Help show your support for Kinship Carers and their children by writing to your local MSP to protest the proposed cuts in the Children and Young People's Bill.
We need to send a clear message that carers provide invaluable support to many of our most vulnerable children yet are not properly supported for this.
We need to communicate this to MSPs ahead of Jayne Baxter's amendment on Wednesday 19th.
Please feel free to copy and paste the template below or write your own.
Thanks for your support
Insert your address here
Insert date here
Re: Objection to the proposed Kinship
Care Order in the Children and Young People Bill and request to support an
amendment..
Dear -------------insert
MSPs name here-------------,
I am writing to express my concern
about the legislative measures in section 10 of the proposed Children and Young
People Bill, which will create a Kinship Care Order as a new legal status and
accompanying package of support for the majority of kinship care families. As
you may be aware kinship carers themselves represented by the Scottish Kinship
Care Alliance – the national body for kinship carers, and other organisations,
are opposing these measures as they look likely to reduce the support for
kinship care families in Scotland.
I am asking you, as my MSP, to raise
this issue during the Stage 3 debate on the Bill on weds 19th
February, to support the amendments submitted by
Jayne Baxter MSP on kinship care, and to speak to the Minister for
Children and Young People and the Bill team to ensure that these concerns are
addressed and remedied before it is too late. If you want more information I
can arrange for you to meet with kinship carers in your constituency to discuss
this further.
It is worth noting that there are at
least 20,000 kinship carers in Scotland (or 1 in 71 children in Scotland), and
the majority of these suffer poverty and distress caused by taking on extra
children according to the Buttle UK's 2013 report 'The Poor Relations'.
The Kinship Care Order as planned will
reduce, or fail to increase, support for children in kinship care by:
a) Reducing the number of kinship
children with Looked After status over the coming years, instead placing them
on a Kinship Care Order which does not entitle them to the same level of
support. The Financial memorandum openly states that this will save the Scottish Government and local
authorities money over the coming years.
b) Limiting the number of kinship care
placements which can receive financial support, start up grants and support
with the court costs of obtaining an order.
c)
Failing to ensure that often traumatised kinship care children have priority
access to psychological and educational support, which Looked After status
currently entitles them to.
d)
Failing to ensure that Local Authorities provide a minimum financial allowance
to all kinship care families to provide for the basic costs of childcare.
Kinship Carers have asserted, and I
very much agree, that support for kinship care children needs to be increased
and made equitable across Scotland, not reduced or kept at the current
inadequate level. Kinship children should not have a worse life-chance than
those in other forms of care, and should have access to same support services
in recognition of the comparable need of these children to those in foster and
residential care. Basic financial support to keep these families out of poverty
should also be provided at a fair and equitable rate across Scotland. Support
should be given according to the child's need not the legal status of the
kinship care arrangement.
Without this basic support children in
kinship care are being stigmatised, discriminated against, excluded from school
due to behavioural difficulties caused by unrecognised traumas, and left in
poverty as their carers struggle to cope. This situation is unjust and counter
productive as it is a disincentive to others to become kinship carers for
vulnerable children in their family, putting a greater pressure on the taxpayer
by increasing the need for foster and residential care services.
I look forward to hearing back from you
on this matter and hope you will address the issue an
support Jayne Baxter’s amendment on the 19th February.
Best regards,
Insert your name here
