are not the whole picture. Foster carers need to be supported so that they can, in turn, support children who have often had a very difficult start in life to grow and develop in a stable and nurturing family home. We have already committed in our Promise implementation plan to publishing what we will do to provide trauma training and support for adoptive parents and kinship and foster carers, and the group that I mentioned earlier is also considering wider learning and development, including peer support.

As Pam Duncan-Glancy highlighted, foster carers often juggle looking after children with other employment, and I am well aware of how hard that can be.

The group is actively considering how employers in the wider community can support foster carers. The fostering friendly employers scheme is a positive example of how supportive and flexible employers can help foster carers to combine employment with the vital role that they play in looking after some of our most vulnerable children and young people.

I am absolutely committed to ensuring that the voices of those with lived experience are at the heart of everything that we do, and I am committed to working with foster carers in Scotland, and stakeholders who represent fostering, as we develop any changes to policy and practice on our journey to keep the Promise.

That is why, today, in recognition of the positive benefits that the fostering friendly employers scheme brings, I commit the Scottish Government to considering how it can become a more flexible workplace for foster carers as well as to exploring take-up of the scheme in order to support and promote it further. I thank Rona Mackay for being the first MSP to sign her office up to the scheme, and I encourage others to do so.

I conclude by thanking Rona Mackay for the debate, as it has given us the opportunity to debate foster carers and everything that they do and to consider how they can be further supported.

Again, I thank Scotland’s foster carers for their service and commitment. There is absolutely no doubt that you improve the lives of the children and young people in your care and make our collective vision for children in Scotland—to grow up safe and loved—a reality. Thank you.

Since 2021, we have invested £25 million in summer holiday programmes that have provided activities, food and childcare. Our priority now is to take the next steps in building a system of school-age childcare to provide year-round childcare support for families on low incomes in order to support sustainable employment. To do that, we are targeting our £15 million investment this year at community-based projects that will deliver year-round childcare and activities. We are rightly focusing on delivering lasting change for families and communities that need support the most.