Chamber
Plenary, 07 Dec 2006
07 Dec 2006 · S2 · Plenary
Item of business
Adoption and Children (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
The media focus on more controversial aspects of the bill has obscured the fact that improving the support that is available to adoptive families is at its heart. The needs of young people who are being adopted, and the demands that they place on families, are increasing all the time, as has been pointed out throughout stages 1 and 2, and the support that we offer families is therefore crucial if we are to make a success of families as adopters.
A lot of the detail about support has been left to regulation, and although I welcome the series of amendments outlined by the minister, including those on regulations, I seek further assurance that he will use those regulations to improve education and training for all those who deal with adoptive families. In particular, I ask the minister to consider further the concerns raised by Adoption UK, which has outlined a series of measures that it believes need to be addressed in detail if we are to support families. The measures that it considers necessary include access to specialist therapeutic psychological services, access to specially trained therapists, recognised specialist support centres, educational services, parent mentors and buddies, and intensive support for families who face disruption. If the minister can tackle those issues, as well as tackling the rather patchy and inconsistent provision of services across the country, that will address those concerns fully.
A lot of the detail about support has been left to regulation, and although I welcome the series of amendments outlined by the minister, including those on regulations, I seek further assurance that he will use those regulations to improve education and training for all those who deal with adoptive families. In particular, I ask the minister to consider further the concerns raised by Adoption UK, which has outlined a series of measures that it believes need to be addressed in detail if we are to support families. The measures that it considers necessary include access to specialist therapeutic psychological services, access to specially trained therapists, recognised specialist support centres, educational services, parent mentors and buddies, and intensive support for families who face disruption. If the minister can tackle those issues, as well as tackling the rather patchy and inconsistent provision of services across the country, that will address those concerns fully.
In the same item of business
The Presiding Officer (Mr George Reid):
NPA
The next item of business is stage 3 proceedings on the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Bill. Members should have in front of them the bill as amended at st...
Section 1—Duty of local authority to provide adoption support services
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
Group 1 is on adoption services. I will put the question on the amendments to amendment 4 before putting the question on amendment 4 itself. Amendment 1, in ...
The Deputy Minister for Education and Young People (Robert Brown):
LD
I echo Lord James's earlier comments by acknowledging that the bill is technically complex, as is reflected by the fairly large number of amendments that are...
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
Not at all.
Robert Brown:
LD
Amendments 4A and 4B were lodged by Adam Ingram. The purpose of amendment 4A is to include counselling and assistance to birth parents who are considering gi...
Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
The minister will appreciate that we broadly support the Executive's amendments, for the reasons that he expressed; we have discussed these matters at commit...
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con):
Con
I support Adam Ingram's amendment 4A, which would include in the categories that are introduced by amendment 4 the provision for counselling to birth parents...
Mr Kenneth Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab):
Lab
The media focus on more controversial aspects of the bill has obscured the fact that improving the support that is available to adoptive families is at its h...
Iain Smith (North East Fife) (LD):
LD
I want to put on record the concerns that the Education Committee expressed about the way in which the bill appeared before it at various stages. When stage ...
Robert Brown:
LD
I can assure Iain Smith that there is nothing to stop local authorities working together. That already happens in many aspects of the work that they do.I acc...
Fiona Hyslop (Lothians) (SNP):
SNP
Does the minister acknowledge that that was not in the bill at stage 1, and that the redefinition of adoption to include the whole process—pre-adoption, duri...
Robert Brown:
LD
I accept that, but it was always our intention nevertheless to improve adoption support services generally. As I recognised early in stage 2, the bringing to...
Amendment 1 agreed to.
Amendments 2 and 3 moved—Robert Brown—and agreed to.
Amendment 4 moved—Robert Brown.
Amendment 4A moved—Mr Adam Ingram.
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
The question is, that amendment 4A be agreed to. Are we agreed?
Members:
No.
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
In that case, there will be a division but we will first suspend for five minutes.
Meeting suspended.
On resuming—
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
We will proceed with the division.
ForAdam, Brian (Aberdeen North) (SNP) Aitken, Bill (Glasgow) (Con) Brownlee, Derek (South of Scotland) (Con) Byrne, Ms Rosemary (South of Scotland) (Sol) Can...
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
The result of the division is: For 36, Against 71, Abstentions 0.
Amendment 4A disagreed to.
Amendment 4B moved—Mr Adam Ingram.
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
The question is, that amendment 4B be agreed to. Are we agreed?
Members:
No.
The Presiding Officer:
NPA
There will be a division.