 Rwy'to ei ddifatol amnig oes i gyfwledig o'i gilydd o agnod hefyd, chi'n cael rhaid i'r pethau i gyfer ar gyfer o golygu i ddifatol, i gyd o gyfwledig o'i gilydd o agnod hefyd, i gyd o golygu i gyd o gyfwledig o'i gylwgedig o'i gyffwledig o'i gilydd o gilydd, i gyd o gyfwledig o'i gilydd, y di- Theresa Mayton, roeddeniede, ei ddeveth wedi gwybod gan gwybod eich cyfnod ddim venues. Felly, mae'ch gwaelthi a'u gynhyrchu o'r ffordd i'r cyffredinol sy'n i'w gwnaeth g respondu i gyd gan eich gyllidech ar y gwnaeth ddiwrnod. Rydyn ni'n ffordd i chi i'w gallu gafferferio o'r cyd-doeth fel cael gallol. Felly, mae'r cychwyn yddaeth o'r di-Lengarol i'r di-Lengarol yma, ac mae'n gaf i'r cyffredinol i'n gafferferio o'r cyd-doeth yn meddwl. First Lady, I welcome Sarah Smith and Jacqueline Cassidy from Fostering Network to the Gallery today. I'm pleased to be able to open this debate on support available for fostered and adopted children and their families. I also thank colleagues from across the chamber who supported my motion, allowing this important matter to be discussed. It's a matter that is very close to my heart. I've called it Scotland's Forgotten Children because those children have fallen through the net and we have to make sure that stops. Adopted children are care experienced and care leavers. When thinking of care leavers, most people and some in this chamber would immediately think those children aged between 16 and 26, children who have gone through the care system and have been placed with carers. Many people would not think of care leavers as children who are perhaps aged five who lived with adopted families. Every adopted child in Scotland today has experienced trauma, some way more than others. They will have gaps in their mental development. Those gaps cannot help but affect their behaviour at various points in their life, especially at school. The current system does not recognise the trauma in this case. Foster children who have also experienced trauma are cared for in many cases by foster parents, foster mums and dads, parents in every way but a legal document. Foster children also show those gaps in their mental development, which will affect their behaviour in school and a parent is normally notified. The current system does not recognise foster parents in this case. My husband and I fostered and adopted our two daughters. They are siblings. They have lived with us since they were five and two years old. Both are grown up now, 21 and 19. In further education and experiencing all of what life has to offer, the benefits, the pitfalls, the everyday highs and lows, they have made us laugh, cry, they have made us proud, anxious, elated, frustrated. They are our daughters. We will support them through their entire lives, no question. The hurdles they have both faced when moving through different stages of schooling, with regard to getting additional support that they needed, has been challenging at best. Both displayed aggressive behaviour when they felt unsafe. Any process that was not properly explained or experience that brought up dormant trauma was met with fear, insecurity and a forced retort. To those in the know, it is attachment disorder 101 and very easily controlled in a group environment but to teachers who had no concept of attachment issues, my daughters were aggressive, difficult, disruptive and an overall problem. That is not in any way unique. The findings of the adoption barometer 2022 published by Adoption UK found that more than four out of five children, 81 per cent, represented in the survey, were reported to need more support in primary education than their peers. That rises to horrific 85 per cent when they reach secondary school. Children who are adopted in Scotland are under the current arrangement disadvantaged when it comes to support offered in school when compared to other children with additional needs. It is often of little wonder then that adopted children are still excluded from school. I support the promised 100 per cent and I welcome the outgoing First Minister's commitment to it. I will do everything that I can to ensure that the commitments are delivered for every child. However, challenges of the adoption process and its impact on the ability of education providers to deliver relevant and prompt support for adopted children are failing these young people. Where the Scottish Government have long chanted no child left behind, the Scottish Government is failing. They are failing these children, failing in their policy and failing on the promise. Both fostered and adopted children deserve the additional support in school to ensure an equal opportunity to learn and experience school life the same as their peers. Fostered children exhibiting the same behaviours are recognised by the school system who will contact social services, ensuring a council-wide approach to support the child. Adopted children are not recognised in a care context and therefore are not open to the support. However, that raises another important point in the discussion. Foster families are not the first point of contact for the children they care for. Foster mums and dads are secondary to the state, even though they are best placed and will often offer the everyday support for the young person. Not only are they out the loop in those instances, but they are often out of pocket for the support that they provide. Miles Briggs, can I first congratulate the member for bringing this debate to Parliament today? Will she agree with me for kinship care that it is unacceptable that, after years now of agreeing to have a national kinship care payment to support often-grandparents in bringing up their grandchildren, we still have not