Staying together and connected: getting it right for sisters and brothers: national practice guidance

Part 1: Ministerial Foreword

We want Scotland to be the best place for children to grow up and for all our children to feel loved, safe and respected, so that they realise their full potential. Children and young people who experience care have for too long been separated from their sisters and brothers, and these important relationships have often been broken because of the care system. Through engagement with children, young people and adults with care experience over recent years, we have heard heart-breaking accounts of sisters and brothers not being able to live or play together, as they had before they were moved into care. Brothers and sisters told us that their shared identity and sense of belonging with each other was vital to their wellbeing. Procedures and the system of care, however, meant that important relationships were often irreversibly broken. Sadly, we heard from many young people who grew up without knowing that they had brothers and sisters or without knowing that the brothers and sisters they had, were no longer with them. That is why the First Minister committed to increasing support for children's most important relationships with their sisters and brothers, a commitment shared by the Scottish Government, and indeed called for by the wider sector, who recognised the lifelong impacts of system driven separation.

We have come a long way in improving children's experiences when they are living away from their home and are determined to continue to do so. This guidance supports the expectation that brothers' and sisters' relationships should be nurtured and helped to recover where that is needed. Crucially, sisters and brothers should share the same home, away from home, where it is safe and appropriate for them to do so. We have made great progress and together, with our passion across Scotland to surpass our goals, we will deliver better experiences for brothers and sisters who can't live at home. This practice guidance is a starting point on that journey and reflects the invaluable contributions of many children, young people, carers, families and professionals. It is designed to support and develop practice in children's services and to emphasise our direction to better outcomes for those who cannot safely remain at home. I want to thank all who have contributed. I remain committed, as I know those of you who will deliver for our children will, to fulfilling our collective ambitions.

Clare Haughey MSP,

Minister for Children and Young People