 Scotland has an ambition to be the best place in the world to grow up so that children are loved, safe and respected and realise their full potential. Promise one, children must be listened to and be appropriately involved in decisions about their care. In October 2016 the First Minister announced an independent route and branch review of care driven by those with experience of care. Promise two, where children are safe and feel loved in their families they must stay. The care review listened to over 5,500 stories from care experience children and adults, families and the paid and unpaid workforce. Promise three, we're living with their families not possible, children must stay with their brothers and sisters we're safe to do so and belong to a loving home. The review published its conclusions in 2020. Four, the children Scotland cares for must be actively supported to develop relationships with people in the workforce and wider community who in turn must be supported to listen and be compassionate in their care. The Scottish Government pledged commitment to its fivefold, the promise. Five, children, families and the workforce must be supported by a system that is there when it's needed. The reviewer states that it's vital our most vulnerable children feel loved. i'w dymgrydu. Dw i ddim cyflwyniad yn metroio! Dстиgu ddim yn ei ffél o'i rhywbeth. Mae'n meddwl. Mae'n meddwl doedd i'w rai gwahanol. Felly mae'n meddwl i. Felly mae'n meddwl i'w ddweud? Mae'n meddwl i'w lyfr. Felly mae'n meddwl i'w ddweud? Felly mae Gwets Potter yn y bobl oedd y bydd eich mhwyfiol a'r mwyffiu'r cities eich mynd y bydd y bwyd. Mae'n meddwl i ydywch i'w mynd ddiwn. Dwi'n meddwl i? ond ond yw'r bwysig i'r ffordd i'r ddechrau'r clas yma i gyfan hynny? Felly wrth gwrs yng Nghymru, y flwyddyn yn dda i'r ffamiliau yng Nghymru, ymddi'r ffamiliau o'r ffamiliau o'r ffamiliau ymddi, oedd yn ei dda i ddim i'r ffamiliau o'r ffamiliau yma, ac ond oedd yn gwneud y peth o'r bwrdd cyllid ddwynt. A'r oedd yn ddod i'n ffamiliau o'r ffamiliau o'r byd, Ychydig yn ég persoedd fan hynny! There were really clear issues. Things that could have been spotted, and had there been the opportunity for my dad and his four children to grow and be a family then we could have had that best childhood! A single parent shouldn't have had to work so much. He worked three jobs to support us. He wasn't a bad dad. He was just set up to fail. He should have been given support. dweud le at fy nifer, ydyn nhw arall y llwyddoedd cydwyn cymryddanodd, yr oed dod yn bwynt ac yn prifoedwyr y llwyddoedd y bysach yn ymgyrch. Ond o'r unrhyw o'r pryd yn gweithdoedd, ond maeth i'n amser o ran y cyfan i'r addwyr! Yn hyn yn ffordd rôl ar y gweithbeth o'r gyfwyr? Ond efallai bod y gweithbeth o'r gyfer gweithbeth o'r gweithbeth o'r gweithbeth? Felly nid yn sgwrdd, rhaid? A rydych chi'n rhaid i'w pelynedd i'r newid, — ychydig iawn. Abertaethwch, oes iawn. – Yn dwylo, rwy'n facil llawer o'i hyfforddi i g Scool, ar hyn, i'w hyfforddi o'r ei hyfforddi i gyd-di-dreifio oherwydd yr angen oed yn angen. Rwy'n bell bod, mae beth oeddwn yn gwlad yr angen i chi. Byddwn yn trefwyr fel yr angen o'ch gweithio. Os rygw enw i'r eisteddf gyda fþ, mae'n fydda'n ei bod fyrd yn ychydig sy'n rydyn nhw i'r gweithgwrs i gyda'r newid yn rydyn i'r gwleid. a mae'r gwerthu, mae'n gwybod, mae'n gweithio'r cyllidio'r cyfnod o'r cyfeiriadau. Mae'n rhaid i'r rhidder o'r cyfansbeth sosial. Mae'n bwysig yn ychydig fydd y cwestiynau. Mae'n gweithio'n gweithio'n gweithio'n 50 oed, yn ysgrifeth, ac yn y rhai o'r rhai o'r cyfansbeth Cymru o'r cyfansbeth yn ymgymru fel nad ymgyrch i'r gwerthu'r cefansbeth Cymru, Mae'r ddechrau'n meddwl o'r fan a chyma ddaeth iddyn nhw'n meddwl gyda'r genioedd. Mae'n meddwl o'r gael clywed gwaith yn yma, ond mae'n meddwl o'r ceieth. Mae'n meddwl o'r gael'r llyffaeth. Dyna wneud bod e'ch gael'r fan i ddechrau'n meddwl o'r gael gwaith? David, 60, rwy'n mewn i'ch mwyaf o'r Existio Fyrddwyr, Scotland. Mae'r strategaeth yw ni siarfa o gymryd, fel fe'n maes fydd yn fwyaf wedi'i cerddio wedi wneud ymlaen fysgr Mae'r strategaeth yw mwyaf lleol am y tot ar yr oesiais arall i gyfan am gweithio'r rhysbwyeth Mae'r rhysbwy piwn, ac mae'n rydyn ni'n meddywch chi am gyrfa, ac mae'n rhywbeth hynny i gyda ceisio ddaeth ac mae'n meddylu i'r rhysbwyffeth Mae'r strategaeth yw mae'n lleol i gyfan â'r rhysbwyffydd ac mae'n meddylu i'r rhysbwyff yn bwysig ynghyd o dyluniau a dynoddau'r mwyaf yn rhan i chi'n iddo, mae hynny'n gwybod iawn cael gyfasol. Rhaid i'r cyfoedd ygold gyda boedd hwyl amdaeth, darparol, cyhoedd, cyhoedd ar y spirit. Mae ran dod ar y cyflwun oedd wedi bod yn gweithio adael ymmyn amdano'n ei hwyr. Felly byddwn yn XD oedd ymweliad hynny – yw ddysgu'r cyflwun oed yn ddod o'r gweithio. Mae'r cyflwun o'r cyflwun yn ddechrau ar yr hynoddau'u hwyr. mae'r cyntaf ei gyfnod Gwyrdd, ac mae'r cyntaf yn fan y cyfrifol iawn i'r cyfrifol iawn. Felly, dwi'n mynd i'n i'n meddylai sydd yn ond? Mae'n meddylai'r cyfrifol iawn i'r gyfrifol iawn i'r glasglu. Mae'r cyfrifol iawn i'n meddyliol. Yn ymlaen i'n fwy o'r munio a'r ffordd o ffordd o bwyrd i'r anodol, i'n gwybod i'r anodol i'r cyfrifol iawn i'r cyfrifol iawn i'r cyfrifol iawn i'r anodol? yw'r cwp yw'r gwaith gweithio gyda'r gweithwyr gregeri boiol, wrth gwrs y ganddwyd yn y ffordd gan ymgyrchu'r program yng Nghymru yn Los Angeles, mae'n gwneud o'r boi yng Nghymru. A'r gweithio'r gweithio'r boiol a'r bwysig o'r bwysig o'r bwysig yma, mae boi'r bwysig o'r bwysig o'r bwysig yma yn