Young people of Scotland, we love you

An audio clip from Alex can be found here.

Ten years on from former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announcing a review of the care system, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton will use his speech to his party’s autumn conference on Saturday to set out plans to deliver the guarantee of a traineeship or a real workplace opportunity for everyone at the point that they leave care.

Alex will say:

On the day I became leader of our party, I spoke of the importance of three words.

Three words, for a person to understand about themselves, and to believe to be true.

“You are loved”.

Because without love, what hope does a child have?

In 2016, Nicola Sturgeon promised a care review that would be revolutionary.

That would strip back the system to ensure that each and every one of Scotland’s looked-after children would grow up feeling loved.

I’ll always remember the 8-year-old child that I met in a care home, back when I was a youth worker, who had been through 37 failed placements. Eight years old.

It’s ten years this week since the SNP promised that change, and thousands of children have grown up in care and not seen any difference.

I came into politics because of my experience of working with these young people. And now our MSP group has gained a world-renowned expert.

If you haven’t seen it already, go back and watch Duncan Dunlop’s first speech to Parliament.

You could have heard a pin drop.

He read out the names of some of the children our country decided to take responsibility for, who have since died at tragically young ages.

These are children in the care of the state; as such, they are the First Minister’s children, to whom a promise was made, but never kept.

The government has no means of knowing how many have been failed by the system: how many end up in prison, or on the streets, or die early.

What parent doesn’t even know if their kids are alive.

Which is why we are calling on John Swinney to record how many are dying prematurely.

That is just the start.

This government needs to catch up.

More than 5,000 young people have already grown up and left the care system since The Promise was first made. They deserved better.

The state has a special responsibility to give them the best chance to be everything they can be, with stable, lifelong, and loving relationships they can rely on.

The absence of these relationships is why so many are dying young.

And that moment, when people leave care and the professionals disappear, is pivotal.

Which is why, today, I am calling for a job guarantee for care-experienced young people.

A guarantee of a traineeship or a real workplace opportunity for everyone at the point that they leave care.

Let’s help them into jobs which suit them.

Let’s get employers excited about working with them.

Let’s give them real hands-on experience, mentoring and colleagues who’ll look out for them.

They may not have had the best start in life,

But we can surely help them with a good career, and a better chance at adulthood.

We cannot allow young people to age out of care with empty promises.

I want to show Scotland’s care-experienced young people, so often ignored, that the Liberal Democrats are on their side.

And that they are loved.

ENDS