Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning, minister and officials. Thank you for your engagement so far. Amendments 1058 and 1060, in my name, seek to ensure that young people who are leaving care get the support that they need. In response to the call for views on the bill, The Promise Scotland said:

“Parenting does not stop at 18, and the promise was clear that Scotland should act like a good parent that supports young people as they enter adulthood, encouraging young people towards a life of independence and stability, but one that takes cognisance of the ongoing support and responsibility required throughout a care experienced person’s life”.

The amendments in my name seek to do that.

Amendment 1058 would put a duty on local authorities, in cases where the homeless applicant is a care leaver, to offer the applicant a referral to organisations that provide throughcare and aftercare support services. The amendment would apply to care leavers—that is, those who are under the age of 26 and still entitled to throughcare and aftercare services from their local social work department.

Despite the fact that care leavers are still entitled to those services, what we see in practice across Scotland is that, where someone who is care experienced is made homeless or is threatened with homelessness, there is a disconnect between housing providers and the social work department and other areas of state support. The independent care review said that many care-experienced young people had expressed that they felt abandoned and ill prepared as they moved on from care to independent living, often leaving before they were ready and at an earlier age than they might have wanted to.

Research that was carried out by CELCIS in 2022 identified several bureaucratic barriers and cultural and practice factors that impacted on the successful implementation of legislation and policy for the benefit of young people into adulthood. Furthermore, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland noted that some care leavers are unaware that support exists and that there are examples of them not receiving that entitlement when the situation of potential homelessness arises.

Further research from CELCIS found that there are also critical workforce gaps in the area that supports care-experienced young people. Those gaps will be well known to the minister and to committee members. For that reason, having opportunities to refer on to other organisations is not only helpful—because those organisations could be best placed to support care-experienced young people—but could help to address the gaps in some of the statutory services and to provide additional support. Services across the public and the third sector are keen to work closely together on all those issues.

I think that we all believe that young people should be offered equity in the provision of support and in their experiences. That requires us to have collaborative areas of working across services and agencies, including child and adult social work, housing, education, health and the third sector.

Amendment 1058, in my name, seeks to do that. It is supported by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, who is responsible for ensuring that the rights of children are upheld. A crucial facet of the amendment is that it would provide for voluntary referrals. I have included that because it would give care-experienced young people the opportunity to be referred to services, as opposed to their being required to engage, which carries a slightly different emphasis.

Amendment 1060, in my name, seeks to place a duty on ministers to prepare guidance for local authorities on throughcare and aftercare support that could be offered to care-experienced young people. It specifies that, in preparing the guidance, ministers and the Government have to consult local authorities and organisations that provide support to care-experienced young people, as well as other persons whom the Scottish ministers think appropriate, and that those views must be represented.

Amendment 1060 follows on nicely from amendment 1058 by seeking to ensure consistency across the support that is provided. Such inconsistency in support is well recognised by stakeholders, including CELCIS. Amendment 1060 is also supported by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland.

Together, my amendments would help to address some of the barriers to throughcare and would support care-experienced young people to access safe, affordable and accessible homes. I hope that members will support them.

Will the minister take an intervention?

Was that based on finances, as opposed to what students and staff might need going forward?

And you are confident that the investigation and its terms of reference will look at why that culture was the case.

Is that to do with the model? Does the Government understand the extent of the risk and is it acting to address that?

But for universities across Scotland?

It feels as though something of that order needs to happen because—obviously, you will have followed discussions closely—the Government has pointed to the SFC as the body that should oversee and fix the situation, and the university has said that it is engaging with you. A lot of people are relying on someone checking universities’ homework. From the information that the committee has heard this morning, it appears that the current processes are incapable of detecting or getting the information that is needed to allow proper scrutiny of the way in which organisations are being run. That is a difficult thing to say and to hear, but what do you think that you should do to address those problems? What specific actions can be taken?

It is an underspend.

I appreciate that, and I have listened carefully to what you said about the regularity with which you look at the accounts, the engagement and the expectations that you set out. However, we are still in the situation that we are in, and many people who are watching this will be wondering, given all that, how we are where we are.

I have a question about that specific issue. It has been reported that the school of business will have significant and disproportionate cuts, but some staff have said that the school is currently generating a surplus. How does that square with what you have just said?