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Education, Children and Young People Committee 04 February 2026 [Draft]

04 Feb 2026 · S6 · Education, Children and Young People Committee

Item of business

Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Briggs, Miles Con Lothian Watch on SPTV

Good morning. I am pleased that we start by, I hope, putting kinship care at the heart of the bill, as Jeremy Balfour said. I recognise what the minister said about wanting to improve the situation. I was a member of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee alongside Jeremy Balfour—and, I think, the minister—when we took evidence from families. That was some of the most compelling evidence that I have heard. As a committee, we promised that we would take that with us through Parliament, so I am pleased that we have this opportunity to start that process as part of the bill.The intention behind my amendment 126 is to require the Scottish Government to take steps to make sure that kinship carers can more easily and accessibly find and access support. “The Promise” says:“The Care Review has heard from many kinship families about the lack of support they have in caring for children and the fear they sometimes have of asking for help.”It also says:“Support must recognise the particular challenges that can exist for kinship carers. There must be a recognition that kinship carers may be caring for deeply traumatised children and that they may experience their own pain at the consequences of family breakdown.”As has been said, Scotland’s care system depends heavily on kinship carers. It is already the most common care arrangement in the country, covering 35 per cent of looked-after children in our community, so it is important that we consider how the bill will strengthen arrangements and information sharing.The minister highlighted the use of the word “local”. I included that in amendment 126 because it is important to look at support for kinship care nationally. In my region of Lothian, such support is more easily accessible than it is in the Highlands and Islands, for example. We need to consider how support is provided at a local level and nationally co-ordinated. I wanted to capture both of those aspects in the amendment.From evidence that parliamentary committees have taken over many years, it is clear that the offering to kinship carers is not what it should be. The informal arrangements around kinship care often present issues in that regard, but that should not prevent the bill, or all of us, from trying to improve the offering to ensure that support is provided not only in a crisis situation but in a preventative way.I am happy to work with the minister on tidying up the amendment and to have further discussions before stage 3. I hope that, at the end of the process, the offering for kinship carers will be a really improved part of the Promise and the bill. We need to turn some of this on its head, and we need our public services to intervene earlier. For the Promise to be a success, we need to radically change the way in which kinship carers are supported and seen by public services. Amendment 126 seeks to do that, and I am happy to work with the minister to try to improve it.

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Education, Children and Young People Committee 04 February 2026 [Draft]

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