cael eu cynnig. Cymru o'r gweithio'r gwneud o'r bwysig o'r gweithio'r oparol sy'n gyntaf yn y gweithio'r problemau bwysig? Yn y bwysig o'r gweithio'r problemau, mae'n golygu'r bwysig ar gyfer amser ac rynghiffti'n gweithio. Rynghwch ar y gweithio'r brifysg. Dwi'r gweithio'n gweithio. Cymru o'r boiol yn llwyddo i gael o ffordd ar gyfer mwy o'r bwysig? Mae'n eu chael iawn am gyllud yn gyllid yr adegys alwydd. Mae'r gyllid yn cael ei gael llun o'r wath mewn gwahanol iddyn nhw. Mae'r clywed o'r ddangos sydd gwaith mewn gwahanol i'r gael i'r ymlaes i'r gael dancef. Mae'r gael ydyth ymlaes ddim yn ymlaes? Mae'n ei eitbwch. Mae'n ei wnaeth o'r cyflwysterau. Mae'n ei wnaeth. Not dim, bo'n gallwch gael gael. Pwysig. Mae'n eitbwch ei gael arall i deillwn ac yn ymlogol. as people. What child are we? Most lucky they have a boss as a man. Where decent parents are better off with your staff and computing and stuff. They do that because your boss is a mean person. We don't need them around the world. This is about to telephone needs. Throwing attachments to them. What you have here is a wicked problem, do you know what a wicked problem is? It's a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because there is no single solution to the problem. Lots of everything wasn't just about cups. Wicked doesn't mean evil. Yna'n cyffinio allan o ddweud. Mae'n ddweud nad ywei'r Gwlad Sgolwyn ei tario'r system gweld Gwlad Sgolwyn? Rydw i'n dechrau'n ddweud fod y system gweld division o Poloedd Cogaeth... Wrth i ddim yn dweud o gynnig o'r cydweithio?id amdod ydych chi'n hwn i'n adwisio'n gweithio'n cychwypeth sydd wedi'i gydawad gan un fydd? Yna'r cydweithio yn argylchio'n cyffinio'r cymdeithas i fod? Would we all realise that it takes a whole village to raise a child? How will we know we're making a difference? Well what if we could say love and do love and make our most vulnerable kids genuinely feel love? Well I think we'll make the difference when? Well when we can use the word love in Scotland's care system, when we can say love and do love in all our public services, Yna ddim yn y ddechrau. Rydym yn cynhwys, rym griev yn y Polysyn oedd o gwaith. John Paul, 22, mae wedi'u cymryd cyrraedhau 的 yn diolch. Mae'r cyflon yw'r fan yn ei ddoch i'w gyd. Rydyn ni'n stwydd wedi bod i'n cael ei sail. Rydyn ni'n gwybod yn cyllideb eu cael eu ddysgu o'r gweithio. Mae wedi'u gwybod i'w weithio sydd newid yn ei prif erbyn. Yn ychydig i ddim yn rwynt i'ch gwaith. front er mwy oedd bindin o gyda twn nhw, a fewn amser dwi am recordiaeth. Felly mae'n dda i'r gwaith yng Nghymru'r Llywodraeth. Fy modd gan gwyfennol a rydw i gynnal i fyny'r ddoi am fy m shameless. Mae yna wnaeth i'r gwneud hyn yn ymgyrch gyda'r ddor ac i himnwyn yng Nghymru'r ddoi. Rhywb ychydig yn fynd wedi gwy refill o unig. Rhywb yn dda i gagell yng Nghymru yn gyflaesio, i gyd-ddid o'r ddor i'r m shameless. Mae'r bwysig gyda'i hyffordd yn gyflwyno, sy'n ddiddordeb o'i wedi llwyddoi'r ddwy. Mae'r sicrhau. A'r sicrhau tych yn cael. Felly, mae wedi wneud yn cael eich bod, ac mae'r sicrhau yn cael eu fath. Yn gallu'r anorexiaid, mae'n cael ei wneud yn cael eu ddwy, mae'n cael ei wneud o'r llwyddo. Felly, mae'r fath yn ydych chi'n gwneud. Mae'r byw yn ychydig. Mae'n tych yn cael eu ddwy i'n mynd i'r ddwy. felly hwn ni maen nhw i wneud yn gwneud y penllunio cyrraed. Rydych yn todol o'w'i ddweud, a dwi'n deud i'ch bod ni'n gweithio siarad wedi gael ymwyaf. Poerofwnwg. Roedd y canteru, yn dweud wedi'ch an BTW-dydd. Mae o'n rhan, fe gyd yn ddefnyddio'r ceis, ymrhyw ysbryd, a'r anaf. Roeddwn ni'n haes fyddion o'n gweithio. Mae'n rhan o'r maen a'r haes. James, rhan o'ch cyfraedd Samsung 7a, y syniad eich system ym Mhwyll. Alex. Perty. Eich person yn anodion. Pwysig yn y system yw'r gweithio'r gweithio'r cyfrannu diwethaf, maen nhw'n rhaid i'w ddweud ychydig i'w rhan o'i adreff y bydd y bydd y byd yn y ploedd, y gallwn yn digwydd rydyn ni. Rwy'n ei gweithio i'r cyfrannu ei siaradau'r ysgol yma, ac mae'n adreff i chi'n gwneud ym 100 yr ysgol i'w ddweud ydych chi'n ei bwysig i ddweud i'r bwysig yw'r eich rhan o'r famys. Ond o'r hollb, mae'r ysgrifennu, 90% o'r wneud y cymdeithas yma o'r pannu yma, ond mae'r bach o'r ffordd. Dwi'n eisiau'n cymryd i'r hollb o'r misau o'r ysgrifennu. Fy flyn yn oes i'w ddweud y pannu. Mae'r oedd y cymryd i'w chogol, yw'r ysgrifennu, yw'r bach o'r hollb? ond mae'n gweithio'r sgamelon wedi bod y Cysylltiad yn ymwyntio'r cyfnodol. Mae'n bwysig i'w prifio'r gwaith, ond mae'n gweithio'r gwaith, nid o'r cyfnod, nid o'r cyflwy. Mae'n gweithio'r gwaith, ond mae'n gweithio'r cyflwy, ond mae'n gweithio'r cyflwy. Gwranjor! Mae mam Cynffyddi yn gwirio'r gwaith. Mae'n gweithio'r gwaith, a'n ei fawr, mae'n gweithio'r cyflwy. She was really skin, so she gave me her last 40 quid and I went up the badass me my brother Martin, who is the next oldest to me in age. They made a football pitch for us. I still remember that to this day. And how fantastic this pitch was. How proud we all were of our dads for doing it for us. We were there about 10 o'clock at night, so I picked up like a doll for each of my wee sisters and some sweeties and stuff, and I picked up a remote-controlled car for my wee's brother. And that community must still be there today helping each other out. I didn't have the emotional poverty that some kids had and have, because I had very loving and attentive parents. And on the good Christmases my mum used to get as a bruins or a new rally album, so like I got one of those each. And as far as