Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2026 [Draft]
I, too, take the opportunity to pay tribute to the minister. It is a strange fact that it seems to be only at the end of the parliamentary session that any of us is able to express our respect or friendship for one other.
I thought that the First Minister was about to make an intervention there.
I pay tribute to Natalie Don-Innes, who, as has been mentioned, did a great job as convener of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. She should also be proud of the work that she has done as a minister and the example that she has set. We often talk in the chamber about lived experience, and it is sometimes thrown around as evidential proof of what we are trying to achieve. I know that the minister has brought that to her role. It is especially important for kinship care, which is one of the aspects of the bill that many of us feel is not where it should be. However, I know that the minister has set in course actions and work that will make sure that that is taken forward.
Other members have already touched on the fact that this is not the complete Promise. This is not us being able to stand up and say that we have collectively kept the Promise. We need to dedicate ourselves to doing that in the next parliamentary session. All the young people who are watching or listening to the debate should know that they are the ones who have driven the change and made every politician from every political party that is represented in the Parliament commit to keeping the Promise and making it a reality.
I have been inspired by every single young person I have met during my time working on the bill. There was the young man who told me that he was studying law and then joked that Scotland needs more lawyers, who has seen how the Promise has made a difference in enabling him to go on to study. Then there were the two sisters whom Paul McLennan and I met at an event in Parliament with the Education, Children and Young People Committee, who demonstrated that we are seeing welcome progress on keeping siblings together, which is something that Parliament demanded.
There is a lot more that we should and must do to make sure that the bill achieves what it has to achieve. As I said, kinship care is an area that I think is important. I met some kinship care families this morning, and I am still concerned about what we are seeing and about the postcode lottery that we all want to be addressed. It is unacceptable that we still see huge variation between local authority areas in what is being delivered for care-experienced young people, from support stopping at 16 or 18 to councils not making sure that support continues up to 21, as is the case in foster care.
We can and must have a far better vision for kinship carers, especially families. At the committee, the minister and I sat in a round-table meeting with kinship care families. It is a story that I repeat, and it sticks with me as one of the main things that has made me think that we, who are doing this job, can always do better. A grandparent told us that, at 3 in the morning, the police arrived at her door with her half-naked grandchild, handed her over and that was it. She had to put together a package, leave her job, rally round and get the support that she needed. She fought for absolutely everything. It should not be like that.
I hope that the opportunities that the minister has outlined—the kinship care vision, the awareness and the visibility of support, and some of the changes that the Government intends to make, especially around providing clearer local support offers, proactively supplying information and improving consistency and transparency—will make the difference. However, if they do not, I intend to make sure that the next bill does more for kinship care families. It is the only way that we can make sure that they will be supported. We can pass legislation, but we need to make sure that attitudes change, and the Promise can build on what the legislation has done.
In the past few years, I have chaired and been involved in many meetings with people who work in social work and across our public sector, who talk about the Promise and their ambitions to meet it. It comes down to resources, and it always will. However, those people are collectively committed to keeping the Promise, and we cannot put to one side the concern, which has been expressed by COSLA, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and others, that delivering the Promise on the ground will be the major challenge of the next parliamentary session.
Tonight, I hope that Parliament can and will reaffirm our support for delivering the Promise. I hope that every care-experienced young person who is watching or listening to the debate will see that their Parliament continues to work to progress towards delivering the Promise by 2030. I know that there is frustration at the lack of progress in many areas of delivery on the ground and on reforms. However, we are all committed to this, and I hope that we can send a clear message to care-experienced young people that we care about them and that we will make sure that, by 2030, the Promise is delivered.