Meeting of the Parliament 06 November 2024
If the minister was listening, she would have heard that I did say that there are some things that we can be pleased with. However, although I do not want to be unkind, we need to be challenged and we need to keep challenging ourselves to keep the Promise. The Promise is not like an ordinary pledge that political parties or politicians make; it is of a different character and nature. We should not be forced to do it kicking and screaming or because facts and anecdotes from around the country make us feel uncomfortable; we should be driving it forward at great pace.
The ground will probably open up and swallow me, but I have a lot of respect for Nicola Sturgeon in relation to the policy. Some of the symbolic action that she took while she was First Minister—for example, she brought 1,000 care-experienced young people into Bute house to spend quality time listening to them—sent out a very strong message. Without being too political, I note that the changes that have happened since then have meant that there is not the same priority in this area, and sometimes it feels as if the foot has come off the pedal a bit. That is not good enough.
During the past week alone, I have seen examples of issues in my constituency work. I was contacted by a foster carer who has a young person who is well settled and doing well at a school. They were told by their local authority, Dumfries and Galloway Council, that it can no longer provide transport for that young person to get to the school where they are settled, because another school that is nearer could meet their educational needs. That completely ignores all the friendships and bonds of attachment that that young person has, and the potential changes that might come for that young person in the future.
In other bodies that the Scottish Government is responsible for—I am not talking only about councils—the bureaucracy that Willie Rennie spoke about has kicked in. Cost and an easy-life culture mean that, when such problems appear, they are too difficult to address. A mindset shift is needed to deliver the Promise to the timescale that Martin Whitfield was right to speak about, which is coming down the line. It does not feel as if that mindset shift has carried forward from the Government down to the level at which things are delivered. That is why we have ended up with a delivery gap.
I do not want to go back through the points that Willie Rennie listed, but that we have councils that do not know where siblings are cannot possibly be right. There are 80 recommendations in the care review. Some of the easy ones have been implemented, and some of the ones that can be delivered most straightforwardly have happened, but the Promise cannot be kept unless all 80 recommendations are met.
We cannot say that we are on a journey or are moving towards things when, at this stage in the process, basic things such as knowing where people are and where they are based, and keeping them in touch with known siblings for whom the state is also responsible, are not happening. That is not good.
Although I will soon vote with my colleagues to support the motion, it is right that we question whether we are going to keep the Promise on the timeline that has been set out and whether the things that we have done to date are good enough. I do not think that they are. As colleagues have heard through their engagement, a lot of young people are not happy. They do not feel that we care or that we are getting it right.
15:45