Tag: The Promise

Adopted children facing mental health emergency, charity warns

Adoption UK in Scotland is warning of a mental health emergency amongst some of the country’s most vulnerable children, caused by failings in a system that is not set up to meet their needs.  

This year’s Adoption Barometer report reveals that two-thirds (64%) of people in the UK aged 16+ have sought help with their mental health, and the numbers are rising. In Scotland, more than half (51%) of adopted people aged 16-25 were involved with mental health services in 2020. Yet most say they have been unable to access the support they need.   

Most adopted young people suffered abuse, neglect or violence in their early years, with lasting impacts on relationships, learning and health, leaving their adoptive families to pick up the pieces when professional support is not provided.  

Fiona Aitken, Adoption UK Director of Scotland, said: “For the third year running, over two-thirds of Scottish Barometer respondents said they face an ongoing struggle for support. 

“Scottish children and families are being failed by a system that does not provide the ongoing help and support children need to overcome early experiences, and the lifelong impact that adoption has then fades into the background. 

“We owe it to these children and their families to provide ongoing support throughout their lives, to help them to achieve the best possible outcomes that they deserve.”

The survey results highlight the consequences of failure to provide early and consistent support for adopted young people. 

More than a third (38%) of adopted 16-25-year-olds in Scotland were not in positive destinations (education, employment or training) at the end of 2020. Involvement in high-risk and criminal activities has steadily increased since the first Adoption Barometer in 2019. 

Problems are often compounded by children falling through the cracks between child and adult services. Almost three-quarters of parents in the UK said their child’s support reduced or ceased when they aged out of services for adolescents. 

Julian Thomson, aged 29, said: “When I was 13 I was diagnosed with mild depression, but my GP was unwilling to prescribe antidepressants due to my age.

“There were a very narrow range of options available at that time, and it didn’t help that my medical records weren’t passed on after I was adopted. Because of that, a whole host of things were missed – it was like I didn’t have a life before adoption.

“Neither I nor my adoptive family were offered any real mental health support after that. I did have some sessions with an NHS counsellor, but that didn’t get to the root of the problem and I feel the sessions were not focused on trauma. It was only when I was 27 that I was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stemming from historical abuse.

“I am currently going through the process of being diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder. Had this been picked up when I was in care it may not have impacted upon my life the way it did. I believe there is a real need for psychological assessment for all adopted children.”

The Barometer survey also shows that contact with birth family often looms large during adolescence and early adulthood. 

In Scotland, 28% of 13-18-year-olds had direct contact with a birth family member outside of any formal agreement. For some, this has devastating consequences for mental health and family stability.  

When families do get support, their assessments of its quality and the impact on their family have increased on all indicators since last year - a considerable achievement considering the pandemic. 

In Scotland, parents who had accessed Adoption UK services said the support they received had been crucial to their wellbeing. Adopter experiences in Wales have improved at both approvals and matching stage, and among families with older children, due to investment in adoption services in 2019. 

The emergency Covid adoption support fund in England has been widely praised by families.

Fiona Aitken added: “This year presents real opportunities to re-set support for adoptive families. 

“The Promise to Scotland’s Care Experienced children as a result of the Independent Care Review and the debate about Covid recovery are real opportunities to improve our systems and services for families to ensure our more vulnerable children receive an equal chance in life.” 

Adoption UK is setting out a six-point plan to improve the life chances of adopted  young people. It includes multi-disciplinary assessments and support plans for every child placed for adoption and the extension of adoption services to at least age 26. 

Supporting care-experienced young people

The Promise Partnership Fund extended

A £4 million per year fund to help improve the lives of care-experienced young people will continue up to 2024-25.

The Promise Partnership Fund enables organisations to better support children and young people in or on the edges of care, as well as families who need it.

The fund is open to private, public and third sector organisations and care-experienced people will help make the final funding decisions.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney has also welcomed publication of The Change Programme, which sets out what needs to happen over the next year to ensure Scotland keeps its Promise to improve the lives of children and young people in care.

Mr Swinney said: “The Promise Partnership Fund is an important because it provides additional resources to help organisations make the changes needed to enrich the lives of children and young people in or on the edges care.

“I have written today to Fiona Duncan, chair of The Promise Scotland, welcoming publication of The Change Programme and committing to using that document as a lever to accelerate real and meaningful change to #KeepThePromise.

“We will continue to work with The Promise Scotland, with service partners and importantly children and families to ensure we drive forward the transformational change that is required to make Scotland the best place to grow up where all children are loved, safe, respected and realise their full potential.”

change-programme-one-pdfDownload

The Promise Scotland publishes Change Programme ONE

Today The Promise Scotland publishes Change Programme ONE. It is a plan of action for the coming year and follows on from the publication of Plan 21-24 which mapped and sequenced the 80+ calls to action in the Independent Care Review’s conclusions and identified five priority areas for the coming three years.

