Meeting of the Parliament 18 March 2026 [Draft]
I am pleased to open this group and to speak to amendment 154. Peer support is one of the issues that is most consistently raised with me and others by adoptive parents and prospective adopters. Families tell us that connecting with someone who has lived experience of the adoption journey provides reassurance, practical insight and a sense of community at key moments.
Across Scotland, peer support is typically delivered by specialist third sector organisations. Given that provision and practice differ between areas, the amendment will place a duty on local authorities to take reasonable steps to promote awareness and uptake of peer support services where they exist. Promotion of awareness and update will be targeted to those who are provided with adoption services under the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007.
This is a refined amendment, and it continues to reflect my original aim at stage 2 of ensuring that adoptive families can access meaningful, structured peer support throughout their journey. I place on record my thanks to the minister and her team for working with me on the amendment.
Like my previous amendment in group 9, my other amendments in this group are intended to be probing amendments. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to the amendments, which focus on strengthening adoption support in Scotland and preventing adoption breakdown. I also raised these issues at stage 2, and I am keen to hear from the minister about what commitments the Scottish Government can make in dealing with what I am seeking to achieve through the amendments.
Again, I thank the minister and the Scottish Government for their constructive engagement, as well as the cross-party group on social work, whose work with practitioners, adopters and care-experienced people has shaped the proposals. Their voices are at the heart of the amendments.
Taken together, the amendments aim to ensure that adoption support is recognised as a sustained and essential part of the system.
Amendment 155 seeks to strengthen support by ensuring access to specialist post-adoption social work. Too often, families describe a cliff edge, where support falls away once an adoption order is granted, despite increasingly complex needs.
Amendment 156 highlights the importance of sustainable funding to prevent adoption breakdown, which is both traumatic and costly. Early support is more effective than crisis response.
Amendment 157 would ensure that adopted children’s care-experienced status is properly recognised, particularly in accessing mental health services, including child and adolescent mental health services, in line with the Promise. Through the work of the cross-party group, we found that accessing CAMHS for adopted children is a particular difficulty and very different from the experience of other care-experienced children. I know that CAMHS and the health service officers do not fall under the minister’s portfolio, but I appreciate her acknowledgement of the work in that area.
Amendment 158 would introduce a definition of “adoption breakdown” and improve data collection, enabling better understanding, prevention and learning.
Amendment 159 calls for a report on funding for therapeutic support, including the potential for a national fund to improve consistency and access across Scotland.
The amendments are grounded in lived experience and professional expertise, with a clear message: adoption support must be sustained, specialist and preventative.
Although I said that most of the amendments would be probing amendments, I consider amendment 154 to be a positive and practical step, and I encourage members to support it.
I move amendment 154.