Age of Leaving Care
The final item of business is a members' business debate on motion S3M-1645, in the name of Karen Whitefield, on "Sweet 16? The Age of Leaving Care in Scotland". The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes the Sweet 16? report by the Commissioner for Children and Young People in Scotland into the age of leaving care; expresses concern that while law and policy strongly advise that young people should be encouraged and supported to stay in care until 18 years of age where their welfare requires it, and that some local authorities such as North Lanarkshire are making welcome progress in achieving that objective, Scottish Government statistics show that eight times as many young people leave care at 16 as leave at 18; notes that as a result many young people encounter problems with paying bills, alcohol and drugs, continuing education and homelessness; believes that this is unacceptable, and recognises the merits of the report's recommendations to change the culture that assumes 16 as the age for leaving care so ensuring that in the future no young person feels pressurised to leave care before they are ready, that proper care until 18 is a right for all, that support continues to be available during the transition to independence, that the destinations and outcomes for young people leaving care are properly monitored and that all young people in care, in Airdrie and Shotts and across Scotland, receive the support, advice and information about their rights and options for the future that they require.
I am particularly pleased to secure one of the final members' business debate slots before the recess, to debate an important subject.
I welcome the young people who are in the gallery to listen to the debate, who come from Who Cares? Scotland, the Aberlour Child Care Trust's sycamore project and Barnardo's Scotland. They are joined by care workers who work for those organisations and by Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People and members of the reference group, all of whom have an interest in this important subject.
The report by Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People, "Sweet 16? The Age of Leaving Care in Scotland", should concern all members. It highlights the views of young people who have experienced, or are experiencing, being looked after and accommodated. It seems to indicate that a culture persists in which young people are encouraged to leave care homes earlier than they should, despite the range of policy and statutory measures that have been taken to ensure that it becomes the norm that young people aged between 16 and 18 remain in care.
Before I consider the issues that are raised in the report, it is important to stress that many failures and problems are systemic rather than the result of a lack of professionalism in care homes. Indeed, I thank all the people who work in our care homes, often in difficult and testing circumstances, for their hard work and dedication. Although some councils might not want to talk about love in the context of the services that people who work in care homes provide, I am convinced that the personal commitment that is shown by many workers to the young people in their care demonstrates those workers' desire to provide a loving environment for young people who are often much in need of some TLC.
The commissioner's report made it clear that the situation in care homes throughout Scotland can and must improve. Although the document highlights a number of examples of good practice, too often those are isolated cases and the good practice is not replicated throughout Scotland's local authority areas. I hope that tonight's debate can begin the process of learning from good practice and turning round a culture in which there still seems to be an expectation that young people will leave care homes at the age of 16.
The report examined a wide range of information, including written reports from all Scottish local authorities and interviews with 85 people in 13 local authority areas. As one might expect of a document that was commissioned by Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People, the interviews' emphasis was on the views of young people. It is clear from the report that despite legislative and policy measures, young people feel that too many young people in Scotland are leaving care at the age of 16 or 17 when they are not ready to face the challenges that that presents.
The report identifies a range of reasons for that. Young people might feel that they want to leave care because doing so will give them a sense of independence and of not being bound by the rules that exist in a care home. Such a view was expressed by both young people and care workers. However, it is interesting to note that many young people later regretted leaving care so early and felt that others should learn from their negative experiences.
The report also makes it clear that some young people feel that they are under pressure to leave care at the age of 16. It points out that once some young people in care turn 16, they feel less wanted and less valued. It contains some poignant quotations from young people, such as:
"They're saying to me ‘sooner or later someone's going to need that bed'. They make you worry and feel guilty",
and
"I was saying I wasn't ready but felt I had to go."
Those are worrying and sad comments. We must take steps to ensure that all young people in care understand their rights to remain in care, and that they understand and, importantly, feel that our social services want them to remain in care while they themselves feel that it is in their best interests to do so.
Another factor that the report highlights is the need for young people to have somewhere to come back to if attempts at independent living or returning to their family do not work out. Children from stable family backgrounds take that for granted. How many of us thought nothing of going home for the weekend or for longer than a week, and not just to get our mums to do our washing? Such children know that if their exploits in the wider world do not go as planned, they can always return to the family home. That comfort is mostly denied to young people who leave care: I hope that we can begin to address that situation.