Martin was concerned we were going to have one or the other of those each. And then I picked up some socks and we bit some balls for stockings and stuff. And I thought when I was with it, the kids I was friendly with were just experiencing the same as me because that's what you do when you're looking. I got home and Martin and the other kids went to bed and I was wrapping up stuff and I just wrapped up some socks for myself and gave Martin both the albums. But it turns out that wasn't the case. I have a photograph of me in primary school of about six or seven. I can still remember all the faces and quite a lot of the names of those kids. My best friend who was stabbed to death in a gang fight. And also about six or seven more of those kids who had died and not of natural causes but of addictions and violence. And it made me think. That girlfriend thinks that's a tragic story. I don't know. Well it is. It's not. How did I get from a background in care to what other people see as success? That's a hard one. It took me a long time. It took me until I was about 50 to realise I had merit and value and wealth. People reinforced that idea of some things aren't for you if you come from a background. And I don't think they necessarily mean it. There was an expectation that I would leave school and get a manual job at best. Not that I would ever go to university and that wasn't for people like me. I guess I was always quite driven. I think it's like a fear thing initially. Fear of not having dinner. To fear of turning out like the people around me. To fear of not being successful. I was lucky. I met people who helped me. They saw who I was and what I could do and helped. And I think a lot of people would watch daytime TV and stuff. And see people going off on all these holidays and stuff. And see it as entertainment. But I would see that as aspirational. I was like I want to do that. And I want my brothers and sisters to do that too. I remember always thinking I was a fraud. So like I really threw myself in to try to make myself a success for that. But also like trying to feed my brothers and sisters. And that's a bit coming from a background where you don't feel you're entitled to exercise authority and power. And you can take control and take responsibility because you're capable. And my brothers and sisters are doing well too. I've had help and support and I want to pass that on somehow if I can. And I think we're all doing different jobs that happen to be seen as if you're doing these then you're successful. Cos until we all start getting involved in the lives of our most vulnerable kids nothing's going to change is it? Now I know that seems to be an unusual story for a bunch of kids that came through care. And that's us. 17, a care experienced person. Lisa, 22, a care experienced person. Ruth, 27, a social worker. When I look at what happened to us to me it could have been avoided if someone somewhere had spotted what was going on in my house. I've got children whose lives are not good enough. And I know that they're not good enough by rather not the life that I would want for my own children, but they're not going to die. So that's okay, we don't intervene. Apart from the children who have a caseload who have really good foster carers, none of the others have a good quality of life. And there's not a huge amount that I can do or I am allowed to do. And that is really hard. It wasn't very nice at all living where I lived. We talk about intergenerational cycles of caring families. My mum left when I was two I think hearing what my mum's life was like she had a really horrible relationship with her father experienced abuse in her own life and then was taken into care. There was a lot of drugs. It's not possible to make every child's life perfect. And she really struggled after leaving care and fell into struggles with alcohol and drug use and relationships with abusive partners all of which I believe were really well recorded. A lot of people were getting murdered and stabbed here in our house. I remember those things happening. There are cases where the parents are doing okay. They're not brilliant but they're doing just enough. I just wonder why when she left and my dad was left with four kids on his own why did no one flag this up? I was still young enough to have a health visitor and was still having regular check-ups and so why did no one notice? And by and large, children are better off living with their parents. I came into care when I was six and I know that by removing that child it will be really destructive, it will be too traumatic. Social services, health, the courts, all of these were involved with my family over a really long period of time. How did everyone miss what was happening? I've got this family of three. They live with their mum. She uses heroin. She is not a brilliant mum but I have moved them into kinship care three times. My dad's sister-in-law came to the house and smashed the place up. All the windows, she got ladders and she came up to the bedroom where me and my sisters were and put a knife to her throat every time the mum turns it around and they go back and then it just disintegrates all over again and if I find that exhausting how do they find it? What is it like for the children? The social workers started coming after that. My step-mum physically and psychologically abused us and she emotionally, financially and psychologically abused my dad and then one of my step-brothers was sexually abusing us but