Scotland’s care system is taking years to find many of the country’s most vulnerable children permanent homes – and too many of them have no contact with their siblings, according to new research.
The study of more than 1,800 children ‘looked after’ in Scotland reveals that it took, on average, more than two years to find them a permanent home, and more than one in 10 were in temporary placements 10 years after becoming looked after.
Researchers on the Permanently Progressing longitudinal study, led by the University of Stirling in collaboration with Lancaster University, and the Association for Fostering, Kinship & Adoption Scotland (AFKA), have been looking at the lives of all 1,836 children who became looked after in Scotland aged five or under in 2012-13, tracking their progress from infant to adult.