Continuity can mean a great deal to young people who have led chaotic lives. The knowledge that they have somewhere and someone familiar to return to should things go wrong is extremely important. Interestingly, I learned recently that the London Borough of Barnet has initiated a scheme whereby senior officers and councillors take on a key worker/champion role with young people in care. That idea should at least be explored and considered by Scottish local authorities.
I want to say a few words about the use of bed-and-breakfast accommodation for young people who leave care. I remember well the discussions that took place during consideration of the Homelessness etc (Scotland) Bill, when we felt that it was inappropriate for B and Bs to be used to accommodate families. I do not feel that B and Bs provide suitable accommodation for young people who leave care, so I ask the minister to pay particular attention to recommendation 14 of the report.
Given that I have highlighted a number of the problems that are associated with young people being forced to leave care at 16, I would like briefly to mention some positive examples of best practice that exist, particularly in my local authority area. The report highlights specific concerns about young refugees. North Lanarkshire Council has supported a young man who arrived in the United Kingdom when he was 16 without any family, support or accommodation. He has benefited from the provision of a supported carer and currently attends college, where he is studying for a higher national certificate. We need more such projects.
Finally, I want to mention a project called community alternatives, which supports young people in care, including in secure accommodation, who are age 16 plus. Job coaches motivate the young people and give them confidence to apply for training programmes and employment and so meet other young people daily.
The situation in respect of care has improved in Scotland in the past few years, but the report highlights that we can still do much more. We must eradicate the culture that makes young people feel that they are no longer welcome in care homes after the age of 16 and we must ensure that young people are made fully aware of their rights and of the difficulties of independent living. We must take steps to ensure that, as with any other young person, young people who leave care have somewhere safe to fall back on if their attempts at independent living fail, for whatever reason. I hope that other members will take part in this important debate.
I congratulate Karen Whitefield on securing the debate, which highlights the fact that far too many young people continue to leave care at 16 and the detrimental consequences of that on their life chances. Care leavers are disadvantaged on almost every front, with an increased risk of alcohol or drug misuse, mental health problems, contact with the criminal justice system, homelessness, unemployment and difficulties in sustaining education. I thank Robert Brown for the two pertinent recent motions that he lodged. The first reinforces the point that care should normally continue until at least 18 years of age and the second calls for an increase in supported accommodation and semi-independent living units.
One young person in the "Sweet 16?" report that Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People prepared states:
"It would be better if there was more preparation for leaving care, especially a semi-independent flat where staff could come in to check how you're getting on. The practical things were the most difficult to cope with."
I remember well the telephone calls that I used to make to my mother when I first left home, with seemingly stupid questions about how to defrost a chicken and change a plug. It is only with the passing of years that I realise how lucky I was.
I commend the children's commissioner and her team for the "Sweet 16?" report. Kathleen Marshall has reminded us that, although it is fundamental to have enabling legislation and policy, it is what happens in practice that counts. Her report is a somewhat painful reminder of the harsh reality for many of Scotland's children. At the last count, slightly more than 14,000 children and young people were looked after, whether at home, in residential care or residential school, or by foster or kinship carers. Interestingly, that is an increase of 26 per cent since 1999. As we know, 75 per cent of those youngsters leave school with no qualification and less than 1 per cent go to university.
I am pleased that in West Lothian 78 per cent of looked after and accommodated children obtain a minimum level 3 in English and/or mathematics, which is essential to progress towards a college placement. However, as a children's rights officer who is quite rightly quoted in the "Sweet 16?" report states,
"For young care leavers it is very much a postcode lottery."
That is not acceptable in today's Scotland.
The learning to care/care to learn agenda is still pivotal. Education is the passport from poverty—in its broadest sense, it gives our children the ambition and ability to achieve. Nor is it acceptable that 25 per cent of young people aged 15 to 21 who are eligible for through-care and after-care services are not in touch with those services. Douglas Bulloch, in the report that he produced for the previous Scottish Executive entitled "For Scotland's children: Better integrated children's services" identified that the children who are most in need of services are often the most likely to have difficulty accessing them.
