Hansard

I will support the Government motion and the Labour amendment at decision time. It is true that we are enjoying a consensual debate, and rightly so; I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to it.

If we are truly to meet our goal of providing every child with the best start in life, we must ensure that our looked-after children have a smooth and quick journey into a stable and nurturing family environment. I welcome the opportunity that the first adoption week Scotland brings us to raise awareness of looked-after children’s needs and of the positive, life-changing opportunity that becoming an adoptive parent can be.

We know that getting children into permanent adoption or long-term fostering placements is no simple task. Lack of information on a child’s individual journey through the care system can be a barrier to finding a permanent home, and carers must be fully supported and resourced to provide a loving home.

We have had success in lowering the number of looked-after children over the past three years. However, the number of children and young people who need to be accommodated in care placements outside their family home has risen by 18 per cent over the past five years. Often, children and young people who are in such a position face a long and uncertain process, with multiple placements with foster carers or in residential homes. As the University of Strathclyde’s centre for excellence for looked after children in Scotland says of a child in that position:

“The clock on that child’s childhood never stops ticking.”

It is our responsibility, as corporate parents, to ensure that decisions on permanent homes can be made as quickly and effectively as possible, so that young people can begin to build the normal, everyday childhood experiences that will support them into their adult lives, which will give them memories and enable them to develop resilience.

That is why I welcome the roll-out of the PACE programme across Scotland. If we improve local authorities’ ability to make informed decisions about a child’s route to a permanent home, through better data recording and information sharing, more looked-after children can be settled quickly with minimum disruption to their lives. Where PACE has been trialled in Aberdeenshire, there have been marked reductions in decision-making times: in 2013-14, the majority of decisions took more than 20 weeks to be determined, but from April 2015 to April this year, all decisions took place in less than 20 weeks. That is a positive change.

It is crucial that, once a child has been adopted or placed in long-term foster care, adequate support services are in place for their family and carers. Iain Gray made that point well. The Scottish Greens support the Fostering Network’s call for a national minimum fostering allowance, which would end the disparities in the financial support that local authorities provide. The City of Edinburgh Council pays foster carers a standard allowance of just over £100 per week, but across Scotland allowances range from £77 to £205 per week.

To end such discrepancies in Wales, the Welsh Government has provided for a national minimum maintenance allowance for foster carers. I would be grateful for the minister’s comments on the issue, which I raised when I was a councillor in the City of Edinburgh Council between 2007 and 2011. Edinburgh’s allowance is mid-range, but housing costs in the city are some of the highest in the country, so the financial cost can be a barrier to many people who would be interested in fostering or adopting.

The barriers are not just financial. We have to expose the myths that Jeremy Balfour talked about and take positive action. I am pleased that that is happening. There is growing awareness that people from all walks of life, with all sorts of homes and all sorts of jobs, can provide the homes that looked-after children need.

Other positive action is happening. Edinburgh Leisure’s looked-after and active membership provides free swimming, gym access and fitness classes to looked-after children and their carers. Supporting adoptive families not only ensures that young people have a stable place in life but supports the wider community of which a child is a part—for example, by reducing disruption in school and behavioural problems that could impact on classmates.

I am sure that members will have received a great deal of correspondence this week but, ahead of the debate, I was contacted by adoptive parents who live in the Lothian region who requested that the Scottish Government look at providing a support package that is similar to that received by adoptive parents in England. One of their key asks is that their child’s teachers are understanding of their child’s additional needs and have the confidence, support and capacity to provide extra learning support as required.

We know that children who have been looked after are more likely to be excluded from school and to leave education at the earliest opportunity. Teachers have a crucial role to play in boosting children’s confidence to do well in school. Since the beginning of this session of Parliament, my Green colleague Ross Greer has been highlighting the falling numbers of additional support for learning teachers in our schools and the crucial role that they play in closing the attainment gap, to which Liz Smith referred and which is a concern.

I note with concern that the number of looked-after children who are entering further and higher education fell last year. The reasons behind that have yet to be drawn out, but the role of teachers in supporting children to take the first steps beyond school cannot be overestimated. A report by the Rees centre for research in fostering and education on the educational progress of looked-after children in England highlighted the importance of teachers as role models for young people, helping them to build life skills and aspirations for their adulthood.

Having a disrupted start in life should not prevent our young people from aiming for success in their future, and additional support for learning staff can be a vital source of encouragement for young people to aim high. The authors of the report “Celebrating success: what helps looked after children succeed”, which the Scottish Government commissioned in 2006, spoke to 30 looked-after children and found that those who had gone on to achieve success in adulthood had been encouraged to have high expectations by their teachers.

We all appreciate that decisions about adoption need to be well informed and made without unnecessary delay, and I welcome the roll-out of PACE to give the positive results for looked-after children that we all hope for. I, too, thank all those who provide a secure, stable and nurturing home for children and young people who have suffered neglect and trauma. Finding the right fit can be challenging and, even when we have found that fit, many challenges remain and on-going support for the whole family is essential. I ask that we come back to the issue regularly because, as corporate parents, we have a responsibility to look after our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.