Families involved in the care system will benefit from a new £4 million fund, education secretary and deputy first minister John Swinney has said.
Updating MSPs yesterday on progress implementing the Independent Care Review - which was published in February and called for schools to stop excluding looked-after children - Mr Swinney said discussions were ongoing with councils and other groups to determine exactly how the money would be used.
It is part of an overhaul of the care system pledged by the Scottish government in the wake of the review.
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The review highlighted “separation, trauma, stigma and pain” in the system and said that, despite good intentions, and the hard work of many, the experience of far too many children and families was of “a fractured, bureaucratic, unfeeling ‘care system’”.
A blueprint to transform the system called The Promise was developed after discussions with care-experienced young people.
In relation to education, it said: “Scotland must not exclude care-experienced children from education or reduce their timetable to such an extent that they are denied their rights to education.”
It also called for schools to stop exacerbating the trauma of looked-after children by imposing consequences for challenging behaviour that “are restrictive, humiliating and stigmatising”, including seclusion and restraint and the use of “certain behaviour reward systems”.
The team behind The Promise is helping the Scottish government to create a plan of action to bring this about.
The chair of the review, Fiona Duncan, is now the chair of the new oversight board; half of the oversight board will be made up of people who have care experience.
Mr Swinney said they would be “the conscience of The Promise” and would have “an important role in ensuring that those who are tasked with making the change happen are making good on their promise”.
Mr Swinney said: “The Scottish government will work closely with The Promise team to drive forward a programme of action and we are investing £4 million of funding to make some early progress on these ambitions.
“This is the first investment in The Promise Fund, which is being established in line with The Promise enshrined in the care review to do more to support early intervention and prevention work with families across Scotland.
“We know this change was already urgent and the current situation means Scotland’s families need support now.”
However, the Labour MSP Daniel Johnson said that although the £4 million to make “early progress” was welcome, it was clear “the scale of the cultural and systemic change…will require further, more significant investment”.