Karen Whitefield's motion acknowledges that examples of good practice exist. West Lothian Council has the having your say advocacy projects, the youth inclusion project and one-stop shops for vulnerable 16 to 21-year-olds. The crux of good services is the local authority's attitude to corporate parenting, and West Lothian Council should be commended on its attitude to that. A corporate parent must aspire to do all that a good and reasonable parent would do, by holding together the many strands of a child's life and caring about their safety, health, education, friendships and future, and by talking and listening to them.
The corporate parent should also—dare I say it?—fight with and argue with their children. As one young person in the "Sweet 16?" report says:
"Staff don't fight you if you want to leave at 16."
Children and young people need boundaries to push against; they need to know that they are wanted and they need to know that someone cares.
The children's commissioner makes many recommendations in her report. I, for one, support her in those recommendations. I look forward to the minister's response.
I, too, congratulate Karen Whitefield on securing this evening's debate. This Parliament has a good record of using members' business debates to raise issues that might not make the headlines—even when they should—but are important to people's lives. This is one such debate.
I also congratulate the children's commissioner on the "Sweet 16?" report, and the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum, both on its report and on the role that it plays.
The law says that local authorities have a duty to encourage young people to stay in care until they are aged 18. Why, then, do so many leave at 16? Why did the children's commissioner feel it necessary to ask that question and compile the "Sweet 16?" report?
Many years ago, when I was a young councillor in Edinburgh, I recall the social work convener telling me to remember that we were responsible for looked-after children and young people, and that we should take responsibility for ensuring that they had the quality of life that we would want and expect for our own children. Let me here acknowledge the positive role of many councillors and care workers.
As a mother of three teenagers, I often reflect on the words that were said to me and think about the lives of my children and the children of my family and friends. Very few of those children leave home at 16—although they may threaten to do so. Of those who do leave, many return for short or long periods, and some return more than once. Whether they leave at 16 or even some years later, they need on-going support.
The question is, how can we translate that kind of care into the way in which looked-after young people are cared for? When those young people say that they want to go at 16—perhaps from frustration caused by people around them or by some event—do we give them the opportunity to step back from that position? Do they feel forced to go because places are scarce? If they do go, should they not be given the opportunity to return, if only for a while? The evidence that I have heard and been appalled by—and it is in the report—is that young people leaving care are not allowed to return, and that child protection issues have even been quoted to keep them away.
When young people leave care they should be given appropriate support for as long as they need it. There should be a leaving package that includes housing. As Karen Whitefield and Angela Constance said, that housing should definitely not be in the form of a bed and breakfast or other inappropriate housing. The package should also include work or training opportunities and health and social care advice. This is not about creating dependency, but about ensuring that young people are allowed to mature and take on their independence at a rate that suits them.
In the previous session of Parliament, I was delighted when young looked-after children from West Lothian came to the Parliament and told us about the report that they had compiled—a report called "Having Your Say". The report showed that those young people had the same needs, hopes and dreams as any other young people. We and our council colleagues have a responsibility to help them to realise those dreams.
The Parliament must send out the message loud and clear that young people over the age of 16 should be leaving care only when it is right for them and when they have the proper support.
I add my congratulations to those already offered to Karen Whitefield on securing the debate. I also apologise in advance for not being able to stay right to the end; I have another parliamentary engagement at 6 o'clock.
Like other members, I warmly welcome the report by Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People. For the very reasons that Karen Whitefield and Mary Mulligan mentioned, issues that do not always make the headlines are nonetheless important to us in the Parliament.
As the report explains, the routes that young people take out of care and into independent living are numerous and complex. No two cases are the same, so we must be careful not to make sweeping generalisations. The report is right to focus on the large number of looked-after children who are due to leave care, particularly from residential units, once they reach 16. The situation surrounding the provision of care and the circumstances that lead to a young person being placed in care vary immensely. So too do the personalities and capabilities of the young people involved. While leaving care for independent living might be the correct choice for one 16-year-old, it may be entirely inappropriate and extremely difficult for another. I am wary of suggestions that all those young people must remain in care until the age of 18, but I support the idea that no young person should feel obliged to leave care, or be pressured into leaving care upon reaching their 16th birthday, simply because it is "the right thing to do".
