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1 INTRODUCTION
Context and content
1. The Scottish Government and local government are committed to embedding the principles of prevention and early intervention across all services which have an impact on children and family life.
2. This means giving every child the best start in life. Through the Early Years strategy, we will work to ensure that universal services effectively meet the needs of all, including those children and families who are most at risk of disruption. Our aim is that all children will get the support they need, with extra help provided to those who face barriers as a result of disadvantage of any kind.
3. Everyone in a child's life has their part to play in early intervention. Children's first source of support is the family and the wider community in which they live. Indeed, the focus of service delivery, whether by the statutory, voluntary or independent sector should be on empowering individuals and communities to maximise the extent to which they are able to manage their own needs, across issues such as health, education and safety.
4. Of course, the need for some children to live away from their parents, for however long or short a period, will remain. We believe that many children could remain with their parents or return more quickly and permanently to their birth families, if fostering and kinship care were better integrated within children's services.
5. A consistent theme in relevant research 1 and the consultation on this strategy of kinship and foster care provision can deliver a flexible, child-centred spectrum of care. The Scottish Government and local government want to build on this potential. At one end of this spectrum, this strategy signals a detailed and comprehensive implementation programme for the introduction of permanence orders. This permanence status, introduced by the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, will end drift and bring a sense of stability to many hundreds of looked after children who are not able to return to their birth parents. At the other end of the spectrum, we believe there is considerable scope to strengthen the role of kinship care and the contribution of foster care to achieve the long-term goal of keeping families together when it is safe to do so.
Principles
6. In this context the guiding principles of this National Kinship and Foster Care Strategy are that:
- The needs of the child must be paramount and the child's preferences should be taken into account.
- Unless there are clear reasons why placement within the family would not be in the child's best interests, care within the wider family and community circle will be the first option for the child.
- If that is not possible, the child should be placed with foster carers with a specific purpose and plan, designed as (a) as part of a planned short-term arrangement; or (b) a planned process that will result in a return home or to a more suitable temporary care arrangement; or (c) in care with a permanent substitute family arrangement underpinned by a permanence order or an adoption order or other relevant court order.
7. This strategy considers what needs to be in place to provide a truly child-centred response and approach to the provision of foster and kinship care. It then considers what improvements are needed in the support provided to carers that will in turn enhance the quality of care provided to children. Finally, it addresses the improvements that can be made to the quality assurance systems that govern these types of care.
8. The transformation in outcomes for Scotland's vulnerable children that we are seeking will not be delivered by this strategy alone. It needs to be seen and implemented as part of the wider vision for children which is at the heart of this Government's work programme.
- The Scottish Government and local government partnership will work with other delivery partners to ensure the proposals in this strategy translate to improved outcomes in practice.
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