seen that put in place and see councils across the country providing different levels of payment? Is that the opinion that she believes that the Scottish Government really needs to fix now? Ross McCollack, you give me the time back. That is a very simple point to say, because absolutely 100 per cent. Care across the whole range, especially kinship care, also needs to be recognised, even though that is not the point that I am making in this speech, but I agree entirely with the member. Scotland foster care allowance survey 2021-22, conducted by the fostering network, shows the difference in weekly allowances for children and young people in foster care, and those in a continuing care arrangement across Scotland's 32 local authorities. That includes Mid-Scotland and Fife region that I represent. Scotland remains the only part of the United Kingdom not to have a national minimum allowance. The Scottish Government must honour the commitment that it made to implement the independent care review of the promise in which it promised to provide the care that children require foster carers must be sufficiently financially maintained. It is a manifesto commitment made by the SNP in 2016, but as yet the national minimum allowance has not yet been implemented. We support the recommendations of the independent care review and want to see the promise enacted. The Scottish Government must ensure that care experience children are not ignored or forgotten. No child will be left behind as long as this SNP Government does not forget about fostered or adopted children. Despite more than a decade of pledged efforts, foster carers are confronted with yet another year of financial allowances that fall considerably short of what is necessary to adequately cater for the requirements of foster children. Without the implementation and complete financing of a nationwide allowance and until the minimum allowance is established and enforced on a national level, both foster carers and the children that they care for will continue to suffer because of delays. In order to achieve that and ensure that the commitment to children across Scotland, the Scottish Government must guarantee that local authorities are fully funded. That must come from additional funding to ensure that other vital services do not suffer. We want all children to be given the opportunity to have the absolute best start in life, the best standard of education and the best chance to succeed in everything that they want to do. Sometimes children cannot stay with their birth parents and foster parents and adopted parents are there waiting to give that best start or restart the can for the child or, in my case, children. The Scottish Government must do everything in their power to guarantee that no child is left behind and the carers and parents get the best support possible to do that. This should be the minimum standard we as politicians and the Scottish Government must be heard accountable if even one child falls below. If we truly want to get it right for every child, we cannot overlook those that fall through the net. We have a duty to ensure that we fight for Scotland's forgotten children. Thank you very much, Ms McAll. We now move to the open debate. I call Stephanie Callaghan to be followed by Paula Cain for around four minutes, Mr Callaghan. I want to start by thanking Rose for bringing this motion forward today and, as well, to thank her for allowing those children to enrich her life and for enriching those children's lives as well. I completely applaud her for that. Scotland is home to 30,500 looked after children, as we have heard. We should never take for granted the essential role that those have in our society and those carers have. What can be highly challenged in circumstances is that they provide care to children who face significant vulnerabilities, grounding them with the love that they require to start a new chapter. A longtime friend of mine, who I have known from school, I will call her Eve, has experience in both fostering and adoption. I thank her too for having a chat with me before today's debate and sharing her own experiences. Eve welcomed the recent progress that Scotland has made, particularly the emphasis on the value of the promise that is found in understanding that children need loving and stable relationships to grow, learn and reach their full potential. I strongly agree that there is so much more to do, and we have heard a lot of that already today too, and we need to face those challenges head on. The 2022 barometer review highlights the gap that remains between the provision and access of adequate support available to carers, with 75 per cent of respondents facing continual struggles to access and support. The support that they do access is said to be inconsistent and unaligned to the needs of the child and the family. Eve described access to vital financial support for foster carers as a postcode lottery, pointing out that that can range anywhere from £77 to £266 per week. She also emphasised the need to roll out a national minimum allowance across Scotland that covers carers' bull costs, because carers are often having to dip into their own pockets, and that is not okay. Eve initially fostered her wee girl, and it will come as no surprise that our child's history and needs did not disappear when they decided to adopt, but access to the support did. It became a lot more limited. In 2021, 199 Scottish children joined their new adoptive families. However, 37 of those adoptions broke down, and that is just under a fifth of those newly placed. This is devastating for children and for their families too, and I have asked the minister to consider what additional