GOVERNMENT FAILING TO KEEP PROMISE TO LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN

By Bill Heaney

Educational attainment has fallen, school attendance rates are declining and the exclusion rate for looked-after children – that’s children fostered out or living in council care homes – has risen for the first time in 12 years and is almost six times the exclusion rate for all pupils.

Tory MSP Roz McCall culled these facts from the recently published report, Education Outcomes for Looked After Children 2022/23.

First Minister John Swinney attempted to reassure the MSP that an expensive initiative called The Promise had been set up to tackle these problems – and insisted it was working.

He said: “The Scottish Government is resolute in our commitment to keep the Promise. The attainment gap between care-experienced school leavers and all children has been narrowing at all levels since 2009-10.

“That gap continues to narrow at the highest levels of achievement and, for lower-level qualifications, it remains narrower than it was pre-Covid.

“Although overall figures indicate that there is more to be done on exclusions and attendance, with support through the care-experienced children and young people fund and the virtual headteacher network we have seen real successes in those areas in schools across Scotland.

“Working with Education Scotland, local government and The Promise Scotland, we must learn and build on that work to continue to improve outcomes for children and young people with care experience.”

Roz McCall was unconvinced however. She told Mr Swinney: “I am surprised. The key findings of the report are deeply concerning.

“Educational attainment has fallen, school attendance rates are declining and the exclusion rate for looked-after children has risen for the first time in 12 years and is almost six times the exclusion rate for all pupils.

“Despite the commitments of the Promise, which, for example, include a promise to scrap the exclusions for care-experienced children, it is clear from the report that the Scottish Government is failing in that mission.

“The chances of success of young people throughout Scotland are increasingly being determined by their circumstances, which is shameful. What has gone wrong? What more will the Government do to ensure that our care-experienced community gets what was promised?”

The First Minister stuck to his guns: “The Government’s commitment to the Promise is absolute. I was in Government when the commitment was originally given, and it will remain steadfast in any Government that I lead.

“However, I also recognise the challenges that we face in this regard. Just at the start of the school year, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills published the steps that have been taken in relation to behaviour and attendance in our schools, because we recognise—prompted by constructive discussion in the Parliament—that, in the Covid aftermath, there are significant implications in relation to school attendance and behaviour as a consequence of Covid’s disruptive effect. That affects all young people, and it will have an effect on care-experienced young people into the bargain.

“Our focus on addressing those issues will continue. There are, of course, other aspects of work that we are doing that are being implemented as part of our commitment to the Promise. One of them was the enactment of the provisions of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024, which ends the placement of children in young offenders institutions in Scotland.

“I am glad that that came into force on 28 August, and I am deeply grateful to everybody across our system who has made that possible. That is just one other commitment in the Promise that the Government has delivered, and we will deliver more.”

Labour MSP Martin Whitfield cast doubts on the contention that The Promise was working.

He said: “The gap in secondary school attendance rates between looked-after pupils and all pupils has widened to eight percentage points in 2022-23. That means that actions that have been taken previously have not made a positive difference in getting those young people to school. What specifically will the First Minister change to get attendance for care-experienced young people up?”

Mr Swinney replied: “Some measures are contained in the work that I set out in my original answer to Roz McCall. We will try to ensure that we maintain young people’s engagement in education in all circumstances. Obviously, attendance would be desirable and ideal .”

But Martin Whitfield said “ideal” was not sufficient but “essential”.

The First Minister hit back: “Mr Whitfield shouts to say that it is essential. I would like it to be essential, which would be ideal, but there are other ways of reaching children with education, such as by taking their education to them, if there is a difficulty in getting them into school.

“That is part of the measures that are being exhausted to ensure that we establish the connection with young people to maintain their education. That approach will lie at the heart of the steps that we take.”