- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 16 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what post-adoption support services are currently provided by local authorities, and how these services are monitored for consistency across Scotland.
Answer
Sections 9-11 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007(The Act), require local authorities to assess a person’s needs for adoption support services and then provide that support if it is deemed necessary. This applies to children, young people, adoptive and birth families and adult adoptees.
Adoption support services are defined in section 1 of The Act as the provision of counselling, guidance and any other assistance that the local authority considers appropriate in the circumstances of that case. The accompanying Guidance on the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 and the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 explains that support services provided by local authorities can include:
- support to groups of adopted children, adopters and birth children
- assistance, including mediation, in arrangements for contact between adopted children and their birth parents, siblings and other relatives
- services to meet the therapeutic needs of adopted children
- assistance to adopters such as training to meet special needs and respite care
- mediation and other services if there is a disruption in an adoption placement, or risk of one.
Local Authority adoption services, including the post adoption support they provide, are monitored through inspections by the Care Inspectorate, which has the role of looking at the quality of care in Scotland to ensure it meets high standards, and supporting services to make positive changes where improvement is needed.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 16 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been surrendered by birth parents and, comparatively by adoptive parents, under section 25 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, in each of the last three years.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold the requested information.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 16 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what statutory support is available to adoptive parents following the completion of an adoption order.
Answer
Section 1 of The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 (The Act) outlines the duty of local authorities to provide an adoption service. Sections 9, 10 and 11 of The Act require local authorities to assess a person’s needs for adoption support services and then provide that support if it is deemed necessary. This applies both pre and post adoption to children, young people, adoptive and birth families and adult adoptees.
Section 45 of The Act also requires local authorities, who have decided that adoption support is needed by a person or family, to prepare an adoption support plan setting out how the person or family’s needs will be met by adoption support services.
In addition, under Part 3 of the Adoption Support Services and Allowances (Scotland) Regulations 2009, every local authority is required to establish an Adoption Allowance Scheme. An adoption allowance may be paid where the local authority determines that one or more of the circumstances set out in Regulation 10 apply. These include supporting the placement of the adoptive child, facilitating special arrangements for placement or adoption, or supporting the continuation of adoption arrangements after an adoption order is made.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 16 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that members of the public, particularly older people who are not confident using digital channels, can reliably contact the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) by telephone.
Answer
SPPA's telephone lines are open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Thursday, and 9am to 1.30pm on Friday. SPPA has handled over 70,000 calls in 2025, with the average call lasting seven minutes. This reflects the service SPPA is committed to giving scheme members.
Whilst the introduction of new digital channels is improving SPPA's customer service model, this will not limit accessibility for those who prefer to contact SPPA by telephone.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 December 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Natalie Don-Innes on 16 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many adopted children have been surrendered under section 25 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 in each of the last three years, and what percentage of total adoptions this represents during each of these years.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold information at the level of detail requested. Analysis of related data collected for Looked After Children Statistics is included in the following table.
| Total number of looked after children[2, 3]: - returned under Section 25 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, or
- where adoption did not proceed under Section 26 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007
| Total number of looked after children adopted |
| | |
| | |
| | |
[1] Year refers to the 12-month period ending on 31 July.
[2] Total number of looked after children refers to the number of looked after children either returned to the local authority under Section 25 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, or where adoption did not proceed, under Section 26 of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, during each year.
[3] An adoption order was not issued for children counted in these figures, which have therefore not been shown as a percentage of all adoptions, where an adoption order was issued.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the housing secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding arrangements for accessing pension funds as a source of investment to build affordable and social housing.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 18 December 2025
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 November 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S6F-04008 by John Swinney on 24 April 2025 and S6O-04959 by Natalie Don on 18 September 2025 regarding the mothballing of rural nurseries and the ongoing review of the guidance given to local authorities on this, in light of local authorities being required by legislation to review their nursery provision and the minister's commitment that the Scottish Government would aim "to provide an update to Parliament [on the review] as soon as possible during the autumn term", whether it will confirm by what date the review will be published.
Answer
The review of the national guidance on the mothballing of schools and Council-run nurseries has required extensive engagement work with groups including councils and parents’ representatives. This work is nearing completion, and the Scottish Government will update Parliament as soon as possible.
The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (section 50) requires local authorities to consult every two years with families in their area about how they should make ELC available and then publish a service delivery plan. This duty helps local authorities to ensure an appropriate mix of provision within their area that reflects local circumstances and allows for choice.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 November 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what outcomes were reached regarding provision for children and young people with autism at the meetings between the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills and the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland on 1 April and 30 October 2025.
Answer
Education provision for children and young people with autism was not discussed at these meetings. However, the Scottish Government continues to work closely with local government partners, including the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES) to improve the education provision and outcomes for children and young people with additional support needs, including those with autism.
This includes partnership working, to deliver the Additional Support for Learning Action (ASL) Plan in response to the recommendations of the 2020 Morgan Review and ADES participation in our ASL Data Summit on 12 November, which marked the beginning of a phased approach to improving data at both national and local levels.
ADES is represented on the ASL Action Plan Project Board which has oversight of delivery of the ASL Action Plan, to ensure transparency in the delivery of our work and to ensure our accountability and that of our partners. We have committed to delivering the recommendations of the review by March 2026 and we are working with our local government partners to meet this commitment.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2025
To ask the First Minister what discussions the Scottish Government has had with the UK Government regarding the implementation of the proposed scheme for the renovation of military homes in Scotland.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2025
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 25 September 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 3 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its recent discussions with key stakeholders regarding the phasing out of the use of farrowing crates, when it will fulfil the commitment in its 2021-22 Programme for Government to consult on this issue; what financial support will be offered to pig farmers to transition to free farrowing systems; whether it will work towards no routine crating for sows, and, if so, what the timeline is for this.
Answer
As per my reply to you in the chamber on 01 October, once a definitive direction as to what could replace traditional farrowing crates is determined, we will then consider the possible options which may be made available for producers transitioning away from traditional farrowing crates.
With regards to the Scottish Government’s 2021-22 Programme for Government commitment to consult on phasing out the use of farrowing crates. I would refer you to the answer to question S6W-36181 on. 22 April 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.
The Scottish Government remains committed to this work and the recent roundtable table discussion with industry, animal welfare organisations and academic representatives was the first steps in finding ways to ensure producer’s viability and improving sow welfare.
We will continue to listen and work with the industry and stakeholders to find ways for producers to transition towards implementing improved animal welfare methods and practices.