support can be provided for new adoptions. Peer support in online groups are a critical support network for Eve and others, and we must recognise their value, but the burden of support in our carers should not fall solely on them, and sometimes it fails like it does. Policies surrounding the provision of support services need to be tightened to ensure that families can maintain safe and loving relationships, whether they choose to foster or to adopt. The promise highlights the need to recognise trauma, and that must also apply to new born adoptions. Eve spoke of the common misconception that babies that are adopted at a very young age will not have any problems, but that is far from the truth, and they come with baggage. She also told me that the development of the Lanarkshire infant mental health observational indicator said, and she put me in touch with consulting Graeme Shillman. That works allowing health professionals to identify early warning signs, the mental health difficulties and infants who are aged 0 to 3 years. We know that early intervention promotes better mental health through childhood, throughout and into adolescence and also right into adulthood, and that is a fine example of perinatal and infant mental health support. Every child deserves to grow up loved and understood, with not one single soul left behind, so we can truly deliver on our promise to ensure the best present and future outcomes for every child in Scotland. In closing, I asked Eve why she chose to adopt her daughter, and she said, to secure her life forever so that she has a sense of belonging and to anchor her. I love seeing her rename on her passport. It still gives me a buzz, and we have added her middle name after my materiel gran, which is the same as the rest of my kids. Presiding Officer, that lies at the core of the promise. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms Callaghan. I now call Paul O'Kane to be followed by Megan Gallagher again around four minutes, Mr O'Kane. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and can I begin also by thanking Rose McAll for bringing this important debate to the chamber and indeed for speaking in her opening so powerfully and personally about her commitment to the issues. Indeed, I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak on behalf of Scottish Labour and also pleased to do so as a chair of the cross-party group on Care Leavers, a newly established CPG in this session of Parliament. As referenced in the motion, the adoption barometer produced by Adoption UK is a highly useful resource that provides illuminating insights into the experience of families with adopted children in Scotland. Indeed, it is encouraging that in most areas Scotland is performing comparatively well in terms of the levels of education support provided for families with adopted children. I think that what we have heard is clearly a patchy experience very often and not a consistency in terms of the support that is being offered, and doing comparatively better cannot be the limit of our ambition for these young people. Although better than the rest of the UK, only half of adoptive parents believe that teachers have a good understanding of the needs of care-experienced children. Let's be honest, that's simply not good enough. That is a point that I think was emphasised very clearly in the promise, which highlighted the importance of teachers and school staff being appropriately and properly trained to empower them to fully be aware of the challenges facing care-experienced young people and to equip them with skills to encourage them to support themselves and become more resilient indeed to achieve the absolute limits of their potential. I think that in the debate already today, more broadly, we are hearing about the promise and looking again at what was committed to in the promise and how we are delivering on those areas. More broadly, it is critically important that the Government gets the promise right and continues to deliver on the commitment, because the reality is that sadly, for too many care-experienced children and young people, much of their lives have been shaped by broken promises, by adults who made commitments to them to improve their lives in one way or another and then failed to deliver. As we have already heard in years to come, the First Minister will be remembered for making those commitments to young people in the promise. Of course, I think that it is for all of us to commend her for her focus on care-experience and in particular, children and young people. I think that bringing that into the light of our national discourse and our national debate in perhaps a way that had not happened previously. However, the First Minister's resignation comes three years after the publication of the care review, and I think that it provides an opportunity to pause and take breath and assess the effectiveness of the current approach and impact in terms of the promise. I think that there are some issues around accountability, and I know that there are concerns that are being shared by third sector organisations who are working in the space. One of the issues that has been raised with me is who will be and who is accountable in the Government for delivery of the promise. Is it the outgoing First Minister and her very personal commitment? Is it the minister? Is it the Cabinet Secretary for Education or is it indeed the equal responsibility of everyone in the Cabinet and of all ministers? We all want to view everyone's responsibility, but very often, when something becomes the responsibility of everyone, it can quickly become the responsibility of no-one. I understand the rationale for having an organisation