As highlighted by the report, the transition from care to independence, regardless of destination, is a tricky and uncertain time. To aid the transition from care to independent living, support for young care leavers should be available and, if appropriate, it should continue to be available once that transition has been completed. Moreover, the decision to leave care prior to 18 should be that of the individual involved. We should seek to better educate young people on the options available to them and the implications of making certain choices. At the moment, too many young people choose to leave care, especially from residential units, without the help or support that we would wish to be the normal practice.
It is vital that young care leavers are adequately equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to cope with the challenges that independence can bring. Too often, that is not the case. We must never forget that these are some of our most vulnerable young people, who frequently—through no fault of their own—lack the basic levels in education and have little in the way of training or national qualifications. Currently, too high a percentage of 16 to 18-year-olds are not in education, employment or training, and all too often young care leavers encounter financial, education and employment problems that can result in them ending up in that bracket. There are strong and powerful messages in the report, to which it is important that the Parliament listens carefully.
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to debate such a worthwhile subject. Social care does not always get the attention or the profile that it deserves. However, in light of this debate and the work of the commissioner, Kathleen Marshall, and her team, I hope that all the political parties will work together to ensure that young care leavers can make the transition from care to independent living as successfully as possible and at a time that is appropriate for them.
I, too, congratulate Karen Whitefield on securing the debate and Kathleen Marshall on producing the report.
Given my history of working with young people in care, particularly in Who Cares? Scotland, it would be easy for me to feel a bit depressed about the report and the fact that we are still trying to address some of the same issues. However, I am rather more heartened than that, because we now have a children's commissioner and the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum. A lot of the work that has already been done is being built upon. It concerns me, however, that we still tend to equate independent living with providing a roof over young people's heads and the practical, day-to-day things that they need, and that we do not necessarily invest in the emotional support that young people need.
This evening, I will stay in a flat not far from here that has everything that I need for my day-to-day living. It is perfectly well equipped, and I can make a meal and so on. I have enough money to keep myself going—I do not have to worry about that. However, that flat is not my home. My home is rooted in my community, among the people I know and was brought up with, and where my extended family lives. Members should put themselves in the position of a young person who has been brought up in the care system and who may have been uprooted from their home and their community. All the practical and material things that they need may be provided for them, but do they have a sense of place, of somewhere that is home?
It is not enough for a young person coming out of the care system simply to have a roof over their head. They need to know who will be there to support them. Who do they turn to when they do not know the answer to what might seem to us to be a fairly basic question? Who do they turn to when they need a bit of extra financial help or a wee bit of advice or guidance? Who do they turn to when things get out of hand and they find that living on their own is not as easy as they thought it would be? Who do they turn to when their house is taken over by so-called friends and acquaintances, who begin to give them difficulties? Who helps them to get out of the mess they are in when their tenancy is about to be removed because they have been involved in behaviour that they should not have been involved in and when they have no way of securing a further tenancy?
Members should put themselves in the position of a 16-year-old who, after having been brought up in the care system, is told that their home will be bed-and-breakfast accommodation and that they cannot even stay in the building during the course of the day. How do we expect young people at that age—or any age—to construct the social network that they need to be able to make a success of their lives if they do not have the most basic information to help them to do that?
I was heartened by Mary Mulligan's comments about corporate parenting and the role of elected members. That is something in which Kathleen Marshall took a particular interest when she and I worked together on the Edinburgh child abuse inquiry. It is well worth stressing that every local authority councillor who is a corporate parent ought to know who the children in his or her care are and ought to take a personal interest in them. Those councillors ought to want to know not only where the children currently live but what the plans are for their future and ought to ensure that the local authority is prepared to provide them with proper support as well as a roof over their heads.
I hear what members say about independent living, but it is a phrase that I never liked and that we ought to use less. None of us lives independently; we all rely on our networks. If we are to get the transition right for people who are moving on from care to living in their own homes, we must recognise that fact and we must consider social support to be as important as the practical support that we provide.
The Parliament occasionally rises to the occasion. Members have made some really inspiring and insightful speeches tonight, for which I thank them. My thanks go not least to Karen Whitefield for initiating the debate. Behind it lies the children's commissioner's excellent report, which will prove to be a seminal report of some long-term significance.