we were too scared to say anything to anyone. Why didn't the school notice? And as well as that, my mum staffed me. I can't remember how long for. She only did this to me. I don't know why. My oldest brother was taken into care when I was eight. There's a couple of reasons why I am not going to accommodate one of the oldest two and now two old. Then my sister was taken into care and then my next oldest brother. She had mental health issues. She used to go up in one. Lots of arguments. I was watching my step-mother get rid of my brother's and sister one by one right before my eyes. We are throwing lots and lots of support at this moment to avoid taking the littlest one into care. How did it take seven more years before anyone paid attention to what was happening to me? And then one of the days me and my mum went to ask her one minute she was nice to me and then she just disappeared. She just left me there. I just turned round and she wasn't there. She didn't do that to any of my sisters and my brother. Just me. The police came and took me back home to my mum. Partly because we can keep things just good enough and partly because the last time we put them into care the littlest one was so traumatised and I just don't want to do that to them again. I was taken into care when I was 15. Two days after that I was told I was being taken into care. I just feel for them. Their mum isn't the worst. She does love them. Why for eight whole years did nobody look more deeply into that house and ask what the hell was going on? Private sector children's residential home? John Ball, 22, a care experienced person. I work for a private sector residential care provider. I grew up in care and residential homes with private care providers. This organisation works with children with severe trauma and behavioural issues stemming from that. We have six kids in the unit. The kids are great and I do love the job but there are so many things which don't work. It's so frustrating. There's a new generation and there's an old generation within the care sector. I was living in Australia for a few years and I worked for an organisation there called Safe Places for Children and trained with them in trauma centre practice and attachment theory. That was interesting because over there they have an idea of looking after other people's children which is a bit different after their whole stolen generation thing and the Australian model just seems to be a bit more mindful about the big picture. The old generation pretended that they loved you and pretended that they were there to help you in that but it was fake. It tries to keep that core family unit intact or at least in contact and since starting this job in Scotland that's not something I've seen a lot of yet. However, I do feel like some of the staff members who looked after me in the residential homes I was in did love me. My frustrations are that we have so many things. We have so many reports to write so much pressure day to day that staff don't have the time to spend with or the headspace for the young people. Well, you've got Caroline, for example. Then there's another dark outside. It can become a breeding ground for people who can take advantage of these really vulnerable kids. Caroline, to be fair, was one of the first staff members to have told me no and to have told me no frequently and I used to get mad at her. There are staff, there are members of staff who will live for a kid having a meltdown so that they can step in and perform a safe hold. That's physically restraining a kid who's out of control so they look like a hero. I remember one time she annoyed me that much and she was walking out after a handover and I was walking the flowers with her hose and she said to me, see you tomorrow, JP, in a better mood. It's really ego driven. It's not about keeping the kids safe at all. I thought, fuck it. I just soaked her down. She was trying to get in the car and I was laughing at it. Don't get me wrong. There are some excellent staff too. The problem is in the private sector people can just walk into this job from anywhere with no experience. And I felt really bad for that afterwards. And sometimes that's a really good thing because they can come in and they want to understand but sometimes they come in with this crowd control us against them attitude with the kids. They form like a gang. That's how the kids see it. The adult gang against the child gang. She went home and her family's like you're all dredged, what happened and she's like, oh, John Paul had a bit of a fit today and it was like laughing. Oh, John Paul, what's he like? And we do have to do training in things like trauma and attachment but no one ever checks that you are actually applying this stuff on a day to day basis. I knew I loved Caroline but I didn't realise until maybe a couple of years ago about how much she really does love me. The vision for the organisation. The slogan that it uses to sell itself to local authorities in the care market and what it charges thousands of pounds for is not being met. And she'll tell me that now because we're not in the care set because in the care set and you can't really tell a young person you love them because it's seen as unprofession. Why do I stay? I stay because I genuinely love working with the kids. And then there was Jim. I developed a really strong relationship with one of the boys we looked after, Jack. Jim and I just had it off within hours of him when we went to the unit as a new manager. My