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As I have said, the Scottish Government is absolutely committed to keeping the Promise to care-experienced children and young people. It is also committed to supporting young people who are in care or leaving care; that is enshrined in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 and in the measures that we have outlined in previous answers.

On collecting data, one thing that we spoke about often during my time as a member of the Health and Sport Committee was the collating of accurate and relevant data and ensuring that we have data that shows us the outcomes for children and young people who are leaving care, so that we can target interventions towards them. Having such data is key to driving forward the improvements that we want in the care service.

We have talked today about the whole-family wellbeing fund providing support and a wraparound service. Providing the individual support that a person needs is key to ensuring that transitions occur as seamlessly as we want. We want the flow between services to be as easy as it can be for a child or a young person and their family. It is certainly our ambition to work towards keeping the Promise, as the Scottish Government has committed to doing.

The Scottish Government, COSLA and many others have a shared ambition to have trauma-informed and trauma-responsive workforces across the country and to have transition and support planning in place for people with care experience. That is central to our commitment to keep the Promise. As I said in response to Gillian Mackay, as part of our national trauma training programme, we are developing tailored trauma training, which will be rolled out in summer 2023 to members of the workforce who work most closely with care-experienced babies, children and young people, and their families. Focusing on having a trauma-informed workforce across all public services will help to support not only the general population but care-experienced children and young people.

As I said in my previous answer, we are working with stakeholders to shape and design the whole family wellbeing fund for 2022-23. We recognise that early intervention is essential to ensure that children can safely remain in the care of their families when they are at risk of becoming looked after or are looked after at home. To fulfil our commitments to the Promise, we have to understand the impact of trauma on family relationships and how we can drive a reduction in that. We will continue to engage with stakeholders and listen to those with care experience, to understand how we can support that critical work.

Through the children, young people and families early intervention fund, which is more commonly known as CYPFEI, funding is provided to more than 100 organisations—some of which the committee will have received evidence from—to promote wellbeing, prevention and early intervention activities and improve parenting and family support. We have committed to funding those organisations until 2023. In April 2023, as we committed to in this year’s programme for government, we will launch a £16 million third sector fund to replace the CYPFEI fund and the adult learning and empowering communities—ALEC—fund. Therefore, as I said, there are on-going commitments to continue to work with the sector.

As a precursor to the family wellbeing fund, which we might come to later in the meeting, the Deputy First Minister announced at the weekend £3 million for local authorities and £255,000 for a small number of third sector organisations, to provide cash support to families who are currently in need. There is an on-going commitment from the Government to do what we can when we can to mitigate—

Absolutely. We are looking at targeting what families need at that point in time, whether that is help with utilities, clothing or food.

Yes.

Yes, I can.

It is important to acknowledge that there was wide consultation when the legislation was proposed and was going through Parliament. In my opening remarks, I mentioned the support that has been given by Who Cares? Scotland. There were other supporting voices, including Recruit With Conviction. We had a joint response from the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice and the improving life chances implementation group, who also expressed their support for increasing the age threshold to the highest age that was offered. There is widespread support from stakeholders for the change in regulation.

We all have a responsibility to ensure that children, young people and vulnerable adults are safeguarded. As I said in my opening remarks, the process of barring someone is robust and the process that someone would have to go through to have that barring lifted will be just as robust.

We want to ensure that we protect children, young people and vulnerable people. The changes in the regulations for people who were placed on the barred list when they were under the age of 25 is about recognising that young people move on from lifestyle choices and behaviours that have been harmful in the past. Denise McKay or Lynne McMinn might want to comment on the legalities around the process.

The proposed threshold is consistent with that in the rest of the UK, where the ability for individuals to ask for such a change applies up to the age of 25. It is also in line with corporate parenting responsibilities as they apply under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, because we in Scotland acknowledge that parenting does not stop at the age of 18. That is why the age of 25 was chosen.