Scotland's Forgotten Children

That the Parliament notes, with concern, the findings of the Adoption Barometer 2022, published by Adoption UK, which found that more than four out of five children (81%) represented in the survey were reported to need more support in education than their peers, rising to 85% of secondary school-aged children; considers that children who are adopted in Scotland are, under the current arrangements, disadvantaged when it comes to support offered in primary and secondary education, when compared to other children who are care-experienced; recognises what it sees as the challenges of the adoption process and its impact on the ability of education providers to deliver relevant and prompt support for adopted children; understands that care-experienced children in the education system may display signs of attachment issues due to previous trauma; notes the calls on the Scottish Government to increase the level of support that adopted children receive to match the level of support given to fostered children, to ensure that both groups of children receive additional support within the education system; further notes the findings of the Scotland Foster Care Allowances Survey 2021-22, conducted by The Fostering Network, which showed the differences in weekly allowances for children and young people in foster care and those in a continuing care arrangement across Scotland’s 32 local authorities, including those in the Mid Scotland and Fife region; understands that, despite a commitment in the Scottish Government's 2021-2022 Programme for Government to implement a national allowance for foster care and a national review of care allowances in 2017, Scotland remains the only part of the UK to not have a national minimum allowance, and notes the further calls on the Scottish Government to honour the commitment it made to implement the Independent Care Review’s The Promise, in which it states that "to provide the care that children require, foster carers must be sufficiently financially maintained".