dad wasn't on the scene and I looked up to Jim as a father figure. He smashed everything. He would go from here to here in seconds and he was putting a safe hold on our unit many times. Oh and there were some cases where I thought he was being a complete another mob to me. But now I understand that as love. I never did that because he was just a tiny wee boy. Jim was a bodybuilder himself. He met me, he saw how overweight I was. But instead of trying to put me on a diet like all the other homes had done with no success by the way he wrapped a whole plan around me. And so I just used to grab him and hug him when he was kicking off. He got me a personal trainer. And it always worked. Got me lifting weights. So I thought tooth and nail was social work to be a named person on Jack's care plan as he moved on. Got me trained up in nutrition and stuff. And they should have never moved him on but he was high tariff being looked after in this organisation which costs a local authority a fortune. And like cuts in that, you know? Well he motivated me. And then I started winning powerlifting competitions and titles. And my whole life changed for the better. I see him once or twice a month for contact stuff. We have a different relationship now to caregiver and service user. And his help is one of the reasons why I am where I am and who I am today. And I don't think he could have done that and wanted to do that if he didn't love the person that I am. Kids need to know You need to know somebody loves you. It's a feeling. Love was a feeling before it was a world. You don't have to believe it. You can feel it. 17, a care experienced person. It's quite hard to explain. Let me think. And I know what love and care is since I now live with people who love and care about me. Love means protected, comfort, trust, safe. Now I feel like I have people next to me. I have a house, I have boot. I can trust my foster carers. I have a key to the house. I'm free to come and go as I want. And I can lock the door to strangers. They comfort me. They hug me. Kiss me. Let me talk to them about stuff when I'm upset, angry, annoyed. I know what they're feeling and they can do the same with me. It can sometimes even see what I'm feeling before I even need to say it because they're watching over me. Basically, I feel safe. I know they're not going to hurt me. They know what I like and they give me things like presents and stuff. They talk to me about things that matter to me. They remember stuff about me. Good memories, my birthday, important things I need to do, important things that happen to me and they smile at me. And that's what being loved is. 27, a social worker. Helen, 50s, former local authority cheap social work officer. The further you go up the chain of social work, the more conversation you have to have about money, delivery and cuts. I think when the job of social worker is portrayed on TV is portrayed really badly, I mean like my first memory is of Elaine the pain on Tracy Beaker and I remember thinking, why on earth would anyone do that job and now you're 20 years later? I've worked in the public sector for over 30 years and one of the things that I won't miss is having to sit in front of local councillors and talk about value for money. A couple of weeks ago, I had to spend an afternoon in the park, in the cold with the women who had threatened to kill me the day before and I just thought this is not fun. You can't get it right as a social worker you're criticised for not doing or doing. There was a case this week on the news about a teenage girl who had been murdered by her uncle and the social worker had a parody told her it was okay to live there and all the comments on social media were like, social workers. The councillor said, you're over spending your budget again. One of my friends was telling me this week that he was really traumatised by a social worker as a child because he had this bruising that had been caused by something else. I'll say, I'm not over spending. The demand for our services has gone up massively and that costs more money and the budget has never increased for years. But social work had thought it was his dad that had been hitting him and he remembers thinking how terrified he was that he was going to be taken away and he felt that that was overkill. He just had one. I'd say, there are all the things I've had to do this week to keep young people safe and the councillor says they want more of that, of course and then I'll say, well all of this costs money. I don't always agree with everything that we do. Of course I'm in to base value for money but in the last two decades everything has become about cuts. I don't think that everything that we do is effective. I don't think that just throwing services at people is the right answer because they have to be the right services. I won't miss that at all and some of these private care companies that we work with, I won't mention their names. I don't even understand what it is that they actually do. So much of the work social workers used to do has been farmed out now to the care market. Some are brilliant, I am a big fan of some of them. Care of companies or charities who we pay to do the work for us but most are just this really general thing and we are paying them thousands of pounds to deliver it, whatever it is. It used to be that we social workers knew our communities. We knew how to help people. I worked in some of the most deprived inner city areas for decades. I worked in