Today (Tuesday 25 August) is a hugely important day for all children in care who have brothers or sisters. It is the final opportunity for MSPs to consider and vote on amendments to the Children (Scotland) Bill, which will be debated in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon.

If passed, this new law will introduce a number of important provisions that have the potential to transform the way the relationships of Care Experienced brother and sisters are recognised and legally protected in Scotland.

In relation to Care Experienced children, these include:

• Section 10, amending section 17(1) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 to place a duty on local authorities to take steps to promote, on a regular basis, personal relations and direct contact between a child in their care and their siblings, as appear to them – having regard to their paramount duty to the child to safeguard and promote their welfare – to be appropriate.
• Section 10 of Bill, amending section 17(3) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 to expressly add siblings to persons whose views must be ascertained by local authorities, where reasonably practicable, before they make any decision about a child they are looking after, or are proposing to look after.
• Section 10A of Bill, amending section 29A of the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011, placing a duty on children’s hearings/sheriffs to consider contact with relevant persons and siblings with whom the child does not reside.

In relation to children in family court actions, these include:

• Section 11, amending section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, putting beyond doubt that children under 16 can seek and be granted a contact order under section 11 of the 1995 Act without automatically being given parental responsibilities and rights.
• Section 12, amending section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, placing a duty on courts to consider the effect an order might have on the child’s important relationships with other people, which would include siblings.

If passed during the parliamentary debate this afternoon, Amendment 34 would also give individuals – presumably including siblings – the opportunity to participate in a Children’s Hearing.

Ahead of the Stage 3 debate, the Stand Up for Siblings coalition has submitted a further briefing to MSPs outlining our support for Amendments 43, 44, 45 and 34, which can be read here. As well as welcoming the proposed changes, this briefing highlights some further issues that require consideration when accompanying guidance is produced. We have highlighted:

• The importance of sibling relationships being defined from the perspective of the child.
• The need to take account of the changing nature of relationships.
• The importance of children’s needs and wishes being taken into account and regularly revisited.
• That the provisions in the Bill must apply equally to all looked after children, regardless of their legal status or type of placement including children for whom adoption or permanence is planned, or those already subject to Permanence Orders.
• That decisions about participation in Hearings centre first and foremost around the wants and needs of the child at the centre of the Hearing.

We look forward to seeing the results of today’s debate and seeing this important piece of legislation pass into law.

SUFS is delighted that the work to implement the findings of the Independent Care Review has begun. 

The Review’s recommendations, known as ‘The Promise’, include a strong focus on supporting the relationships of brothers and sisters in care, with the clear message that siblings must be kept together, and where that’s not possible they must be supported to keep in touch, and their rights to be part of decision-making about their brothers and sisters must be protected. Stand Up for Siblings was represented in the Care Review’s Siblings Group which looked at the issues faced by brothers and sisters and fed its conclusions into the final Promise. Details of the evidence gathered by the Review, including on siblings, has now been published in a 1760-page Care Review Evidence Framework. 

‘The Promise’, the team which will take forward the Review’s blueprint, started work on 1st July as a small team transitioned from the Care Review, but will soon expand – recruitment is underway (for more information on vacancies, click here.) 

Fiona Duncan, who chaired the Independent Care Review, will chair The Promise Oversight Board. 50% of its members will be care experienced, with more information on a recruitment plan for the Oversight Board expected in August.

On 16th July, Deputy First Minister John Swinney announced a £4 million ‘Promise Fund’ and said that existing funding in the care system will also be re-profiled. You can read the statement and debate in the Scottish Parliament here and watch it here. 

Keep up to date on all the developments at www.thepromise.scot

On Tuesday 21 July at 1-2pm the Child Law Network are hosting a live panel discussion on the recent Supreme Court judgment on sibling rights in children’s hearing with Lucy Frazer and Alison Reid from Clan Childlaw and Lynda Brabender QC, who represented ABC in the Supreme Court. They will explore what the decision means for young people who would like to be part of children’s hearings being held for their brothers and sisters.

They are hosting it via Child Law Network (the link will be shared on the Network) – if you’re not a member but would like to sign up (it’s free!), you can do so here.

All the information about the event next Tuesday is available here: Panel discussion on 21st July at 1pm: Brothers and Sisters in Children’s Hearings – What did the Supreme Court decide?

