4 minute read
JASMIN CALLS FOR CONSISTENCY IN CARE
SECTION NEWS & EVENTS Jasmin Calls for Consistency in Care Support
Advertisement
Communities and the people within them can thrive when everyone in them receives the support they need when they need it. Recently, Jasmin from our National Representative Body submitted a petition to the Scottish Parliament calling on them to extend aftercare support for previously looked after young people and to remove the age cap for continuing care services. This would help provide Care Experienced people to flourish and bring benefit to the whole community. Here, we’re going to give you a quick rundown of what a petition is, what exactly Jasmin has asked for and why.
Put simply, a petition is a way of asking the parliament to do something. Unfortunately, things are rarely so easy, and there are a few more steps and rules involved in submitting a petition. Since Jasmin’s petition was to the Scottish Parliament, we’ll focus on how those work here.
1. Anyone can submit a petition to the Scottish Parliament, but because the
Scottish Parliament does not have full independence or the power to change laws that come with it, there are only certain issues on which petitions can be submitted to the Scottish Parliament. The issue must be devolved (in
Scotland’s powers to change) and it must also be relevant to the whole of
Scotland – the parliament cannot get involved in local or individual matters.
2. You also have to be able to prove that you have made other efforts to raise the issue, which is where her involvement with Who Cares? Scotland comes into play. Together, Jasmin and Who Cares? Scotland have contacted several people including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon calling for changes.
3. Once approved the petition is displayed on the Scottish Parliament’s petition’s webpage, where people can view it and sign it to show their support. A high number of signatures shows the issue is important to many people and helps give it a greater spotlight when it is debated in parliament.
4. It is then assessed by the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions
Committee who decide what to do with it - this could include disregarding it altogether, asking the Scottish Government for a written response, asking you for more evidence (perhaps in the form of speaking at a Committee meeting), ask for debate in the chamber. Who Cares? Scotland has spoken at
Committee meetings several times, giving evidence on these kinds of issues.
What has Jasmin asked for and why?
Jasmin’s petition has three main asks:
• Extend aftercare provision in Scotland to ‘previously looked after’ young people who left care before their 16th birthday, on the basis of individual need. • Extend continuing care throughout Care
Experienced people’s lives, on the basis of individual need. • Ensure Care Experienced people are able to enjoy lifelong rights and achieve equality with non-Care
Experienced people. This includes ensuring that the
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the findings of The Promise are fully implemented in Scotland.
Having seen a close friend facing homelessness due to the breakdown a care placement and unable to receive the same support she had because they were taken off their supervision order before their 16th birthday, Jasmin was certain that something had to change. This was only one of a series occasions where she had seen a similar thing, and she noticed a theme: that people who had left care before the age of 16 were regularly receiving lower levels of support than their peers, including Jasmin herself. As she neared the end of her own time in care, Jasmin thought back to those people and decided that something had to be done. “We have all experienced care, however, we can face different restrictions when accessing support – these inequalities must change”
Who Cares? Scotland provided Jasmin with evidence from our advocacy database, and supported with research on the topic to bolster her petition, including statistics from our Helpline (which provides lifelong advocacy) where we received over 1,100 calls, as well as citing studies on the implementation of Continuing Care services. These reinforced Jasmin’s belief that progress must be made, after all, care experience does not disappear the moment a person turns 26.
“A Care Experienced person may leave care, but it does not leave them.”
Through her own efforts, and through association with Who Cares? Scotland Jasmin had contacted various politicians and decision makers regarding similar issues, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Most of those she contacted simply referred her back to the 1000 Voices project which we had led out on, which was not much help, and when she did get another response, difficulties around devolved powers and human rights politics saw little done.
With all of this campaigning, research and personal experience, however, Jasmin’s petition was ready to be submitted and it collected signatures throughout the month of August, ending with a total of 392. We fully support Jasmin’s asks and are eagerly awaiting response from the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee and will continue to support Jasmin through the petition process. We’ll provide updates on social media and in Newsflash.
