Kids in Scotland and 'Social Apartheid'

CHILDREN in Scotland who have been taken away from their parents and cared for by relatives rather than by foster carers face being raised in poverty.

Tommy McFall, of Glasgow's New Fossils Grandparent Support Group, has told MSPs that the kids were victims of "social apartheid", reports Tristan Stewart-Robertson in The Glaswegian.

The Scottish Parliament's Education Committee has heard of youngsters being bitten and burned with cigarettes by their parents, and a growing number of children born to substance abusers, we writes.

But they face a life of poverty if taken in by grandparents or other relatives because many "kinship carers" do not receive the same financial support as foster carers.

The full story can be read here.  

The New Fossils Grandparent Support Group can be contacted c/o Community Work Team, Newlands Centre,  Glasgow G31 4 HZ. Their submission to the Scottish Executive National Fostering and Kinship Care Strategy can be read here in full.  

The Poverty Truth Commission has had a particular concern for kinship care, and its report recommendations are outlined here (*PDF Adobe Acrobat).