Supporting adoption: vision and priorities - statement

2. Strategic Context

In Scotland we want all children and young people to live in an equal society that enables them to flourish, to be treated with kindness, dignity and respect, and to have their rights upheld at all times.

Our national approach to Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) provides the framework for ensuring that children, young people and families in Scotland get the right support, at the right time. This is strengthened by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which centres on a commitment to protect and uphold children’s rights in Scotland.

In our work to Keep the Promise, our overarching ambition is to keep families together and prevent children, young people, and families needing the support of the care system. The Promise highlighted that when living with their family is not possible, children must stay with their brothers and sisters where safe to do so and belong to a loving home, staying there for as long as needed.

A key part of this is the legal duty in Part 13 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020, supported by Staying Together and Connected National Practice Guidance, to keep siblings – and those with sibling-like relationships – together and connected where they cannot live at home with their family. Keeping brothers and sisters together and listening to children about the relationships that are important to them sits at the heart of the Promise. We are committed to delivering the wholescale positive change to make this happen.

Two mums to two girls

“We adopted two little girls in 2020 who were sisters. It has been a roller coaster of an experience over the last four years. The highs definitely outweigh the lows. They make you old and they keep you young. They make you cry, and they make you laugh. But most importantly your world expands, and the most important thing is love.”

The Promise also challenged public services to create the conditions to reform the care system, including the scaffolding and structures that make up the system itself, to ensure that every child is supported to thrive. Our National Framework Principles of Holistic Whole Family Support promote consistent standards of practice across Scotland which will help to deliver improved outcomes for all our children, young people and families.

Following a review of the children’s hearings system, the Hearings for Children: Hearings System Working Group’s Redesign Report was published in May 2023. The Scottish Government published its response to the Hearings System Working Group’s report in December 2023. Work has since been undertaken to consult upon the ambitious recommendations of the report, as we consider how the children’s hearings system can best meet the needs of children and young people in the 21^st century.

This activity is detailed further in our Keeping The Promise Implementation Plan Update, published in September 2024, which sets out the Scottish Government’s approach to Keep The Promise by 2030. Scotland’s Plan 24-30 sets out the contribution that all parts of society must make together to deliver the change that is needed for children and families.

We know that for some of our children, alternative family care, to ensure their wellbeing and protection, is needed for short periods. Occasionally, permanent alternative care away from home is required. In Scotland, this can be achieved through permanent fostering, kinship care, or adoption. The most appropriate route to permanence will always depend on the needs and circumstances of the child.

Whilst there has been an overall decrease over the past few years in the number of adoptions in Scotland, adoption will continue to be the best option for some children and young people in meeting their needs. We want to ensure our adopted children and young people are loved, safe and respected and go on to thrive in adulthood, and that adult adoptees are supported throughout life.

An adoption journey impacts upon a wide range of people, each of whom will have their own particular needs and unique interactions with wider policies, services and systems throughout life. This makes it really important that we work together and in partnership to create a broader scaffolding of support, to realise our vision for the future of adoption.