Chamber and committees

It does not encourage anyone to report something if they feel that they will be scapegoated or—

As a quick supplementary question to the witnesses who are in the room, do you recognise what has just been said in your sports? Do you think that the processes that are in place are robust enough for women and girls who are moving towards becoming elite athletes or are currently participating as elite athletes?

I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests. Supporting mental health and the wellbeing of children and young people is crucial to achieving the Government’s ambition to make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up in. What will the Government do to ensure that children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing are supported?

I, too, thank Christine Grahame for initiating this debate, and I thank members across the chamber for their contributions. The debate has enabled us as a Parliament to congratulate St Andrew’s Children’s Society on marking its centenary last year. I welcome the opportunity to celebrate that significant milestone and to acknowledge all those who have played a part in the society’s important work.

As other speakers have said, there was a parliamentary reception for the society earlier this year. It gave me a chance to offer my congratulations in person and to hear at first hand the experiences of many of those who are involved with the society. The reception was a profoundly moving event, at which a number of people shared personal testimonies about their adoption journeys. We heard from an adoptee who is now a young adult and has become an adoption panel member. We heard from the first single gay man to adopt a child in Scotland, and we heard from a couple who had adopted a sibling group, as Christine Grahame mentioned in her speech. Those people’s testimonies and the stories that they shared illustrate the fantastic support that the society has provided for so many years.

However, as Christine Grahame highlights in her motion, the celebration of Scotland’s oldest adoption and fostering agency does not just enable us to pay credit to the staff and volunteers who have supported the society over the past 100 years. Importantly, it also enables us to pay credit to adoptive parents and foster carers. I put on the record my sincere thanks to all care givers, including adoptive families, foster carers and practitioners who work in the sectors. We absolutely recognise the vital part that they play in providing nurturing homes, support and love for children and young people across Scotland, and we value the positive difference that that can make to those young people’s lives.

Today’s debate also enables us to reflect on our work to keep the Promise by 2030. It is vital that the Scottish Government leads from the front to ensure that all care-experienced children and young people are supported to grow up loved, safe and respected.

We stated our commitment to do that in the Promise implementation plan, “Keeping The Promise to our children, young people and families”, which was published last year and in which we outlined 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.”

Our work to keep the Promise includes the whole family wellbeing programme of activity, with investment of £500 million over this parliamentary session. That will transform services to ensure that families, including adoptive and foster families, can access the support that they need, when and where they need it. We have allocated £50 million in this year’s budget, including the provision of £32 million directly to children’s services planning partnerships, to enable work at a local level.

We have also provided more than £350,000 in 2022-23 to third sector organisations that provide support at a national level for those who are affected by adoption, including children, young people, families and adult adoptees. That includes: funding for adoption week; a national helpline and support for adoptive families, to minimise adoption breakdowns; the therapeutic education support service in adoption programme—TESSA—which provides therapeutic input for adoptive families; services for professionals and practitioners in the adoption sector; and the adoption contact register for Scotland, which is hosted by Birthlink, to facilitate contact between adoptees, birth parents and birth relatives. We also fund Scotland’s adoption register, to support finding a family as easily as possible for children who are identified as needing adoptive placements.

As the former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon mentioned in the national apology that she made last week, we are also funding a scoping study to look at what support is required for those who have been affected by historical adoption practices, including adult adoptees.

St Andrew’s Children’s Society’s work extends beyond adoption, so I will briefly also mention foster care. We are absolutely committed to helping foster carers. We provide a range of specific support, which includes more than £150,000 to the Fostering Network in Scotland this year. That funding supports the Fosterline Scotland service, training for foster carers, the raising of the profile of foster caring and the encouragement of the recruitment of new carers.

I reassure the Parliament that delivering a Scottish recommended allowance for foster and kinship carers as soon as possible is a priority for me. That has taken far longer than we originally anticipated, and I recognise the frustrations of care givers and other stakeholders. I remain committed to working constructively with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to deliver it as quickly as possible; we are exploring all available options for doing that.

More broadly, the foundation of all our work is in getting it right for every child—GIRFEC, as it is known—which is the Scottish Government’s commitment to ensuring that all children and young people and their families are offered the right support at the right time, so that every child and young person in Scotland can reach their full potential. Through the national trauma training programme, we continue work to ensure that our workforce is trauma informed, recognises the impact of adverse experiences on children and provides the right support to ensure that no further harm is done.

Although today’s debate is an important opportunity to reflect on our collective work to keep the Promise, I return to the celebration that is at the heart of the motion and again extend my congratulations to St Andrew’s Children’s Society on its centenary.

In 2023-24, we will invest around £1 billion in the delivery of our funded early learning and childcare offer. Scotland is the only part of the United Kingdom to offer 1,140 hours a year of funded early learning and childcare to all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds, and we are progressing plans to expand the childcare offer in Scotland by expanding free early learning and childcare to one and two-year-olds starting in this parliamentary session with children who will benefit most. We have already started to design and deliver funded school-age childcare services in targeted communities across Scotland as part of our commitment to building a system of school-age childcare and to fund it for those on lowest incomes.