school projects and family centres where the help was universal. We worked with parents to prevent kids being excluded, to prevent families needing other interventions from social services. Do I feel that I'm in a valued profession? Absolutely not. It depends. It's really hard being a parent but if you can work with them and work on relationships it's important. In terms of protecting babies with bruises I think there is value. I think people believe that is necessary but I think with older children based on daily mail comments no. Why is it important? There was a boy I worked with for a long time on the schools project. His mum had mental health problems and she was really hard on him. I'm really hard. And my friend who worked on the project with me she was walking down the street one day and this young man shouts Helen! Helen! and she turns around and he says sorry, sorry I thought you were Helen and she says do you mean Helen who used to work on the school project? and he said yes and he said you're going to tell her that I'm a butcher, a dentist and he bit whistly for her what you did for me I've never been doing the things in my life I'm doing now because you've believed in me. People have no idea what the job is and it's such a shame that all that funding for all those types of prevention projects ended with austerity. I sometimes feel that it was someone with math well educated, lefty friends they are understanding of social work in a sense but when it actually comes down to it they don't really understand they don't understand the complexity of how people's lives can fall apart it can take one thing to tip them over the edge but there's probably been lots of things building up for a while. Everything's a bit cuts now but it's a false economy because we've even got more children in care now because we're now doing that not doing that early intervention and prevention because that costs money some of it is about individual responsibility so much is about parenting as well as poverty poverty doesn't make me a bad parent but it can make your struggling parent and that's what people need to help some days I think about the people I work with you just need to get a grip and sort your lives out especially when we're throwing lots of services at them and they're just not going to change we need to find creative ways to keep families on the edge together support them to cope and other days I feel lots and lots of empathy and realise that they did not choose to be in a situation at their end and not just to cope but to drive I do really love my job though Lisa 22 a care experienced person Alex 30 a care experienced person James 70 a panel member of the children's hearing system I just got my care records back a while ago and you know those have your say forms I've got a massive box full of stuff and to be honest with you there's very little of my voice in any of it so in my care records it's like a whole collection of almost the very same thing which is like why can't I see my mum when will I see my mum why can't I see my brothers and sisters like a drawn big question mark I've written all around them that's just what these pages are full of the only time I could see any of my actual feelings written down and it's such a standard thing that social workers do with kids they got me to draw a house and to put my feeling they got me to draw a house with boxes and put my feelings inside the boxes I don't think the children's hearing system has done its job now I think we're having to take some decisions which we know are not in the long term interests of the child that was it that was all of my voice I could find in a stack of care records and that is pretty much what I've written from my entire time in care and I would get to see them but it would be like once a month and sometimes not for months and never together most decisions have been taken simply because of some of the circumstances you're faced with or the lack of resources or whatever they were letting us all see my mum at the same time initially once a month for another like supervised contact and what they'd written about it was we were all like trying to get an attention and all like competing for the attention so it was unhealthy and she couldn't display good parenting skills in doing that some of the language used by children and their families in reports is shocking I have honestly appalled as some of the reports are written by social workers I had a really good social worker at one point Chantel, she was really nice The children's hearing system is supposed to be the place where the voice of the child is heard but it really doesn't work that way most of the time I always say care is something that happened to me I wasn't involved in it in any way How do you find the voice of the child then? There has to be some mechanism that lets us do that Don't get me wrong I really got on with my foster parents the majority of the time I was there I was a really damaged vulnerable young person I was exhibiting behaviours of a breakdown and I was just crying out for someone to make it all right and make it better and you can see it in my care records but for some reason that wasn't clear When I needed someone to advocate Chantel would definitely advocate for me Through an advocate, through the child record what they want to say to us in some form beforehand because at the minute, what did we have? So when I was 16 it was decided to move a mother and baby placement into my foster home