Keeping the Promise - implementation plan: fairer Scotland duty impact assessment

Fairer Scotland Duty Impact Assessment – Keeping The Promise Implementation Plan

Summary of aims and expected outcomes of strategy, proposal, programme or policy

The aim of Keeping The Promise is to implement all of the findings from the Independent Care Review ensuring that families are supported to stay together when it is safe to do so and that any interaction with the care system for children and families is based on love, care and nurture.

The Keeping The Promise Implementation Plan sets out a vision for 2030 when Scotland has kept The Promise. There are 14 top level actions with over 80 actions contained within the document which cut across all parts of Government.

The Promise Implementation Plan ultimately aims to support more families to stay together. For any child or family who does have interactions with the care system it should be a system built on love, care and compassion.

Keeping The Promise would see:

• more kinship carers,
• less foster carers
• residential and secure homes
• no 16 and 17 year olds in Young Offenders Institutions

Actions within the Promise Implementation Plan aim to reduce poor outcomes related to the experience of care including:

• poverty,
• homelessness,
• substance misuse,
• poor health including mental health,
• offending,
• school exclusion,
• educational attainment
• low employability

Scotland’s National Performance Framework is at the root of Scotland’s aim to create a more successful country; it is how we know if we are providing opportunities to all people living in Scotland; increasing the wellbeing of people living in Scotland; achieving more sustainable and inclusive growth; reducing inequalities and giving equal importance to economic, environmental and social progress. Keeping the Promise will contribute to these positive outcomes within the National Performance Framework.

Summary of evidence

The purpose of this section is to summarise the evidence about how The Promise Implementation Plan can impact on inequality caused by socio-economic deprivation.

The Promise tells us children living in the 10% most deprived areas of Scotland are 20 times more likely to become care experienced than those in the 10% least deprived. A recurring theme heard throughout the Care Review was that poverty and care experience are closely interlinked.

Outcomes of care experience children and adults related to socio-economic deprivation^[1]

Care experienced children are:

• 1.5 times more likely to have anxiety at 16
• 2.5 times more likely to be excluded from school at 16
• 1.5 times more likely to have unauthorised absences from school at 16
• Almost 2 times as likely to moderately use drugs at 16

Care experienced adults are:

• 2 times as likely to have no educational qualifications
• 1.5 times more likely to have financial difficulties
• Almost twice as likely to have poor health
• 2 times as likely to have experienced homelessness
• 3 times as likely not to have a full-time job at 26
• 1.5 times more likely to experience multiple disadvantage (homelessness, substances use, mental health or offending)

Poverty and coming into care

Naomi Eisenstadt, the Scottish Government’s Independent Advisor on Poverty and Inequality, and author of The Life Chances of Young People in Scotland: A Report to the First Minister recognised how young people’s life chances are shaped by deprivation, other forms of disadvantage, and protected characteristics. Eisenstadt defines six groups of young people facing particular barriers as those: living in a deprived area; having minority ethnicity; being disabled; having caring responsibilities; being ‘looked after’; and leaving care. Children and young people who are looked after could have negative outcomes associated with a number of these issues - or all of them - at any one time. Children and young people living in more deprived areas are also more likely to be affected by poor mental health than those living in less deprived areas.

Young people from the most deprived areas, as with those from a looked after background, are more likely to go on to study at college and less likely to go on to university than those from the least deprived areas.

Physical health is affected as well, with rates of regular smoking significantly higher amongst young adults living in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived areas, with 10% of 15 years olds in the most deprived SIMD quintile smoking regularly, compared to 5% in the least deprived quintile in 2015.

A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report finds a similar link between being looked after and poor socioeconomic outcomes: “Studies provide evidence that being looked after as a child has a sustained negative impact on a number of socio-economic outcomes including: reduced income, lower socio-economic status, reduced educational attainment, increased likelihood of homelessness and unemployment. ^[2]

Summary of assessment findings

The purpose of this section is to set out how the actions and changes laid out within Keeping The Promise Implementation will impact on inequality caused by socio-economic deprivation.

The Keeping The Promise Implementation Plan sets out a vision for 2030 when Scotland has kept The Promise. There are 14 top level actions with over 80 actions contained within the document which cut across all parts of Government.

A summary of the policies and interventions which will impact on inequality caused by socio-economic disadvantage are laid out below.

The Independent Care Review heard that a recurring theme was poverty and care experience are closely interlinked. The Care Review heard some stories of children being removed from their parents because of poverty.

As part of the Independent Care Review an Evidence Framework was created. The Evidence Framework gathered information from other countries in relation to indicators in terms of providing ‘a good place for children to grow up’.

The Independent Care Review report Follow The Money^[3] tells us that ‘Delivering the current ‘care system’ in Scotland costs around £942million per annum. The universal services which can be associated with care experienced people cost a further £198million per annum. But the economic impact is high. This work estimates the cost of services required by care experienced people as a result of the current ‘care system’ failures to be £875million per annum. A further £732million per annum is lost as a result of the lower incomes care experienced people have on average.’

The Promise Implementation Plan commits to spending £500m on a Whole Family Wellbeing Fund over the course of the Parliamentary term The fund will support families to stay together where it is safe to do so ensuring families can access support where and when they need it. The fund will support reducing child poverty through providing tailored supported to the needs of families including employability where that is needed.

The Promise Implementation Plan commits a £200 annual care experience grant for care leavers aged 16-25 that will provide some additional financial security and help reduce some of the financial barriers that young people face in transition to adulthood and more independent living. The Grant will support families with care experience by contributing to the maximising of incomes, which is a key driver of child poverty reduction, and reflects a further investment of £10 million per year in supporting our care experienced young adults. It will operate alongside other measures in the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-26 in reducing the number of children experiencing the effects of poverty by 2030.

The Promise Implementation Plan commits to setting a recommended national minimum allowance for foster and kinship carers. This investment will mean that no matter which area of Scotland children are living in, their caregivers will receive at least the Scottish Recommended Allowance to care for them. ^[4]

Around 40% of young people in custody report that they have been in care. The Promise Implementation Plan commits to no longer sending 16 and 17 year olds to Polmont Young Offenders Institute.

The Promise Implementation Plan commits to challenging language and stigmatisation of care experienced people, and commits to building on the Each and Every Child initiative.