Kate Richardson and Anne Begbie’s roles within the council are a good match with the philosophy and drivers of the Stand Up For Siblings network.

Kate is the lead practitioner for overseeing all transitions for children from interim foster care into permanent placements across Edinburgh and is based within the Family Based Care Team.

Anne is based within the Family Group Decision Making Team and is the lead coordinator for the Lifelong Links service. Lifelong Links is about working with young people in the care system and helping them identify and promote connections within their family network; building connections which will help young people as they move through their adult years.

Kate became an active member of SUFS following the official launch of the group and the website in March 2018. Anne joined later in 2018 and both of us have attended regular meetings to discuss how best to progress formal and informal ways to promote sibling relationships and agree on action points. Kate submitted City of Edinburgh Council’s response to consultation on review of Part 1 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and creation of a Family Justice Modernisation Strategy. Focusing particularly on contact and sibling issues.

In September 2018, Kate represented CEC at a Conference run by CorumBaaf which also launched the new text by Shelagh Beckett; ‘Beyond Together or Apart: Planning for, assessing and placing sibling groups.’ Kate have since been asked by CoramBaaf to write a book review for their Adoption and Fostering journal. Each Locality now has a copy of this book for practitioners to use on a day to day basis when considering sibling relationships.

Kate has delivered a presentation and held discussions with Registration and Permanence Panel members, specifically asking them to think more broadly about placing children together when considering permanence, not accepting ‘together or apart’ assessments which are not thorough or objective. This is going to be followed up with more focussed workshops with Panel Chairs and ADMs.

Kate has also given a presentation at an AFA seminar in Glasgow, focussing on Transitions, where she highlighted SUFS and the need to ensure attention is paid to the needs of siblings when considering long term care away from home.

Together, Anne and Kate, along with other colleagues from SUFS, participated in the recent conference run by Clan Childlaw and S.T.A.R. where we looked at the progress made over the past year and were delighted to have MSP Maree Todd announce that Scottish Government will be looking to make changes to current Duties placed on Local Authorities with regard to meeting the needs of siblings.

Anne and Kate are going out regularly to all four CEC Localities to meet with Children and Families Practice Teams to promote SUFS and request wider, creative thinking and more positive approaches to keeping siblings together, and talk about maintaining Life-Long Links for children. Taking the copy of ‘Beyond Together or Apart’ to encourage workers to read the text and make use of the assessment frameworks alongside; leaflets and information from Lifelong Links and STAR.

We are aiming for these sessions to be discussion based; providing an informal breakfast drop-in where practitioners can ask questions and seek advice and guidance on specific cases.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Kate.richardson@edinburgh.gov.uk
Anne.begbie@edinburgh.gov.uk

Following the commitment made by Minister for Children and Young People Maree Todd MSP earlier this year to improve the law for brothers and sisters in the care system, the Scottish Government has published its proposals: the Children (Scotland) Bill and Family Justice Modernisation Strategy were published on 2 September 2019. The Scottish Government plans the following actions to prioritise the relationships of brothers and sisters in care:

Duties on local authorities

• Section 10 of the Children (Scotland) Bill introduces a duty on local authorities to promote direct contact and personal relations between a child and their siblings, where this is both practicable and appropriate and in the interests of the child. Siblings are defined to include individuals with whom a child has an ongoing relationship with the character of a sibling relationship.

• Section 10 of the Bill also requires local authorities to seek the views of the child’s sibling in relation to contact when it is reasonably practicable for the local authority to do so.

• The Scottish Government will introduce amendments to the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009 to put a duty on local authorities to place siblings under 18 years of age together when they are looked after away from home when it is in their best interests to do so. These regulations will come into force at the same time as the section in the Bill placing duties on local authorities.

Practice

In recognition that legislative changes alone may not meet the policy aims, the Scottish Government will engage with the Stand up for Siblings Partners, corporate parents and key organisations to assist implementation and share good practice across Scotland.

Independent Care Review

The Independent Care Review has, in engaging with infants, children, young people and adults with experience of care and their families, identified at an early stage in the review that siblings must be kept together, or supported to maintain relationships, to ensure the best outcomes for looked after children. These actions are intended to support those aims. The Scottish Government will take further action, as required, to take forward the Review’s recommendations on this issue when it reports in Spring 2020.

The proposals are a significant milestone in the work to improve the rights and wellbeing of care experienced siblings across Scotland. Stand Up for Siblings partners look forward to workingwith the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament as the proposals advance.

Read the Family Justice Modernisation Strategy here.

Read the Children (Scotland) Bill and the Scottish Government’s policy reasons for changing the law.

Two Scottish appeals involving the rights of siblings in the Children’s Hearings System will be heard by the UK Supreme Court later this year.

The cases concern the opportunities siblings currently have to be involved in the decision-making by Children’s Hearings about their brothers or sisters, and whether these are compatible with the right to family life protected by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. 

The two Court of Session judgments being appealed are:

ABC against Principal Reporter and others 

DM against Locality Reporter and the Lord Advocate 

The letters ‘ABC’ and ‘DM’ are used because the identities of those involved in the cases are strictly anonymised by order of the court. 

If interested, you can find out more here: 

Clan Childlaw (Clan Childlaw are the solicitors representing ABC)

SCRA statement following the Court of Session judgment last November

Children’s Hearings Scotland Practice Note – ABC v Principal Reporter – summary of Outer House judgment 

Booking is now open for a seminar ‘Beyond Together or Apart – making plans for siblings in care’. The seminar, organised by the Adoption and Fostering Alliance Scotland, will take place on Wednesday 6 November 2019 at the Jurys Inn, Glasgow.

The seminar will give practitioners the opportunity to hear about updated practice guidance on working with siblings and on assessing their relationships and be introduced to some of the new tools to use in this work.

Shelagh Beckett, author of CoramBAAF’s newly published Good Practice Guide ‘Beyond Together or Apart’ will present her work alongside inputs from Dr Chris Jones from Strathclyde University, who has led the SUFS work, and Karen Morrison from the STAR project which provides an inspiring example of how relationships can be successfully maintained.

You can find out more about the seminar and how to book here.