There was a decision made that my needs were no longer as important and so suddenly everyone's attention was on the baby And when I got my care records I would see that she'd noted I would always be asking to get moved from my foster care because they weren't doing any of the things for me that I could see them doing for their own kids I was just another foster kid on a conveyor belt one in, one out and so I started to lash out not to other people at myself went through a period of really bad mental health trashed my room one day not treated like a member of their family but more like a parasite and instead of comforting me and trying to find out what was going on my foster dad told me to leave and never come back and I could see in the records that Chantel would note that I wanted to leave but there was a senior social worker who'd be like no no he needs to stay where he is stability and all that, let's keep him now and because I was 16 when my foster placement broke down social work wouldn't find me another foster placement and they said they couldn't find me a place to live so someone higher up in the social chain always undermined the opinions of the person who actually knew me and knew my situation so I was put into a B&B and I ended up being there for around a year people didn't even think about how crazy it was to have me in that place I was saying it really explicitly you're putting me at risk and I remember really vividly sitting one day with my social worker outside the community centre and explaining to her just how much of a risk it was for me to be there left by myself and she just started crying and said I totally agree with you but no one seems to be listening no one seems to be doing anything about it what does listening to a child or young person actually mean to us adults in the system and so I said it to my councillor I need help to tell people that this is all of what's on my mind and it's making it really difficult for me to stay in an insecure B&B room on my own constantly there are two different ways of listening one is passive listening where someone is sitting in front of you talking and the other is active listening so my councillor wrote a letter to the head of the social work team too many adults in the system are defensive it's easier to defend your position than it is to reflect on your position or change your position and it was only then that they magically found me a flat because if you do anything other than defend yourself you're flying in the face of the way that the system expects you to operate the only thing that made anything change was my councillor a professional voice speaking for me I couldn't say it for me and the consequences of that are massive it makes you doubt your own voice Joanne, 40s, foster carer I used to see our verse from families with children looking for more foster carers 30,000 a year working from home it's not a fucking job it's more than a full-time job it's your life you're sharing your life with a child and they're sharing their life with you me and my husband look at three boys in our family two brothers and then a third boy came to us about two years later just on Westbite for the weekend here we are eight years later but the first two boys the two brothers first came to live with us I was sending pictures to social work every day as these wee wanes were not in shite out of each other in the living room every night and it was all just through anger and frustration and abandonment and confusion there was a lot of discussions especially in the early days about separating the brothers but I was instrumental in keeping them together because I knew they needed each other so we walked for miles every night put their coats on and would go for a big walk and a talk after their tea because they didn't like looking into your eyes when they were talking to you so that's what we did they all came with very different presentations of the trauma comes in waves and I always say you have to give these kids time to work through what they need to work through so they're able to accept your care and your love they're not always able to accept care at the start because they don't trust it and they're doing that just because they haven't had unconditional love at some point from someone who cared for them you have to try your hardest to hold on to them until they're ready to be loved I'm really determined with whatever I do in my life I have to help the boys prevent them doing the same thing, you know, happening again in their families so I definitely see myself in their lives for the rest of their lives I want to be like the granny to their kids and help them with supporting material things if they wanted it and welcomed them in I wouldn't feel bad if they chose to go back to their parents if they found a way to hold their families together but they welcomed me into their future I'll be there I use the word love all the time I can't imagine what it would be like if you didn't unconditionally love the children you were looking after and caring for How would you endure some of the difficult things you have to go through with them and what she'll go through? What quality of life are you giving them? But the system allows people to commit into the role of foster carer all the time Without testing if they have the capacity to give that unconditional love they don't even ask people this question when you apply As a parent I love the boys unconditionally and I tell them that and I voice that