STAR is the only specialist service in Scotland offering support with contact for brothers and sisters in care. Today it celebrates its sixth birthday. Stand Up For Siblings are proud to have STAR as a partner organisation and would like to wish everyone at STAR much success for many years to come.

Karen Morrison, STAR’s founder, has been reflecting on their achievements and said: “Being the first of its kind, everything was a struggle initially from funding to raising awareness. We were ultimately asking local authorities to change the way they have always worked. At this point there was also very little research, but we persevered and continued to climb mountains because regular and quality contact for separated brothers and sisters did matter and we were really starting to see the huge benefits from our groups who started to attend.

 “A 10 year old girl who attended STAR was on her third placement in three months, she missed her sisters dearly and her chaotic life was starting to show. She looked at me when I asked her how she was doing and she said ‘at least we have STAR’ we were the only continuity in that girl’s life and that moment kept me going through our hard times at STAR.

 “Six years later and we are in a place I never dreamed we would be – over 400 children and young people have passed through STAR and this number grows weekly. We now have over 50 volunteers – many who are highly experienced supervisors.

 “What a journey! Here’s to the next 6 years!”

Further to the announcement made by the Minister for Children and Young People on the first anniversary for Stand Up For Siblings, more information has become available. The Minister responded to a Parliamentary Question from MSP Kezia Dugdale. You can see the response here.

Stand Up For Siblings has welcomed the announcement made by the Minister for Children and Young People, Maree Todd MSP, today.

Earlier today the Minister announced that there are plans to make improvements to the law for brothers and sisters who are in the care system. The law is to be strengthened in relation to keeping brothers and sisters together when they are placed in local authority care when it is in their interest to do so.

The changes will also result in siblings being on an equal footing with parents in relation to promoting personal relations, meaning that there will be a duty on local authorities to take steps to promote personal relations and contact between brothers and sisters when a child is in care.

Dr Christine Jones, of University of Strathclyde and Co-Founder of Stand Up For Siblings said: “We’re delighted by the announcement by the Minister today, along with all our partners in the Stand Up For Siblings coalition.

“These proposals represent real progress towards protecting the rights and promoting the wellbeing of brothers and sisters in care.

“We created Stand Up For Siblings as we believe that if we all work together, we can make a real difference to the lives of children and young people and can influence the law, policy and practice around this issue.

“We will continue to work together to take forward and build on this exciting development and invite others to join us in this work.”

Today, the Minister for Children and Young People, Maree Todd MSP announced that there are plans to make improvements to the law for brothers and sisters who are in the care system. The law is to be strengthened in relation to keeping brothers and sisters together when they are placed in local authority care when it is in their interest to do so.

The changes will also result in siblings being on an equal footing with parents in relation to promoting personal relations, meaning that there will be a duty on local authorities to take steps to promote personal relations and contact between brothers and sisters when a child is in care.

This announcement comes almost exactly one year after the launch of the “Stand Up for Siblings”, a collaboration made up between a number of child welfare, children’s rights and legal organisations and academics within Scotland including Clan Childlaw. They believe that more can be done to protect the rights and promote the wellbeing of siblings and are working together to influence the law, policy and practice.

Minister for Children and Young People, Maree Todd MSP today recognises the potential importance of the brother and sister relationship for a child in care.  She announced her commitment to strengthen the law in relation to keeping brothers and sisters together when it is in their best interests to do so.

Ms Todd said: “The Scottish Government is committed to making our care system the best that it can be.  For most children in care, where it is appropriate, it is now the case that a child is placed with brothers and sisters with whom they have close personal ties.  This has proved overwhelmingly that that is good for their welfare and emotional wellbeing.

“However, it is not the case for every child in care, and we need to understand how best we can use law and practice to make sure that more children are kept together, either physically, or through the proactive encouragement of contact.  We will identify barriers and explore solutions across all agencies, improving practice where we can.”

Alison Reid, Principal Solicitor of Clan Childlaw said: “We are delighted with this announcement. It is progress in the right direction and will allow brothers and sisters in care more of an opportunity to develop and maintain good relations which have the potential to last a lifetime. However, this is just the start.

“We will continue to drive forward change in both law and practice to make sure siblings have the rights they need to participate fully in decisions that affect them, particularly in relation to Children’s Hearings as well as in permanence and adoption proceedings.”   

The Stand Up For Siblings collaboration was launched in March 2018. The launch marked the coming together of a number of organisations committed to supporting brothers and sisters to stay together or stay in touch when children and young people enter care.

One year on I have been reflecting on progress that has been made. My first reflection is that sibling relationships are very much on the agenda across different sectors, organisations and interest groups. Everywhere I go there is talk of the importance of brothers and sisters and we are regularly asked to provide expert input on this subject at conferences, discussions and staff training events.

We were pleased to see sibling relationships being given particular attention in the consultation of the Review of Part 1 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and submitted a detailed response to this. 

My second reflection is that the movement for legal, policy and practice changes around this issue is building.

Since our launch a number of additional partners have joined Stand Up For Siblings, including allies from The Care Inspectorate, Life Long Links and Barnardo’s. We are working closely with the Care Review and have established links with organisations and academics from outside Scotland who share our ambitions.

My third reflection is that new and creative ways of thinking are being developed within practice settings to begin to address the problem of sibling estrangement. A model is emerging of ‘sibling champions’ in some organisations. City of Edinburgh Council has been particularly proactive in this regard and Kate Richardson, the CEC sibling champion, has been leading several local developments.

These include targeted recruitment of foster carers, prospective adopters and permanent carers for sibling groups, developing policy around the collection of sibling information during referral and assessment procedures and making sibling relationships standing agenda items in Registration and Permanence Panel meetings.

There is still much more to be done. Each day in Scotland relationships between brothers and sisters in the care system are being made vulnerable by circumstances, some of which can be avoided. My final reflection, though, is that there is a strong sense of determination across Scotland to create a better future for brothers and sisters who are care-experienced.

It’s almost a year since Stand Up for Siblings launched on 9 March 2018! On 8 March 2019, the Stand Up for Siblings partners are looking forward to a conference organised by two of its members Clan Childlaw and Siblings Reunited (STAR) which will look at practice, policy and legal developments in delivering sibling contact for looked after children in Scotland. You can find out more about the conference here.

Registration for the event in Glasgow is free, but places are limited!

The conference is the closing event of Clan and STAR’s project ‘Sibling Contact for Looked After Children’, a two-year project funded by the Scottish Government CYPFEIF and ALEC Fund to run training workshops on sibling contact all around Scotland.

Many of the delegates of the workshops will attend the conference, along with campaigners, Scottish Government and others with an interest in the sibling relationships of looked-after and care experienced children and young people. 

We’re looking forward to hearing how practice is developing and discussing what needs to happen now to deliver change for care experienced brothers and sisters around Scotland.

Confirmed speakers: 

• Minister for Children and Young People Maree Todd MSP
• Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland Bruce Adamson
• Dr Chris Jones, Strathclyde University & co-founder of Stand Up for Siblings
• Theighan McGirr, Who Cares? Scotland
• Laura Beveridge & Lynne O’Brien, Independent Care Review
• John Leckie & Alexander MacDonald, Renfrewshire Children’s Panel
• Karen Morrison, founder of Siblings Reunited (STAR)
• Alison Reid, Principal Solicitor, Clan Childlaw
• Rhona Pollock, AFA Scotland

For further information please contact admin@clanchildlaw.org.