The Pinky Promise

Today saw the launch of the report of the independent review of care in Scotland. Three and a half years of discussion, reflection learning and mapping out the way ahead.

It was driven by people, young and more mature, who had experienced care. It is a fundamental review and its reports merit careful reading and study.

The Pinky Promise – the most important promise that can be made – sums up the ethos of the review. It is done by young people for young people. And adults and systems have to adapt – not just in processes but in culture and relationships.

It is ambitious. It proposes a Plan – by November this year – to set out the path for the next 10. In such a review it is not surprising that the volunteer role of Panel Members is due to be considered and options explored via pilots. This is not to undermine the value that volunteers bring to the system, but to see how their contribution could be better arranged to deliver the experience young people need and call for. And whether there are better ways of providing the necessary experience. As the report makes clear elsewhere “professionals” too need to change so it is not just a matter of volunteers v professionals.

For my former colleagues, the task of establishing pilots and opportunities to consider how things might be done differently – and to do so within current constraints of law, procedure, legal precedent, fairness etc – will require support, understanding and backing of government and the media. The initial headline reporting in the media unfortunately seems to be about the “damning” report and the “financial cost”. I hope a more reflective approach will emerge as the messages are disseminated by the review. That it is bureaucratic and impersonal are facts that are and have been known. The review has evidenced this without a shadow of doubt. The challenge is the fundamental shift in how we as a nation go about supporting others and that has not, yet, come through in the reporting If we are ever to move into a society where positive ambition is supported,j the focus on what has gone wrong has to shift to what we, individually and collectively, can do better.

There is a long-term ambition for the hearings system to shrink and to specialise. That feels right if the activity around early intervention and prevention – and enabling love, support and nurture – is effective. Which in turn might lead to a redefinition of child protection. As the report indicates throughout, the resources needed to achieve this are significant and require a recalibration of existing resources and a long-term commitment across all political parties in Government to maintain the momentum.

An ongoing challenge -which on a quick skim of the reports is not directly addressed – is how those involved in supporting children and young people have access to the relevant right information. As early intervention begins to become the norm, the current level of determining who can have access to what information, ideally with consent, will need to be re-examined. Not just in the strict terms of the law and best practice which the sharing of information must observe with, but with the aim of love and support.

There is a mass of information to review and digest and work on now we have seen the detail. But as John Carnochan has just said on radio – the radical decision would be to do nothing.