OPFS responds to Care Review Report

OPFS is very pleased to support the findings and recommendations of the Independent Care Review report.

The Review was set up by the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP to identify and deliver change in Scotland’s care system and transform the wellbeing of children and young people.

The report is the result of three years’ work during which 5,500 experiences were heard, both children and young people with experience of the care system, as well as adults affected and people working in care. After listening to what thousands of children and young people had to say, the Care Review have issued five reports to recognise and bring lasting change in Scotland’s care system.

OPFS Director Satwat Rehman and a member of the Review’s ‘Components of Care Journey’ group said:

“This review has the potential to be transformational.  The compelling testimony of so many care experienced  children and young people telling us we have got it so wrong must lead to swift and decisive change.”

The  Review says we need ‘more care, less system’ and that Scotland must ‘parent, not process’ children. The human and economic cost of care is published for first time. It has calculated that services which deliver and surround the ‘care system’ cost £1.2 billion annually and the costs of the ‘care system’ letting down children and their families at £1.6 billion.

At the report launch, the political economist Katherine Trebeck addressed the interplay of power and economics in understanding the care system and what needs to change and said poverty must be addressed.

“Let’s looks upstream at the cause of people coming into care: an economic system that does not provide for many. A wellbeing economy could alleviate the anxiety and the insecurity experienced by many and is an integral part of transforming the care system.”

At OPFS we agree – enabling families to stay together means addressing not just individualised family support but addressing wider systemic injustices such as child poverty, precarious work and inequality.

Fiona Duncan, Chair of the Independent Care Review said:

“This is a radical blueprint for a country that loves, nurtures and cherishes its children. This is Scotland’s chance to care for its children, the way all good parents should.”

Find out more about the Care Review’s work and recommendations.