Meeting of the Parliament 26 March 2025
I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement.
The strain on Scotland’s secure accommodation provision and the complex factors involved might not have been foreseeable, but they were certainly possible, and I raised those concerns at the time. The fact is that the minister and the Scottish Government were told, time and again during the passage of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024, that the situation in which we now find ourselves was entirely possible. It is a shameful dereliction of duty that nothing was done in anticipation.
I welcome the commitment to building contingencies in the system as we move forward. However, the Scottish Government had a long lead-in time to prepare, and a lack of urgency has resulted in vulnerable children being denied the support and protection that they require. That is not good enough.
The Children and Young People's Commissioner Scotland wrote to the minister on 20 February with three specific questions, and the minister was unable to answer those during questioning at the Education, Children and Young People Committee this morning.
So, how many children in each of the past six months have been unable to be placed in secure care? Is the minister still of the view that redundant overprovision would be contrary to the Promise, and if so, how confident is she that the measures that she announced in her statement today will not result in the very same overprovision?
I note the minister’s commitment to working with the third sector to identify high-intensity wraparound services. Again, there has been a lack of urgency, and the issues should have been foreseen. What form will these services take, and how soon will they be implemented?