Hansard

I declare an interest as a local councillor with Argyll and Bute Council and as a member of the council’s corporate parenting board, which looks after more than 200 looked-after children. I agree with Iain Gray about the responsibilities that we have as members of that board to follow and monitor children once they leave us and go into adoption or kinship care. We discussed that issue very seriously at our most recent board meeting, which was in Lochgilphead. We have issues relating to not just the municipal areas but the islands and rural areas within our boundaries.

For a child in care, being brought into a loving environment and family is one of the greatest gifts that they will ever receive and, for a family that receives a child to raise, giving that child a loving home and parents is the most important task that they will ever undertake. There are many benefits to the state from a child being adopted or fostered. The cost of keeping a child in residential care equates to more than £150,000 per child per year. Although financial benefits are welcome, the more important thing is the positive impact that adoption has on a child’s life. Children who are in residential care are less likely to go on to further education, employment or training than those who are not in residential care—the figure is only 77 per cent, compared to the national average of 93 per cent.

Children in residential care are more likely to experience homelessness: more than one in 10 are likely to end up homeless within two years of leaving care. What is more, they are more likely to end up in prison. It is a worrying statistic that, across the United Kingdom, 25 per cent of the adult prison population has been in care, although they make up just 2 per cent of the overall adult population. Getting a child adopted can lead to changes and much more positive life chances for them, and that benefits everyone in society in the end. Because there are such benefits to the child, the prospective family and the state, all work that is undertaken to promote and encourage adoption and fostering must be welcomed.

Permanence in adoption is important for a child. The long-term placement of a child, particularly in early childhood, is beneficial for their speech and vocabulary in the early years and it lays the foundations for better mental health and academic attainment later on in primary and secondary school. If we are going to tackle and narrow the attainment gap, we must include in that work children who are adopted. The longer that a child has a stable family environment, the better they should perform at school. Making sure that those children have an equal opportunity in life compared to those who do not need to be adopted should be the responsibility of us all.

I recently saw a documentary on Bulgaria that compared the situation there 20 years ago to now. Then, there were large state institutions where children were left by their parents because they could not afford to keep them. Now, there is a move to small family units, with a view to putting children out to adoption in various environments in the country.

Some years ago, when I was a member of NATO forces in the Balkans, I had the privilege of visiting and dealing with a wonderful children’s home in Kaposvár in the southern part of Hungary, where I saw the love and care that was given to the children there. That was 15 years ago, and the home was looking to put children into smaller units and into families that had stepped forward. Some of them were poor families, but they were given help by the state at that time.

The creation of Scotland’s adoption register was a welcome step in the right direction towards securing a good home for all children who need one. In particular, the decision to take the service online will make it radically simpler, which will dramatically help to speed up the process of matching children and families. Putting the register online was a Scottish Conservative policy, so I am delighted that the Scottish Government has once again taken our lead and is putting our ideas into practice.

Speeding up the process should be a key aim of adoption policy in Scotland. It takes more than two years on average to secure adoption from a family’s first involvement with the state services. That is too long. It is unfair on the child and the family. There are even extreme cases in which it has taken up to 10 years to secure adoption. The process to register as an adopter or a foster family needs to be as simple as possible while, of course, staying within the safe limits of checks and assessing the compatibility of child and parents. New ways of speeding up the process need to be found. In our corporate parenting board, we are continually discussing that subject. It is a very important part of our work.

For example, refreshing the guidance that was issued to local authorities in 2011 so that it is in line with the 2014 act would allow a review of the guidance, which sits alongside the act. I hope that that would identify any blockages in the local government processes that slow down the overall process and lead to their being dealt with accordingly.

When adoption agencies are already making effective efforts to make families aware of the option of adoption and fostering, they should be encouraged. As Robin Duncan, the manager of Scotland’s adoption register has noted, there are simply not enough families for children who need to be adopted, particularly children who have more complicated needs, such as learning difficulties.

It is clear that more work needs to be done to simplify and improve the system but I am sure that, working together, we shall get there in good time.

I pay tribute to all the families in my West Scotland region that adopt and foster children and provide kinship care. We are all immensely grateful to them for stepping forward and helping to give the children hope, a future and, above all, love.