Chamber and committees

I thank Roz McCall for bringing the motion to the chamber. I also thank her for allowing those children to enrich her life, and for really enriching those children’s lives. I applaud her for that.

As we have heard, Scotland is home to 13,500 looked-after children. We should never take for granted the essential role of carers in our society. In what can be highly challenging circumstances, they provide care to children who face significant vulnerabilities, grounding them with the love that they require to start a new chapter.

A long-time friend of mine who I have known since school—I will call her Eve—has experience of both fostering and adoption. I thank her for having a chat with me and sharing her experiences before today’s debate. Eve welcomed the recent progress that Scotland has made, particularly the emphasis on and the value of the Promise, which is founded on an understanding of the fact that children need loving and stable relationships to grow, learn and reach their full potential. Although I strongly agree, there is so much more to do. We have heard a lot about that already today, too. We need to face those challenges head on.

“The Adoption Barometer” for 2022 highlights the gap that remains in the provision of and access to adequate support for carers, with 75 per cent of respondents facing continual struggles to access support. What is more, the support that they do access is said to be inconsistent and unaligned to the needs of the child and the family. Eve described access to vital financial support for foster carers as a postcode lottery, pointing out that it can range from anywhere between £77 and £266 per week. She also emphasised the need to roll out a national minimum allowance across Scotland that covers carers’ full costs, because carers often have to dip into their own pockets, which is not okay.

Eve initially fostered her wee girl. It will come as no surprise to members when I say that her child’s history and needs did not disappear when she decided to adopt. However, her access to support did—it became a lot more limited. In 2021, 199 Scottish children joined their new adoptive families. However, 37 of those adoptions broke down—that is just under a fifth of those who were newly placed. That is devastating for children and for their families, and I ask the minister to consider what additional support can be provided for new adoptions.

Peer support and online groups are a critical support network for Eve and others, and we must recognise their value. However, the burden of supporting our carers must not fall solely on those networks, as it sometimes feels like it does. Policies surrounding the provision of support services need to be tightened to ensure that families can maintain safe and loving relationships, whether they choose to foster or to adopt.

The Promise highlights the need to recognise trauma, and that must also apply to newborn adoptions. Eve spoke of the common misconception that babies who are adopted at a very young age will not have any problems. That is far from the truth: they come with baggage. She also told me about the development of the Lanarkshire infant mental health observational indicator set, and she put me in touch with the consultant Graham Shulman. That work is allowing health professionals to identify early warning signs of mental health difficulties in infants who are aged from zero to three. We know that early intervention promotes better mental health through childhood and adolescence and into adulthood. That work is a fine exemplar of perinatal and infant mental health support.

Every child deserves to grow up loved and understood, with not one single soul left behind, so that we can truly deliver on our promise to ensure the best present and future outcomes for every child in Scotland.

I asked Eve why she chose to adopt a daughter. She said:

“to secure her life forever, so she has a sense of belonging, and to anchor her. I love seeing her wee name on her passport, it still gives me a buzz and we’ve added her middle name after my maternal gran, which is the same as the rest of my kids”.

That lies at the core of the Promise.

Households in my constituency and across Scotland expect to see their annual energy bills rise by over £1,000 from next month. That will eat up more than 13 per cent of the average Scot’s take-home pay.

Will the First Minister urge the UK chancellor to use next week’s spring budget to halt that increase? It will have a devastating impact on many of our constituents at a time when their finances are already stretched to breaking point. Will she support the call from Age UK for an amnesty on pre-payment meters, which are penalising some of the poorest people in our society even further?

We might want to mention things such as automatic enrolment—that might be helpful.

Will planning advice note 1/2011, which is on noise, and the associated technical advice note be updated as part of the fourth national planning framework? If so, will the update take into consideration the World Health Organization’s noise recommendations?

I note the absence of data in this study on any impact on neurodivergent pupils. Does the minister agree with me that it is extremely important to collect that data, to ensure that we include and understand the experiences of pupils with additional support needs?

Thank you for being here this morning, Pam. It is great that you have been highlighting this stuff.

What you said about your mum saying, “Now I can be a mum again,” was really quite powerful. That is so important. You mentioned the legislative salad and the fact that none of the legislation is delivering what needs to be delivered. Having guidance, strategies and duties is absolutely fine, but the issue comes down to relationships, advocacy and people feeling that they have agency.

We have heard from young people and families—this has been mentioned in the evidence that has been submitted to us, too—that professionals will often identify “positive destinations” for them but that those do not always reflect the aspirations and interests of young people or the things that matter to them and their families. We have also heard about data and control and about young people wanting to own their own story, to have that agency and control, and to have choices around sharing their data.

I am interested in two specific issues. First, how will the bill bring an approach that is centred around the young person and their aspirations? Secondly, how will it improve their outcomes?

I do not disagree with much of what you have said. I hear such stuff myself. However, the part that really concerns me, as you know, and as we hear when we talk to practitioners, is that transitions should not be separate but organic and built in all the way through.

I know that North Lanarkshire Council has done loads of great work over the past 12 years. It has been absolutely fabulous and fantastic. However, practitioners have said that legislation is legislation but it is about the quality that is underneath that. We have heard them say that they are worried about the idea of having yet another plan. Plans are piling up on somebody’s desk and it becomes something to be completed. That could be reductionist and could end up being a bit of a tick-box exercise for them as well, so the plan might get in the way of some of the good practice that they are doing and that is evolving.

Would it not be better to focus on the good practice that is happening just now rather than what is specifically in the bill—to look at bringing that forward, really supporting it and bringing in legislation to support it and make sure that it is happening, if there turns out to be a need for that?

Thanks for allowing me to come back in, convener.

Bill Scott made a really important point about scrutiny really making a change in that area. I really appreciate that.

I go back to Ross Greer’s point about practice. For example, we heard about a wee boy who wanted to be a pilot. He was taken along to the airport, and he was as interested in the baggage as much as he was in anything else, so he ended up with a job in the baggage department. Will the bill really be the thing that changes practice? Would that happen for other wee boys? Would it change things for them? That is the nitty-gritty of the issue.

The cabinet secretary has mentioned harm. Does he agree that the renegotiated NI protocol could have a harmful impact on Scottish businesses that no longer have access to the EU market, as has been mentioned, while Northern Ireland businesses enjoy those benefits?

Cabinet secretary, you already touched on this point in your response to Ruth Maguire. I am going to roll what I want to ask into one question because I am mindful of the time. We are all clear that narrowing the poverty-related attainment gap is a key education priority. Will you outline the role that teachers play in narrowing that gap? Are we seeing results from investing in teacher numbers? Finally, what impact will cutting teacher numbers have?