that is distinct from Government and seeks to be accountable to the people of Scotland in terms of the delivery of the promise. That is, of course, important and admirable, but we need to look at how we have more parliamentary oversight of the delivery of the promise. Perhaps that could be achieved if we looked at specific ministerial responsibility or specific committee responsibility in this Parliament. Those are all things that we should consider to ensure that all of us in this place hold the Government's feet to the fire and hold our own feet to the fire in terms of what we are trying to do for care-experienced young people in particular. As I draw the remarks to close, I want to emphasise that it is imperative that we do not fail care-experienced children and young people. As parliamentarians, we all have responsibility to ensure that their voices and the voices of those who care for them are present in our debates and in every decision that we make in this chamber. Let's work together to ensure that ambition matches rhetoric and transforms into meaningful change that care-experienced children and young people so richly deserve. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr O'Kane. I call Megan Gallagher again around four minutes, Ms Gallagher. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Firstly, I would like to congratulate my friend and colleague, Rose McCall, for securing this important debate. Also for her, excellent speech, bringing first-hand experience to the chamber and speaking from the heart. I would like to start my own remarks today on a positive note. I believe in the promise. I want to see all children and young people, no matter what start they've had in life, receive the same opportunities. But I have learned in my short time in this Parliament that believing isn't enough. You've got to want to make it work. To make it work requires diligence, education and buy-in, not from MSPs but from the children and young people whose lives we are seeking to improve. 5 February marked the three-year anniversary of the promise, and we as corporate parents signed up to the legislation promising care-experienced young people that we would improve their lives in care and provide them with opportunities when they left the care sector. I have taken part in previous debates relating to the promise and improving outcomes for care-experienced young people. Incidentally, the last debate on this very topic took place one year ago. During that last debate, I criticised the Government for its lack of progress and let me be clear that we are still in the same position. We do all collectively need to do much more when implementing the promise. During that debate I raised the concerns of Jamie Kinlochen. A long-term campaigner, Jamie has raised the number of young people who have tragically died shortly moving out of care. An FOI request revealed at that time 24 young people in care died in 2020 compared to the 21 the year before. In total between January 2014 and September 21, 111 children in young people had died. The chair of the promise Fiona Duncan admitted that young people who had sadly died had been let down by the policy. Therefore, I would be grateful if the minister during her contribution could update the chamber on the work that has been done in this area. Another huge concern for me that may threaten the commitment of the promise is council funding. A lot of care-related services depend on local government funding to survive council care providers and care experience young people with respite, with services to support mental health and social wellbeing, to work alongside third-party organisations and to promote and retain foster carers. Should the Scottish Government continue to underfund councils, I fear that those services may be scrapped. I would be grateful to know if the minister has taken into consideration the millions of pounds worth of cuts scheduled for local government over the next few years and the impact that this could have on our care experience young people. Four minutes is not enough time to properly discuss the promise. There are so many areas that require proper dialogue. Many of those areas have been covered collectively in the contributions that we have heard so far. Let me finish by discussing the introduction of a national care allowance for foster care. At present Scotland remains the only part of the United Kingdom that does not have a national allowance for foster carers. I am sure that everyone in this chamber agrees that foster carers are selfless, caring and wonderful people. They provide young people with a fresh start in life. Foster carers have waited too long for this Government to back them as they themselves have backed our care experience young people. Therefore, I have another request for the minister this afternoon. Will she or can she confirm that the introduction of the national minimum allowance will happen soon? To conclude, we are still a long way off from achieving the promise. My colleague Ros McAll has clearly articulated how that can be achieved. We often talk about lived experience in this chamber. Therefore, I call on the Government to continue to listen to our foster carers, organisations and care experience young people. Only then will we be able to achieve the promise. I thank Ros McAll for initiating this important debate today. I thank those who spoke for their contributions this afternoon. This debate has been valuable. It has allowed the Parliament to consider some of the challenges that are faced by adopted children and young people in education. It has highlighted the important topic of foster care allowances. Importantly, it has also demonstrated