Hansard

I am a proud member of the Children’s Parliament “unfearties”; I stand with children to make rights real in day-to-day life. Today, as part of that journey, I stand here and reaffirm Scottish Labour’s commitment to keeping the Promise by 2030. I will join all those across the chamber who want to reaffirm at decision time this Parliament’s commitment to keeping the Promise by 2030.

The journey has not been easy, and I am minded of the care-experienced children and young people who do not feel that the Promise has changed anything for them. I hope that this rapidly becomes a historical feeling. However, it is the reality of where we are today that we must look at.

The cultural shift that we have begun to see around how we support care-experienced young people is not insignificant, and seeing the importance of capitalising on any momentum is essential. The momentum must not abate: we are but 2,191 days from that date in 2030.

Members will recall—indeed, they might balk at recalling—my contributions during the passage of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill and the constant reminder of the time that had passed.

We are but 2,191 days from the date in 2030—that is all the time that we have until then. That is a long time in a young person’s life. It will take them from birth all the way through to primary 2. It will take them from P1 through to P6, and from secondary 1 to S6. However, it is not so long when it comes to the time that is required to implement the Promise.

To that end, I am extremely grateful to the minister for her assurances about the Promise bill and, indeed, my amendment to the motion. I welcome that openness.

I echo the remarks of The Promise Scotland, and acknowledge and celebrate the fact that,

“Over the last 4½ years, substantial progress has been made towards keeping the promise—change has happened.”

We have dedicated and hard-working people going the extra mile—actually, in all probability, going an extra 10 miles—to implement the Promise. They work on the relationships with care-experienced young people and they support young people in the important transition into adulthood, doing all that they can—as we have heard—to keep siblings together, to ensure that children and young people feel loved, and to see that care-experienced adults receive the support that they need. I want to take a moment to celebrate them and to thank them because, without them, no change is possible.

I also thank the 5,500 children, young people, families, care-experienced adults and members of the paid and unpaid workforce who shared their stories with the independent care review. I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to do that. It is up to us and up to the Government to act on what they have told us.

We have heard time and again how important getting this right is; we have been reminded of just how important the Promise is to those who are directly affected. Yet, instead of acting—for example, by introducing legislation with urgency and properly funding and resourcing the workforce—we are here again, reissuing the Promise. It is important. It is arguably one of the most important things that we can achieve as a Parliament, but it is also important for the Government. It is important for the Government to show up and to show how important it is, not just to repeat the messages.

When the Promise oversight board came to meet MSPs last month, it highlighted the reality that is still faced by social workers, children, young people in care and those around them. The job is not yet done. As the Conservative amendment in the name of Roz McCall correctly highlights, there is so much that we still have to do—so many ways in which we can continue to fail care-experienced children, young people and adults if we let that continue.

We can see the educational outcome for care-experienced young people. The percentage of looked-after school leavers who are staying on after S5 is down by 2.7 per cent. The percentage of looked-after school leavers with one or more qualifications at Scottish credit and qualifications framework level 4 or better has gone down by 2.6 per cent year on year. Exclusions are going up and attainment is falling.

I am grateful to the minister for her offer to work cross-party on the Promise bill and I look forward to those conversations and discussions, as well as to the debates that we will have in the chamber, to which I will bring contributions and ideas. I am heartened by the latter stages of the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill, which was passed only yesterday, that show that the Government can operate in a cross-party manner. The bar has now been set for the minister.

We can stand here in the chamber and discuss how much we want to keep the Promise, but without the Promise bill—without tangible and measurable action and progress—it is nothing more than wishful thinking. The foundations include clear and transparent funding that shows us—and, more importantly, that shows the children and young people and their families who so desperately need the Promise—that the Scottish Government is serious about keeping the Promise. Hence the disappointment that the Scottish Government’s promised planned progress update for 2024—the investment in the whole family wellbeing fund—will remain static, and the £500 million commitment will not be delivered by 2026. The Scottish Government cannot make a legitimate promise or, indeed, make a promise with legitimacy, and expect it to be delivered without taking substantive action towards delivering it.

The Government has a destination, the Government has a route map, and the Government has the support of this Parliament, but it is up to the Government to start driving the Promise forward. Today, we are voting to reaffirm the whole Parliament’s commitment to keeping the Promise. We must now move from the foundation of keeping the Promise to the structure that will deliver the Promise. Delivery requires action today, not just a promise of action tomorrow. It is about delivering on growing up loved, on growing up safe and on growing up respected, and delivering all of that before 2030—a mere 2,191 days from today.

I move amendment S6M-15205.1, to insert at end:

“, and welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment that the proposed The Promise Bill will be in place before the end of the current parliamentary session, and its commitment to productive cross-party engagement on the Bill’s contents.”