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Relationships

Where is Scotland in 2024?

Overall, Scotland is making progress in supporting positive, stable relationships for care experienced children and young people, emphasising the importance of maintaining bonds with brothers and sisters, family members, and other significant people whenever possible. This progress is reflected in efforts to reduce barriers such as children and young people living long-distances away from their community, enhanced support services, and improved communication channels between caregivers, children, and families.

Challenges such as resource limitations and disparities in digital communication access persist, affecting relationship stability and children's wellbeing. Progress varies across regions, with some areas demonstrating strong support frameworks while others face consistency and accessibility issues. Addressing these disparities and ensuring equitable access to support services remains a priority for all care experienced children and young people in Scotland, and their families.

Scotland has made progress in preserving brother and sister relationships focusing on preventing unnecessary separations unless safety concerns arise. Local councils, under the Children (Scotland) Act 2020, are required to promote personal relationships and direct contact between children and their siblings or those in sibling-like relationships. However, many local authorities struggle to provide accurate data on whether brothers and sisters are living together or the reasons for their separation.

The Staying Together and Connected National Implementation Group (STAC), led by the Scottish Government and CELCIS, produced a route-map to support brothers and sisters and their relationships. Efforts include improving data collection and increasing the availability of homes that keep brothers and sisters together are supported by developments in staff training, support for families, and the development of flexible spaces for sibling connections. These developments reflect a strong commitment to recognising and upholding the importance of relationships for care experienced children and young people.

The work taking place to #KeepThePromise and the sibling legislation has resulted in more conversations taking place between children and their social workers around their relationships with their brothers and sisters. Children’s Hearings now consistently ask about this.

Outcomes are still mixed. Despite challenges in recruiting foster carers and a decline in fostering households, the number of family groups separated in foster care has not worsened since 2017, likely due to increased focus on keeping siblings together. However, in a study by the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA), 80% of the children in this research who were looked after away from home, were separated from their siblings.

Maintaining ongoing relationships between the workforce and children, young people, and families continues to be a challenge due to various systemic issues. These include continual service restructuring, inconsistent thresholds for service provision and difficulties in recruitment and retention of the workforce. The workforce also report limited time to dedicate to building and maintaining trusting relationships.

Relationships

Where does Scotland need to be by 2030?

By 2030, Scotland will understand the risk of children not having loving, supportive relationships and regular childhood and teenage experiences. Work must progress at pace to ensure children are supported to develop and maintain relationships that are important to them, wherever it is safe to do so.

This means that by 2030 at the very latest:

  • There will be no structural, systemic or cultural barriers for children and young people living in care to have regular, positive experiences, such as, staying over at a friend’s house, going on holiday or away for the weekend.
  • The presumption Scotland has that children will stay together with their brothers and sisters wherever safe to do so will be fully realised with ongoing implementation closely monitored.
  • Children and young people who move from a care setting will be able to maintain relationships with workers, if they wish to do so.
  • Scotland will broaden its understanding of risk, meaning, a shift in focus from the risk of possible harm to the risk of not having stable, long-term loving relationships.
Where does Scotland need to be by 2030?

The route map to get there

Focus must be on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people, as the number entering Scotland’s ‘care system’ has meant that an already stretched system is not well equipped to meet their needs. For the needs of all children and young people to be met consistently, work to reform the 'care system' must prioritise improving current processes and increasing resources to ensure unaccompanied children and young people, and those removed from their families, are given all they need to thrive.

The Staying Together and Connected National Implementation Group’s immediate and medium-term recommendations must be progressed.

The Scottish Government will consider recommendation 11.6.2 in  Hearings for Children that wherever possible and appropriate, the same Chair should be present at each separate child’s hearing for the same family.

The Scottish Government will explore or consult the concept of national best practice guidance around the issue of ‘contact’ and maintenance, repair and development of safe relationships, in line with recommendation 11.11 from Hearings for Children. The guidance will build on the National Practice Guidance on siblings and work of the National Implementation Group, including the associated Learning and Development Framework. The Children’s Hearings Redesign Board is expected to connect with relevant stakeholder groups and policy functions in advancing this recommendation.

Scottish Government has indicated that, in late 2024, it will lay Scottish Statutory Instruments on the regulation provisions within the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 relating to ‘contact centres’.

This work should align with the Language Leaders and other work around the use of language, including use of the term 'contact'.

The actions outlined in the Voice foundation are fully embedded at every stage to progress actions on Relationships.

What is helping?

The Scottish Government in 2021 published National Practice Guidance and convened a National Implementation Group to identify bridges and barriers realising Scotland’s commitment to keep brother and sisters together. The introduction of legislation in 2021 recognised the importance of relationships and keeping brothers and sisters together and connected. As part of this work, Who Cares? Scotland engaged with children and young people with lived experience to ensure their voices were heard and represented on their rights and how legislation is being applied in practice.

This guidance has since been updated in 2023 to reflect legislative, policy and practice changes.

As part of the National Implementation Group, a Monitoring and Evaluation subgroup was established. An evaluation published by CELCIS in March 2024 highlights that, while significant progress has been made by local areas, implementation is ongoing in many areas and more time is needed.

The work of the Staying Together National Implementation Group made clear the immediate, medium and long-term priorities for Scotland to continue its journey to ensure brothers and sisters with care experience stay together and connected. This includes the Community of Practice for Siblings which has grown, bringing together change makers, both in local areas and in leading national organisations. Work to progress recommendations has begun.

The work of the Supporting Roots project and report has highlighted best practice and is a tool to support innovation around maintaining relationships that are important to children and young people.

Who must act?

Health

Health
Local Government

Local Government
Scrutiny

Scrutiny
Voluntary sector

Voluntary sector
Scottish Government

Scottish Government

Here is what matters to children and families

The people who support me have listened to and recorded who I consider to be my family and the people and things that matter to me.

I can have fun, and do the things I enjoy, with the people that matter to me.

I am given support to keep in touch and have meaningful interaction with people who matter to me.

Where it is safe to do so, I can live with my brother(s) (and) sister(s).

I am given support to keep in touch and have meaningful interaction with my brother(s) and/or sister(s) I do not live with.

Find out more about the what matters questions here.

Also connected to this theme

Documenting decisions
Listening
Participation and engagement
Intensive family support
Decision making
Moving on and lifelong support
Where children live
Stability
Rules, processes and culture

Mapping

This is how Plan 24-30 relates to other frameworks and plans

Independent Care Review conclusions  Plan 21-24 priority area
the promise pgs.16; 88; 104-105 Supporting the workforce
  A good childhood

 

 

UNCRC GIRFEC
Articles 3; 9; 12; 18; 19; 20; 23; 39 Safe
Concluding observations 9c; 17b; 38e; 50d-e,g-h; 51a-c Achieving 
  Nurtured
  Active
  Respected
  Responsible
  Included
  Healthy



Plan 24-30 foundations