Meeting of the Parliament 18 March 2026 [Draft]
I welcome the opportunity to speak to amendment 10. I thank Children First, whose advocacy for children in respect of family group decision making has brought us to this point. In particular, discussions with Miles Briggs, Willie Rennie, Roz McCall and Martin Whitfield have enabled a coherent package of amendments to be lodged.
Throughout the passage of the bill, members have emphasised the importance of ensuring that families are supported to play a meaningful role in decisions that affect children and that the child’s voice is heard in this process. The amendments in this group reflect that shared ambition. They also build on Scotland’s approach through getting it right for every child and the ambition of the Promise that children should be supported to stay within their families when and wherever it is safe to do so, and that families should play a meaningful role in shaping the support that surrounds them.
By bringing families together to identify their strengths, family group decision making helps to make that possible. I hope that members will support the amendments and extend the statutory framework around the provision of family group decision making in Scotland.
The amendments that are before Parliament today will strengthen the visibility, accessibility, consistency and national understanding of those services in four ways.
First, amendment 10 will introduce a right for children and families to request that a family group decision-making service be provided. Any person who considers themselves to fall within the definitions that are referred to in proposed new section 69A(1) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 will be able to make the request. A local authority will need to consider and respond to a request unless it considers that there are good reasons not to do so.
Secondly, amendment 94, in the name of Willie Rennie, will bolster amendment 10 by making sure that local authorities promote awareness of that right to request FGDM and publish information about the service more broadly.
Thirdly, amendment 95, which is also from Willie Rennie, will require the publication of national guidance on family group decision making, supporting a clearer and more consistent understanding of how to use it.
Finally, amendment 84, which is from Miles Briggs, will strengthen national reporting with a duty on local authorities to provide information on the operation of services to the Scottish ministers, who will collate that information in a report to Parliament within three years of royal assent.
Other amendments in this group seek to make technical changes to ensure consistency of language when referring to family group decision-making services.
Taken together, the amendments will strengthen family group decision making in a practical and proportionate way, while maintaining the flexibility that is needed to respond to the circumstances of each child and each family.
I move amendment 10 in my name, and I invite members to support all the amendments in the group.