the continued strength of cross-party support for keeping the promise. It is vital that we continue to work collectively to ensure that all care experience children and young people are supported to grow up loved, safe and respected. That includes crucial activity to support children and young people who were adopted or fostered. As the Scottish Government is right that we lead from the front, we set out our commitment to do that in the promise implementation plan that was published last year. In the plan we outlined our vision for delivering a good childhood to ensure that every child lives in a safe and loving home and where families are given support to overcome difficulties and stay together. Where that is not possible, the focus first and foremost must be based on what a child wants and needs underpinned by nurturing relationships to enable them to have a happy childhood experience and to live their lives to the full. I will talk about our work to deliver on that vision, but before we do so, please allow me to put on record my thanks to all caregivers, including adoptive families and foster carers, and practitioners working in this sector. I thank the minister for taking this intervention and for the question that comes to mind. I welcome the information that has been given to us by the Scottish Government to look at children who have moved into an adopted or care environment and the support that they require. Does the minister agree with me that that must fall into education and our teachers and educators must be fully aware of the problems and issues that they face? Minister, I will give you the time back. I thank Rose McAll for that intervention and I am about to come on to education. I hope that the minister will give me the time back. I am about to come on to education, so I hope that that will answer some of her questions. Getting it right for every child or GERFEC is known as the Scottish Government's commitment to ensuring that all children and young people in their families are offered the right support at the right time from the right people. We know that children who are adopted may require distinct support for a variety of reasons. GERFEC supports professionals to assess and design that support, including through multidisciplinary working, to meet individual children's needs and to make sure that the level of support is reviewed regularly. Education is an important part of every child's upbringing. Children have the right to learn and achieve and for their educational needs to be supported. The adoption barometer report showed that adoptive parents from Scotland were more positive overall about their families' experience of navigating the education system than those in the rest of the UK. Scottish respondents were also more positive about how well their children's school was working with them to support their child. That is testimony to the progress that we have made in our schools and other educational settings. That said, we know that children with care experience are less likely to achieve qualifications than other children. That is why since 2018 we have invested over £50 million in the care experience children and young people fund. Money is provided to all local authorities in Scotland to fund initiatives designed to provide additional support for care experience children and young people, including adoptive children. It is clear that this money is making a difference. We have seen mentoring programmes that have a positive impact on attendance and attainment and the introduction of the virtual headteachers networks where good practice and learning can be shared. That has increased strategic focus on improving educational experiences and outcomes for care experience children in their local authority areas. Importantly, the fund has been used to establish teams to provide direct trauma-informed support to young people who have experienced previous trauma. We are also continuing work through the national trauma training programme to ensure that our education workforce is trauma-informed, recognises the impact of adverse experiences on children and provides the right support to ensure that no further harm is done. More broadly, the whole family wellbeing funding with an investment of £500 million over the course of the Parliament will transform services to ensure families, including adoptive families, can access the support when they need it. We have allocated £50 million in this year's budget, including £32 million provided directly to children's service planning partnerships to enable work at a local level. There is also a statutory duty on all local authorities to provide assistance to adoptive families in their localities. Let me now turn to the topic of foster care allowances raised by several contributors today. I absolutely acknowledge that the introduction of a Scottish-recommended allowance for foster and kinship carers has taken far longer than I originally anticipated. Equally, I totally recognise the frustrations of caregivers and stakeholders. Let me reassure Parliament today that this is an absolute priority for me. I remain committed to working constructively with COSLA to deliver it as quickly as possible and we are exploring all available options to do this. I began today by focusing on the importance of working collaboratively to keep the promise and in closing this debate, let me restate the Scottish Government's absolute commitment and my commitment to, as Minister for Children and Young People, to doing just that. We will continue to work tirelessly with partners across Scotland to ensure that all care experience children and young people are supported to grow up loved, safe and respected.