6. To ask the First Minister what recent action the Scottish Government has been taking to keep the Promise to young people in care. (S6F-01829)

It is the ambition of this Government that every child in Scotland grows up loved, safe and respected so that they have the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of the circumstances in which they are born. As well as being a commitment of the Scottish Government, that is a personal commitment of mine, which I will take with me as I leave the Government over the next few weeks.

The budget that was passed on Tuesday commits almost £80 million to the Promise and £50 million to the whole family wellbeing fund. Back in December, we introduced the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill, which seeks to put an end to under-18s spending time in young offenders institutions and to ensure that children who come into contact with the care and justice system are treated with trauma-informed and age-appropriate support.

Last Friday, I was delighted to visit East Renfrewshire to celebrate care day. I always value the opportunity to hear what matters directly from children and young people across Scotland as we work together to keep the Promise, which, as I said, is a commitment that I hold personally, as well as—for the time being—as First Minister.

I am very grateful for that answer, but as the First Minister demits office, many in the care sector are deeply concerned about whether the Government will follow through with its pledge to uphold the Promise. I absolutely welcome the First Minister’s personal assurance that, for her, that will be a lifelong commitment.

Nearly two years after the launch, and with only three years to go, there are serious questions about progress. Does the First Minister agree that any failure to deliver the Promise would be nothing less than an abject betrayal of some of the most vulnerable children in our society? Would it be her or her successor as First Minister who would be held responsible for that?

The First Minister:

I will always feel responsibility for the Promise, whether I am in government, in this Parliament, or wherever I happen to be in future stages of my life.

I have absolute confidence that whoever succeeds me as First Minister will share my commitment to keeping the Promise and delivering on that, but let me make this promise of my own: if, at any point, I think that the current Government or any future Government is not doing that, there will be somebody on the back benches being very loud and very vocal about it. Mr Whitfield can hold me to that.

I welcome the Scottish Government’s on-going commitment to keeping the Promise to our care-experienced young people. How will the allocation in next year’s budget of £50 million to the whole family wellbeing fund, which the First Minister mentioned, support families who are in need?

The First Minister:

The whole family wellbeing fund is really important, and I am extremely committed to it and will want it to continue to be delivered.

We talk about young people in care. It is really important that any young person in care is loved and supported, and that they are safe and secure and nurtured. However, one of our biggest responsibilities is to try to prevent the need for young people to go into care, by supporting families and keeping families together, where we can. That is the purpose and the objective of the whole family wellbeing fund. We want to transform services so that families can access the support that they need when they need it and in the way that they need to do so. When I was in East Renfrewshire on Friday, one mother in particular told me about the importance of that early Intervention approach in ensuring that her daughter was able to stay with her and did not have to go into care.

The fund will focus on the system changes that are required to shift investment towards early intervention and prevention, which is a critical part of how we keep the Promise in practice. The £58 million investment in this year’s budget includes the provision of £32 million directly to children’s services planning partnerships to support work at a local level. Further details of the programme proposals will be confirmed in due course.

Many things have been important to me during my years as First Minister; I am sure that I will get the opportunity to speak about some of them in the next few weeks. Few, if any, of those things have been more important to me than the Promise to care-experienced young people. Our society should be judged on how we care for and love the most vulnerable children that we have and I think that this Parliament as a whole—not just this Government—should be committed to ensuring that every young person is loved and nurtured. If we do that, we will have something to be genuinely and really proud of.

I note the First Minister’s personal commitment.

Fiona McLean of The Promise Scotland said:

“For so many care-experienced children, young people and care-experienced adults, their lives won’t have improved over the last two years and things will have been really, really hard and may even have got worse.

That’s heartbreaking and shameful, and it shouldn’t be the case.”

Does the First Minister agree that, two years into the Promise, it is simply unacceptable that the lives of care-experienced people are still no better?

The First Minister:

I thank the member for her question. Forgive me if I am getting this wrong—

I am not sure if she was referring to Fiona Duncan of The Promise. Fiona has said many things and has done fantastic work with the care review and with The Promise. I know that she is someone who seeks to hold all policy makers and Government ministers to account.

Of course there is much to do. The experience of the pandemic has been tough for everyone, but it has been particularly tough for those who were already vulnerable and marginalised. There will be many respects in which that has been the experience of the past two years for young people in care.

We talk about the Promise—we have been talking about it and I have been talking about it today—in the abstract. We have already done so many things to improve the experience of young people in care. When I speak to young people, those are often the things that they cite to me. The care-experienced bursary is one example. I have spoken to many care-experienced young people who have had the opportunity to go to university only because of the bursary that we introduced. We have taken away some of the other costs, whether those are dental charges or the burden of council tax. Those practical measures are important because they are about levelling the playing field and giving opportunity.

Do we have more to do? We absolutely have more to do. We will absolutely have to rise to the challenge of keeping the Promise. I hope that everyone across the chamber is as committed to that as I am. I will continue to be a very loud and, I hope, powerful advocate for care-experienced young people as we, collectively and as a society, keep the Promise. It came much later than it should have done and we now all have a responsibility to deliver it in full.

The Presiding Officer:

We move to general and Constituency supplementary questions.