On Tuesday 23rd June, the Justice Committee considered a variety of amendments to the Children (Scotland) Bill as the new law progressed through Stage 2 of legislative scrutiny. MSPs voted through important changes to the wording of the Bill, which will now further strengthen siblings’ rights in the law.

Firstly, the rights of siblings to have contact with each other if separated in care has been strengthened. In Section 10 of the Children (Scotland) Bill, it previously stated that a local authority will have a duty to “…take such steps to promote, on a regular basis, personal relations and direct contact between the child and [their sibling where] both practicable and appropriate.” SUFS has consistently suggested that greater clarity was needed regarding the use of the term ‘practicable’ and wrote to MSPs ahead of both the Stage 1 and Stage 2 debates to ask for this term to be removed from the wording of the Bill.

Ahead of the Stage 2 debate, MSPs were able to lobby the Minister for Community Safety, Ash Denham by utilising a briefing from the SUFS coalition. This briefing clearly outlined our joint position on the need to remove ‘practicable’ from the duty and presented a variety of evidence showing the need for Section 10 to be strengthened by further demonstrating the current fragility of sibling relationships within the care system.

This lobbying effort resulted in the Minister lodging an amendment in Stage 2 on behalf of the Scottish Government to remove the word ‘practicable’ from this new duty on local authorities to promote sibling contact, which was passed unanimously by the Justice Committee.

We would like to give our sincere thanks to Neil Findlay MSP and Liam Kerr MSP, who raised this issue during the Stage 1 debate of the Bill and then met with the Minister to further support this important change to the Bill’s wording. Thanks to all the members of the Justice Committee for supporting this amendment.

Secondly, children’s hearings will, if the Bill is passed, now have to consider contact between a child and their siblings when making important decisions about their lives. An amendment was passed unanimously to the Bill, which has added a duty on children’s hearings to consider contact between a child and their siblings, with SUFS being mentioned as a key group who has pushed for this ask continuously:

“On amendment 31, one of the asks in the Stand Up For Siblings pledge for siblings is to introduce a duty on children’s hearings to consider contact between a child and their siblings. Amendment 31 does that…

…Amendment 31 allows children’s hearings to take a bespoke approach to the relationship between siblings. That is in line with the decision of the Supreme Court last week in the cases of ABC and XY. As the committee is aware, those cases considered siblings’ participative rights in children’s hearings. The Supreme Court’s decision recognises that the legislative scheme behind Scotland’s children’s hearings is compatible with children’s article 8 rights.

As we have previously indicated, ministers want Scotland’s care system to move from compliance into excellence. It remains our ambition to bring in procedural and practical improvements that will better support children in care to maintain relations with their brothers and sisters. My intention is to bring any necessary amendments at stage 3 to further address any gaps. That will also enable the Government to honour the independent care review promise on siblings.”

Finally, we are grateful that the Minister has committed to further consideration by the Scottish Government on how the definition of a sibling can be improved, in recognition that the use of ‘blood’ and ‘half-blood’ is outdated terminology. This is another issue that the SUFS work has previously focused on and we look forward to seeing the result of these discussions with Rona Mackay MSP at Stage 3.

Read the joint briefing by SUFS to MSPs, ahead of the Stage 2 debate of the Children (Scotland) Bill here.

Read the full transcript of the Stage 2 debate by the Justice Committee here.

The Supreme Court today handed down its judgment in two cases involving the rights of brothers and sisters in Children’s Hearings.

The Court ruled that following adaptations to Children’s Hearings, such as direction to Reporters and guidance for Panel Members, the requirements of Article 8 ECHR were met in relation to siblings and other family members.

Stand Up For Siblings will continue to work with all members in our partnership to ensure that siblings rights and relationships are at the heart of Children’s Hearings and the wider care system.

Stand Up For Siblings is encouraging as many people as possible to complete a survey on experiences of Children’s Hearings during lockdown. A research team based at the University of Strathclyde is gathering the views and experiences of people participating in Children’s Hearings during the Coronavirus pandemic.

They are conducting a survey from now until 29 June 2020.

The purpose in undertaking the research is to help inform improvements relating to the conduct of virtual Children’s Hearings.

The research team are interested in hearing from young people, parents, other family members, carers, social workers, reporters, advocates, solicitors, safeguarders, panel members, or anybody else who might want to share their views and experience.

You can access the survey here – www.celcis.org/CHsurvey