The findings contained in the University of Stirling report “Permanently Progressing? Building Secure Futures for Children in Scotland” are deeply concerning. Its study found that, out of the 1,836 participants, it was not possible to link educational attendance, exclusion and absence data for a whopping 1,086. Moreover, 60 per cent did not have a Scottish candidate number. The cabinet secretary will be aware that children are issued with an SCN when they start school, but because that number was not available for the majority of the cohort, linkage with educational data was not possible.

What more is the Scottish Government doing to ensure that our data gathering is robust and includes all children who have experienced care? How can we ensure that the Promise is fulfilled if we do not have the appropriate data set—