As I said in my initial answer, we are progressing our plans to expand the childcare offer in Scotland to one and two-year-olds starting in this parliamentary session with the children who will benefit most, and it was good to see that the UK Government has finally caught up with the importance of investing in childcare, which is critically important to children and families and essential to our economy.

Ministers will look carefully at what consequential funding is available to Scotland as a result of the budget. My understanding is that it will be very limited—only around £20 million. Of course, it will be for the new First Minister to set out details of their plans for any further investment in childcare in this parliamentary session.

Yes, and, as Joe FitzPatrick says, Scotland already has the most generous childcare offer anywhere in the UK, and we believe that all children should be entitled to high-quality funded early learning and childcare regardless of the working status of their parents or carers. Under UK Government plans, a child’s access to funded childcare will depend on the working status of their parent or carer.

Of course, in an independent Scotland, the Scottish Government would have access to the full range of levers through tax and welfare assistance to give children the best possible start in life and plan for their needs holistically.

The debate has been valuable. It has allowed the Parliament to consider some of the challenges that adopted children and young people in education face, and it has highlighted the important topic of foster care allowances.

Importantly, it has also demonstrated the continued strength of cross-party support for keeping the Promise. It is absolutely vital that we continue to work collectively to ensure that all care-experienced children and young people are supported to grow up loved, safe and respected. That includes crucial activity to support children and young people who are adopted or fostered.

As the Scottish Government, it is right that we lead from the front, and we set out our commitment to do that in the Promise implementation plan that was published last year. In that plan, we outlined our vision for delivering a good childhood and ensuring that every child lives in a safe and loving home where families are given support to overcome difficulties and stay together.

Where that is not possible, the focus first and foremost must be on what a child wants and needs, underpinned by nurturing relationships, to enable them to have happy childhood experiences and live their life to the full.

I will talk about our work to deliver on that vision, but before I do, Presiding Officer, please allow me to put on record my thanks to all caregivers, including adoptive families and foster carers, and practitioners working in these sectors.

I am about to come on to education, and I hope that what I have to say will answer the member’s question.

Getting it right for every child—or GIRFEC, as it is known—is the Scottish Government’s commitment to ensuring that all children and young people and their families are offered the right support at the right time from the right people.

We know that children who are adopted may require distinct support for a variety of reasons. GIRFEC supports professionals to assess and design that support, including through multidisciplinary working, to meet individual children’s needs, and to make sure that the level of support is reviewed regularly.

Education is an important part of every child’s upbringing. Children have the right to learn and achieve, and for their educational needs to be supported. The Adoption Barometer report showed that adoptive parents from Scotland were more positive overall about their family’s experience of navigating the education system than those in the rest of the UK. Scottish respondents were also more positive about how well their child’s school was working with them to support their child. That is testimony to the progress that we have made in our schools and other educational settings.

That said, we know that children with care experience are less likely to achieve qualifications than other children. That is why, since 2018, we have invested over £50 million in the care-experienced children and young people fund. Money is provided to all local authorities in Scotland to fund initiatives that are designed to provide additional support for care-experienced children and young people, including adopted children.

It is clear that that money is making a difference. We have seen mentoring programmes that have had a positive impact on attendance and attainment, and the introduction of the virtual headteachers networks, in which good practice and learning can be shared. That has increased the strategic focus on improving educational experiences and outcomes for care-experienced children in their local authority areas. Importantly, the fund has been used to establish teams to provide direct trauma-informed support to young people who have experienced previous trauma.

We are continuing work through the national trauma training programme to ensure that our education workforce is trauma informed, recognises the impact of adverse experiences on children, and provides the right support to ensure that no further harm is done.

More broadly, the whole family wellbeing funding, with an investment of £500 million over the parliamentary session, will transform services to ensure that families, including adoptive families, can access the support that they need when they need it. We have allocated £50 million in this year’s budget, including £32 million provided directly to children’s services planning partnerships, to enable work at the local level. There is also a statutory duty on all local authorities to provide assistance to adoptive families in their localities.

I turn to the topic of foster care allowances, which several members have raised. I absolutely acknowledge that the introduction of a Scottish recommended allowance for foster and kinship carers has taken far longer than originally anticipated, and I totally recognise the frustrations of care givers and stakeholders. However, I reassure Parliament that that is an absolute priority for me. I remain committed to working constructively with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to deliver that as quickly as possible, and we are exploring all available options to do that.

I began by focusing on the importance of working collaboratively to keep the Promise. In closing the debate, I restate the Scottish Government’s absolute commitment and my commitment, as the Minister for Children and Young People, to do just that. We will continue to work tirelessly with partners across Scotland to ensure that all care-experienced children and young people are supported to grow up loved, safe and respected.

The Scottish Government provides around £2.2 million in funding through the equality and human rights fund and the children, young people and families early intervention fund to third sector projects that work with deaf people.We also provide funding of £600,000 per year to Contact Scotland BSL, an online video relay service enabling deaf and deafblind British Sign Language users to make phone calls. We also fund the Scottish Sensory Centre and CALL Scotland to provide advice and training to school staff on support, including the use of assistive technology for children and young people with specific communication and sensory needs.