openly but I don't expect them to love me back and I think that's really important You can't enter into this world of looking after young people if you're looking for them to love you You should have your cup topped up by your love for yourself and your love from your friends by those who sit around you knowing that at times your cup will be drained dry Love for me is an emotion It's also a commitment and it's done by action It's what I do I'm pleased with the manager for a local authority Kathy, 40s placements officer for a local authority I hope it's to improve outcomes for children in care while reducing costs My bread and butter is to find young people who aren't engaging in education and to find a way for them I work with Callie No one with half a brain would do this job because I'm under constant pressure about the budget I'm not a social worker but I do understand the diet and the work outcomes for our children will spend the money effectively We return children to the council area where they were born and where they grew up The problem was that too many children were being sent out of a local authority being privately cared for in residential units and being schooled and often we ship off our most vulnerable kids those who were being most exploited through county lines or sex trafficking rather than those who were exploiting them and they were so far away they lost contact with everything they know the community, the family, their sense of identity even their accent was different We bring our children back home because it is the right thing to do it is about identity so for example we have a young person here who was excluded from school and they were shipped off to the central belt to a residential school effectively we were saying we can't care for you or cope with you so we're packing you off We then found out that we were paying thousands of pounds for this young woman to get care and an education but she was spending most of her time sitting outside the classroom in this so-called specialist unit and when I found that out I was like are you actually kidding me on? We're fired in our belly we're totally committed it comes from the drop it being made by private care companies We had someone look at the accounts of some of these companies in companies house and what some of the directors of these companies are earning is most of their front line staff are earning a wage and of these companies making outcomes for our children better a few are but most are not How do you get a simple place where you've got a quarter of an million pounds a year? One of the ways in which we most fail our most vulnerable young people in Scotland is education I need to give them the very best care right here I've been allowed to be very creative to have very free reign I need to work across systems housing, health, education, social work We're still not fulfilling the values for the curriculum for excellence because school is not for everyone it doesn't bend That's an almost impossible thing to do sometimes and there are kids who can fit into school because of poverty dynamics within the house and trauma A lot of our young people in care get bounced out of the education system because they don't have the soft skills to manage it We have two bodies moving out of our area for four years We've got a house, made an actual home nothing institution and brought them back We need to understand whether we are a teacher a social worker or a councillor it's love That's what we are doing when we work with these young people The staff were told these heads will be tricky initially that you have to sit with them you're the long-term carers we didn't employ anybody who didn't completely see that as how the house was going to operate and they're all still there That tells you something, doesn't it? The staff don't know Love is attachment attunement an ability to notice and respond to a child's underlying needs being emotionally available to them The previous care provider said they couldn't cope with school all that tells to be honest but in a week they were both at a local school That's what we're asking our staff to do that is what we are training our staff to do With that a couple of weeks the school phoned me and said one of these boys is way, way more gifted than they were ever given credit for in the last few years I was raising a milking current fees to this private care provider to not find that but they do it in Anyway, those kids are thriving now We have to be human beings and see them as human beings I wouldn't say everything we do is the answer for equity but we'll keep working to find golden answers These are our kids and they belong here with us They are our kids and we need to hold them like we would hold them in child What if What if rather than criticise the poor and how they carry their bottom What if we realise that we're all connected to each other What if we held each other the way we'd like to be held ourselves What if? What if the people of Scotland didn't value what if we started thinking about those kids was our kids What if we did compassion accepting saying no sometimes being there what if we thought about attachment mentalisation about really seeing you What if we made an effort in bringing out the best in me so reassurance is so important What if Scotland's care system was really about understanding how I feel or making someone a real part of your life What if we all realise that it takes a whole village to raise a child Whatever