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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

Thank you for your generosity, Presiding Officer.

As I am sure we are all aware, this week is national adoption week, which aims to raise awareness of the benefits that come with adoption, not only for the life chances of children, but for the adoptive parents. Like many members, I am a parent—a parent first, and a politician second—and, like all parents, my first priority is to provide a secure, stable and nurturing home for my child. I understand the importance of that for his development and future attainment—in short, for his life chances. We might not always realise it but, in each of our interactions with our children, we lay the building blocks for their future and help them to attain their potential.

From the moment they are born, as well as the cornerstones of being safe, nurtured and healthy, children need real-life play to develop their physical co-ordination and control; a mum and dad to talk to them about everyday events to develop their language and social skills; and stories, rhymes and songs to lay the foundation for success at school. That is the focus of our work in the early years. However, not all children are as fortunate as ours. Last year, nearly 16,000 children and young people were looked after by our local authorities. Through no fault of their own, those children found themselves in a position in which their birth family could not care for them. They are Scotland’s most vulnerable children and they are the responsibility of us all.

We should take our role as corporate parents as seriously as we take our responsibilities as birth parents. As I said in the Parliament last week,

“if something is not good enough for our own sons and daughters, it is not good enough for any child or young person growing up in Scotland.”—[Official Report, 27 October 2011; c 2777.]

It is not acceptable for children to have extended periods in the care system as a result of the bureaucracy of process. Getting it right for looked-after children should not involve multiple placements. Getting it right for looked-after children means placing their needs, welfare and rights at the heart of every decision that is made, as we do for our own children.

Improving life chances for looked-after children is a priority of the Government. As the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning recently acknowledged, it has been a priority for every Administration. We have come a long way since devolution, which is evidence of the consensus in the Parliament on this important area of work, but there is still so much more to do. We have considered the processes and made improvements to secure permanence for children, but we must now address the time that those processes take so that we can secure placements more quickly.

In 2006, we considered the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Bill, which was brought to us by Peter Peacock, the then Minister for Education and Young People. Through that bill, we introduced a new flexible court order—the permanence order—that can be tailored to meet the individual needs of a child and to provide them with security, stability and greater predictability in their lives. The Scottish Government brought the legislation into effect in 2009. Along with it, we introduced legislation that for the first time provided recognition for kinship carers, who can also provide stability, security and predictability in the lives and experiences of looked-after children. Parliament has come together to debate the role of kinship carers and the support that they receive. We have discussed the work in which the Scottish Government is involved to secure access to benefits and support for such carers.

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Meeting of the Parliament 02 November 2011

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