Let us not beat about the bush: young care leavers are among the most vulnerable groups in our society. They have inevitably not had the sort of start in life that we would want for our children; most have had to endure horrendous circumstances. All the statistics show that their life chances are greatly reduced and that their chances of becoming homeless, being unemployed, lacking key social and employment skills, or suffering from mental health problems or problems of addiction are all higher.
I have obtained from Glasgow City Council some useful information that I will share with members. The council supports 351 young people who have left care, 33 per cent of whom have been homeless at some point. It also identifies a number of people whom it had looked after and accommodated, but who returned home just before the school-leaving age and are, therefore, ineligible for much of the usual support for young care leavers; the children's commissioner rightly identified that issue in her report. The council has a substantial provision of supported accommodation for young care leavers, but it also has a waiting list. Only 485 care leavers out of 619 were receiving, or in touch with, council services of any sort. The council identified staffing and resource issues, as well as legislative deficiency, as being among the obstacles to doing more for ex-looked-after children.
That underlies the main issue in the motion, which is the need for on-going support up to 18. I would go further and suggest that there should be a framework of support from corporate parents up to 25. We know from the children's commissioner's report that eight times as many young people leave care at 16 as at 18. We know what constitutes the ability to live independently—I take Cathy Jamieson's point about that phrase—and that most young people generally do not and often cannot live independently at 16. We also know that there is a transition process to independent living, but we must provide for repeat failure even after that: if a care leaver loses his job, falls out with his girlfriend or gets into scrapes of various kinds—financial, legal or social—he must be able to come back to a place of refuge in emergency and have a shoulder to cry on.
The ability of organisations to deal with such matters can be bedevilled, as the minister will probably reflect, by different departments, budgets, authorities and councils. The overlap between them is an important aspect of that.
I ask three things of the minister when he responds to the debate. First, I ask that he consider the issue holistically and from the point of view of what we would want for our own children—one or two members have already made that point. I ask him to give the issue the priority that it is due, knowing that successful transition to independent arrangements will pay dividends for the young people concerned and for the state. Secondly, I ask the minister to consider the supply of supported and semi-independent living units for care leavers across Scotland, and to conduct an assessment of the gap between need and supply. I was somewhat surprised to discover from a recent answer to a parliamentary question that no such assessment is in place at the moment. I ask the minister to work to put in place resources to fill that gap. Thirdly, I urge him to be cognisant of the need to change the culture that Kathleen Marshall identified, which pushes young people out of homes at the immature and worryingly young age of 16. For most people, that is not practical.
The old Scots legal word for leaving home and becoming independent was forisfamiliation. It will be familiar to one or two people in the chamber. Support for care leavers—or for people leaving home, I should really say—should continue until people are fully forisfamiliated.
I am grateful to Karen Whitefield for allowing us this opportunity to debate and emphasise this important area of social provision.
I congratulate Karen Whitefield on securing the debate and echo Robert Brown's sentiments about the quality of the debate and the feeling that underlies what we have been saying.
We aim to have half our young people attend university, where they will stay until they are 22, 23 or perhaps older. At university, students get advice services, health services and supported accommodation. When young people leave the care system at the age of 16, however, they might well fall through the cracks in the system within a few weeks or months.
A few years back, I had the privilege of attending a meeting of the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum in Glasgow with Robert Brown. He will recall as clearly as I do the dissatisfaction that the young people who attended that meeting expressed. Many wore wristbands bearing the message, "The system sucks." That was their comment on what we provide at the present age at which young people leave care.
I congratulate everybody who has spoken in the debate and commend the children's commissioner for her report. I enthusiastically support the proposal to keep some measure of care up to the age of 25, which Robert Brown discussed. I suggest that 18 should be the minimum age at which as much care as is needed is provided for our young people when they leave the care system. We should recognise that the system is not fair to the people who are most in need. Perhaps there should be a slight measure of shame about what we provide at the moment. We should resolve to do better.
I echo Robert Brown's remarks about the excellence of the debate and thank Karen Whitefield for securing it. I welcome the opportunity to highlight the Scottish Government's commitment to all looked-after children, young people and care leavers. I thank all members for their contributions.
