Stand Up For Siblings welcomes the Children (Scotland) Bill stage 1 report published today by the Scottish Parliament. The report makes four important recommendations in relation to contact with siblings. These are:
“Recommendation: The Scottish Government should before Stage 2 provide further details on how the changes which will result from the Independent Care Review will enable local authorities to fulfil the duty in section 10 of the Bill. This should include information on proposed timescales and specific budgets that will be provided to individual local authorities for the purposes of promoting sibling contact.”
“Recommendation: The Scottish Government should work with COSLA and others, such as Stand Up For Siblings, to assess what measures are required in the short term to implement section 10 of the Bill. This should include an assessment of any additional resources required by local authorities.”
“Recommendation: The Scottish Government should amend the Bill at Stage 2 to remove the “practicable” qualification from section 10.”
“Recommendation: The Scottish Government should amend the Bill at Stage 2 to remove references to “half-blood” and “whole-blood” from section 10.”
Stand Up For Siblings partners look forward to working closely with key groups including children and young people to continue to address this issue. It is important that attention continues to be paid to this issue at a time when disruption to family relationships is a reality for many. The full report of the Committee is available here.