Hansard

As other members have done, I pay tribute to those who have got us to this point and, in particular, to our care-experienced community in Scotland who have had to fight so hard and for so long to get this bill before the Parliament. Many of us will have had the experience of sitting with our care-experienced constituents as they have shared some of the most deeply intimate and personal moments of their lives: the deep trauma, the triumphs, and their hope not only for themselves as individuals but for the entire care-experienced community and for those who inevitably will come after them.

It is difficult to use that word—“hope”—in this context because, in the decade that I have served in this Parliament, I have seen that sense of hope drain away among the many care-experienced people who have had to campaign and fight so hard to see these improvements. This bill has been a long time coming. Like other colleagues, the Greens will support it today, but, following on from what Paul O’Kane has just said, we are under no illusions that this bill alone will fix the situation.

I encourage any colleague who was not sitting on the Education, Children and Young People Committee when we took the first round of evidence on this bill not only to go back and read the Official Report of it but to listen to the evidence that Duncan Dunlop gave us. It was a stark wake-up call: when he gave evidence, it was close to 13 years, to the day, from the first time that he had come to the Parliament and had brought a group of care-experienced young people to explain the realities of their lives.

I welcome all the progress that the minister mentioned in her opening remarks—of course we should celebrate that. However, that progress still leaves us in a situation that is nothing short of absolutely catastrophic for far too many care-experienced people and for far too many of the children who are still in care in Scotland. Although the point has already been made, I have to ask why it has taken five years—almost the entire length of this session of the Parliament—for this bill to be introduced. It has been almost a decade since the Promise and almost 13 years since Mr Dunlop brought those young people in to give evidence.

There is a wider point that needs to be considered by the Parliament and by the Scottish Government, which is to do with just how slowly the wheels of change turn in this country. We are often criticised simultaneously for rushing legislation, which results in it being of poor quality, and for taking far too long, especially when the measures in question are often matters of political consensus rather than contention.

Oliver Mundell mentioned the fact that the review of the legislative framework underpinning the care system that the Government committed to undertake years ago has not happened yet. I welcome what the minister has said about progress on that, and the 12-month timescale in particular, but the reality is that we have before us a bill that could have included many of the changes that we all know are needed. Quite a lot of what needs to be done is relatively obvious, but the relevant provisions are not in the bill because that review did not take place.

We took evidence on what the impact of that will be. CELCIS said that it is concerned that we are layering duties on top of duties in a way that will fragment the system. The Law Society of Scotland, in particular, is becoming increasingly concerned about the fragmentation of child law in this country. As we finalise our manifestos for the election, all of us should probably take into consideration the Law Society’s ask that we seriously consider the consolidation of child law in Scotland, which, for many good reasons, has become increasingly fragmented as we have made individual interventions in an effort to improve the situation.

There is a missed opportunity in the bill with regard to early intervention. The minister mentioned family group decision making. I absolutely agree that that is an incredibly important service. If we can get things right at that stage, it will often prevent children from having to be taken into care, which will prevent so much of the trauma and so many of the challenges that come about as a result of that.

However, one third of councils in Scotland do not have family group decision-making services, and there is nothing in the bill to address that situation. I may have missed a commitment that the minister gave in her opening remarks, but I do not believe that I did. I am still unclear about what the Scottish Government’s position is on placing such a duty on local authorities. I understand all the concerns about placing more duties on authorities without providing adequate resourcing, but if we all recognise that family group decision making is absolutely critical at the early intervention stage, I must question why we are allowing a situation in which one third of our local authorities simply do not offer that service.