If they are asked, many young people will comment that their looked-after experience was not what it should have been, and that their experience of moving towards independence was filled with personal challenge not only because of their care experiences but because of the experiences that led to their becoming looked after. I also know of young people who will say that their experiences were positive and that the things that made the difference for them were continuity of care and positive, consistent support, which helped them to achieve their potential.
It is of course deplorable that not every child or young person will have a positive experience. That is one of the biggest challenges that we face together. I also find unacceptable the statistics that show that a large number of young people leave care at 16 years. I know that the reasons are varied, but members may rest assured that I will give the matter my full attention, particularly when I meet local authority representatives.
It is perhaps worth reminding members that local authorities have a duty to consider the best interests of the child or young person in considering discharge from the looked-after system. The need for continuing support should and must be taken into account in the decision-making process. We will explore whether more needs to be done in that area in the light of the commissioner's findings.
The report also highlights some of the health issues that care leavers face. I assure members that our health policies, be they on drugs, alcohol or sexual health, will be fully inclusive of looked-after children and young people and care leavers. Many members will be aware of the phrase "corporate parent", which encompasses the ambitions and responsibilities that we must all have if we are to improve the life outcomes for all our looked-after children and young people and care leavers.
I do not say "our" lightly. Local authorities and community planning partnerships have direct responsibility for the children in their care. I agree whole-heartedly with what Cathy Jamieson said about that. In response to Karen Whitefield's point about key workers acting as champions for young people, I point out that that has been piloted in Inverclyde. One or two other local authorities are also interested in taking that forward, and I am trying to push them in that direction, but it is not just local authorities and community planning partnerships that have responsibility; all members of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government have a role and a responsibility to support local partnerships to help transform outcomes for looked-after children. Members can challenge local authorities and, of course, the Parliament frequently debates the importance of improving outcomes for looked-after children.
We also have a responsibility to learn from and act on important reports such as "Sweet 16?" It is simply not acceptable that young people are leaving the looked-after system and facing living in a B and B or being unemployed. We need to support and encourage the wider corporate family and ensure that it draws on all its services and resources to make the necessary changes to improve things.
As is set out in "Supporting Young People Leaving Care in Scotland: Regulations and Guidance on Services for Young People Ceasing to be Looked After by Local Authorities" of 2004, local authorities have a duty to assess the needs of young people who have been looked after and who leave care after school age. The assessment and subsequent plan, which is entitled "Pathways", is designed to work with young people to meet their needs on leaving care and to identify areas and issues that need to be addressed before the transition to independent living is made. That includes contingency plans. If the plans do not work out, the youngster should be able to go back, for a short period or a longer period, to their foster carer or into a residential home. They should be able to retain the links that they have built up with workers.
The concordat between the Scottish Government and local government gives us a real opportunity to focus on improving outcomes for the most vulnerable members of our communities. I encourage members to read the single outcome agreements for the local authorities in their area and consider to what extent outcomes for looked-after children feature in those documents.
What specific actions are we taking forward? On a national level, all the work that is being done under "Looked After Children and Young People: We Can and Must Do Better", which began during Robert Brown's time as a minister, is raising the profile of looked-after children and young people and care leavers in general. However, it is also supporting a culture change through a range of actions, many of which will come to fruition in the next few months. In August, we will publish corporate parent guidance for community planning partnerships and a report that gives examples of positive practice by local authorities in respect of the support that is provided in further education, training and employment. After that, we will issue the updated "Learning With Care" training materials, a transitions toolkit and a resource pack for care leavers.
All those things have a clear common purpose: to improve outcomes for looked-after children and young people and care leavers. They support the culture change that is needed and will consider areas such as improvements in skills for independent living, support in on-going education, training and employment, and specialist aftercare support. We work closely with all the inspection agencies, and I know that they are also concerned about the messages in the "Sweet 16?" report.
The "Sweet 16?" report presents us all with questions that need to be answered and challenges that need our attention. It reminds us all that looked-after children and young people and care leavers are a vulnerable group and that they deserve our full attention if we are to support them to become all that they can be. I have taken on that challenge as Minister for Children and Early Years, and I am determined that the Scottish Government will work closely with all our partners to ensure that we do better across the board. We must all ask ourselves, "Is this good enough for my child?"
Meeting closed at 18:11.