The collective buy-in to the change demanded by the Independent Care Review created an authorising environment for this approach to sequenced, collaborative implementation across multiple sectors and agencies towards a single, shared long-term vision.

This is new territory for Scotland.

The content of the Change Programme comes from the engagement The Promise Scotland is having with the organisations that have responsibility to change shape first or most for Scotland to #KeepThePromise.  They are referred to in the Change Programme as ‘lead organisations’. 

Many of the meetings to discuss the promise included multiple agencies, reflecting the joint working taking place across local partnerships to support children and families, demonstrating a sustained, shared commitment for doing things differently.  The focus of the conversation was: what is happening now, what is planned and what is getting in the way of progress.

The Promise Scotland has made an assessment of the work against three categories. In nine areas, work is underway; in fifteen areas work is underway but does not yet appear sufficient; and in one area there is little or no work underway.

This is the first Change Programme and it was produced in the shadow of COVID-19, but it clearly shows there is a lot to do. The Promise Scotland Oversight Board will consider it, review mismatch and lack of alignment between national and local, system and service, practice and culture, etc.

This is the tricky part. When folk have to stop saying they support change and ACTUALLY change.

Some may feel criticised by the Change Programme, bruised by their report card. Others would like to have been more involved in its creation, but for them to operate radically differently commissioning, policy etc. has to change.  And others saying they are doing what they can but the limitations of the operating environment won’t let them do more. The Oversight Board has to consider all of this.

Navigating this new territory has never been more important.

Many of the children and families who weren’t previously well served by public services have been the hardest hit over the last fifteen months, feeling even more acutely the effects of poverty, abuse and neglect, the impact of poor housing, the challenges of loneliness and addiction.  And suffering the greatest loss of life.

The pandemic intensified, but did not create poverty and trauma.  These families, as well as many others who were previously coping but due to changes in circumstances outwith their control, may now need help. So too might the thousands of new parents, as COVID-19 chronically restricted their access to social and professional support networks.

A profound risk of these consequences is that more children enter Scotland’s ‘care system,’ when, with support, families could stay together and thrive. They cannot be fearful of asking for help and it must be there when they need it.

The long-term impact of the last year on our children and young people is, as yet, unknown. Not being able to get out to play with friends or see family, instead worrying about loved ones whilst trying to keep up with schoolwork, sometimes without the kit needed to learn and in accommodation not conducive to learning, has been devastating. There have been too many lost opportunities to take part in activities like sport, music, art, sleepovers, with volunteering and work experience placements vanishing.

But here’s a difficult truth: those circumstances are not far from the everyday, pre-pandemic reality of children and young people who experience the very worst of Scotland’s ‘care system’. Eighteen months on from the Care Review there is no excuse for that ‘care system’ not to be gone for good.

The Change Programme is not an exhaustive list of all that is happening across Scotland. Everyday people and organisations are supporting children and families, caring for the children in Scotland’s care, championing their rights and helping make sure they go on to have a fulfilling life. They are doing what they can right now.

So, when you read it – and I hope you do – please think about your role, your responsibility and do what you can. Today, tomorrow and everyday.

We are more likely to get to where we all want to if we travel together and towards the same vision.

Change Programme One is live!

Read it here: https://thepromise.scot/change-programme-one/

On 31 March 2021, The Promise Scotland published Plan 21-24, the first of three overarching plans, outlining five priority areas of change, each with actions.

Those actions must be completed by 2024 for Scotland to stay on track to #KeepThePromise it made to its children and families, in full, by 2030.

The Change Programme will ensure these actions are taken. Between now and 2024, a Change Programme will be updated regularly to capture the work underway to #KeepThePromise, in each priority area of change.

It will record change as it happens, monitor progress, identify gaps and risks. Change Programme One tells us:

  • What is happening now
  • What is happening next &
  • What needs to happen

Change Programme One will be used to:

  • Identify, celebrate and amplify positive change
  • Link up siloed groups, services and individuals so they can work together
  • Provide extra support to organisations that need it

By March 2022 The Change Programme will be fully online, reflecting change in (as close as possible to) real time, providing a single window onto the cross-sector, multi-agency approach to collaborative implementation that is required.

Change Programme ONE is a live plan of actions that will constantly adapt and change over time and when needed, to best #KeepThePromise.

The Change Programme includes commitments made by organisations from all across Scotland, reflecting what they are doing differently, based on what matters most to children and families.