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Meeting of the Parliament 02 November 2011

02 Nov 2011 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Looked-after Children

Constance, Angela SNP Almond Valley Watch on SPTV

As Ms Grant is well aware, local authorities are best placed to make decisions about financial support for kinship carers and children at local level. That is an important part of local democracy that we should support and cherish. However, we must also acknowledge that kinship care is distinct from foster care; fundamentally, it is a type of family care that families have provided for generations. I am sure that we can all look at our family’s history and see examples of kinship care.

This Government has done more than anyone else to support kinship carers and we will continue to engage constructively with the Westminster Government, particularly on the issue of welfare reform.

No matter where we stand on these issues politically, we all agree that kinship care is another important option in providing permanent care for our children, which is made possible by the looked-after children regulations and permanence orders, both of which are unique to Scotland.

I very much cherish the consensus that we have on our looked-after children. I, for one, will not be using our most vulnerable children as a political football. However, if I need to ruffle a few feathers to make progress for our looked-after children, I will do so, because this Government believes that, in partnership, we have to support and challenge one another in this Parliament, in local and national Government and within the voluntary sector.

The children looked after statistics show that although fewer children are being received into care, they are coming into care younger and they are being looked after for much longer. Although aspects of that show that we are getting it right for more of our young people—in the sense that more of those at risk are being identified younger and earlier—we now need to focus on the overall care journey and the length of time that it takes.

I am sure that we all recognise that formal attainment—and securing improvements in a child’s life chances—are possible only with the secure attachments that a safe, stable and nurturing home environment can provide. Appropriate, timely and child-centred care planning will ensure that such placements are achieved.

However, we will all have examples of where intervention could have happened earlier. That issue was highlighted in the “Care and Permanence Planning for Looked After Children in Scotland” report, which was published on 20 June 2011 by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration. The report found that children are still waiting for a significant period of time in a system that should be working with their needs and rights at the centre.

Two years might not seem long for adults, but it is an eternity for children. Some might say that the timescale is justifiable, but it can never be acceptable for a child to wait more than 10 years for a permanent home, nor can it be acceptable for the majority of children to have waited more than four years, as the report shows they do.

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Meeting of the Parliament 02 November 2011

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