4 minute read
Care Experienced Parents Call for Change
Who Cares? Scotland release new report on the experiences of parents.
We believe every parent should have the right to high-quality support when they need it. We recognise the power of positive, supportive professionals and know this is already experienced by so many Care Experienced parents. However, we need to ensure this happens for everyone!
Advertisement
Through our new report ‘Believe in Us’: Care Experienced parent findings from our Annual Participation Programme, we consulted nearly 50 Care Experienced parents to find out how well they were supported by services during their parenting journey. We had known through years of our independent advocacy and groupwork that Care Experienced parents faced significant challenges, and this new report awarded us the opportunity to fully explore these issues – and importantly receive ideas for positive changes moving forward.
The Care Experienced community need people to believe in them, who are willing and able to recognise and respond to their needs, so they can be the best parents that they can be to their children.
What did we find out?
Many parents told us that they felt the impact of stigma and discrimination due to their care experience. We know that, because of how care experience is depicted in our society and our media, that this can impact how people – including professionals - react and treat Care Experienced people. This manifested itself in various assumptions made by service providers, such as assuming social work would be involved, or automatic referrals, and that Care Experienced parents would automatically require more support.
80% of participants felt support available during the first 3 years of parenthood was not good quality.
We know that any practice which assumes a parent may be a risk to their child or require social work intervention solely because they are Care Experienced is discriminatory. Ultimately, universal support services need a judgement-free process to identify Care Experienced parents and provide suitable professional support to ensure positive parenting journeys.
Care Experienced parents have a lack of confidence in existing professional supports, with only 1 in 3 parents feeling comfortable to ask for help from these services.
Care Experienced parents also need spaces where they can connect with each other and provide peer support. This is especially important for those who may not have access to strong family networks that are often used by parents without care experience.
What could the future look like?
We have shaped 11 recommendations alongside our National Representative Body to provide tangible ways to ensure Care Experienced parents receive a consistently positive experience when accessing supports.
1. The Scottish Government should explicitly name Care
Experienced parents in the work of the Perinatal and
Infant Mental Health Programme Board and create specific pathways to proactively offer access to these services. 2. The Promise’s Whole Family Support work in ‘Change
Programme One’ should recognise the specific needs of Care Experienced parents and support creating funding streams for
Care Experienced parent-focused projects. 3. As ‘Corporate Grandparents’, local authorities and COSLA must recognise the needs of Care
Experienced parents as a priority when implementing The Promise. 4. The lifelong impact of care experience must be recognised in the provision of any support for Care Experienced parents, by ensuring no age cut-offs. 5. The Scottish Government must recognise Care
Experienced parents by including specific actions in their ‘Best start: five-year plan for maternity and neonatal care.’ 6. Training must be co-designed with Care Experienced people about how to best support Care Experienced parents of all ages. 7. All training and practice improvement work to better support Care Experienced parents must explicitly link with training on trauma-informed practice by NHS
Education for Scotland. 8. Local authorities and the Scottish Government should sustainably fund specific peer groups and parenting support spaces for Care Experienced parents in each local authority area. 9. Social Security Scotland and the Scottish Government must make sure all Care Experienced parents have the financial and practical support they need. 10. Focused work must take place to prevent children from being separated from Care Experienced parents. 11. Further research must take place to understand the frequency of children being removed from Care
Experienced parents in Scotland
What’s next?
If Scotland ensures these 11 recommendations are met, and we secure commitment from those who we know have the power to make this happen, we can create a future where Care Experienced parents receive high-quality support as and when they need it.
We will share these findings with Corporate Parents, the Scottish Government, Local Authorities, The Promise and other key decision-makers who have the power to make these changes and will update you as soon as we can in Newsflash and our social media.
Thank you again to every person who has shared their parenting journey with us. Whether this year as part of the Annual Programme, or in the past, this has helped us shape a national evidence base of what our members think and feel about this important area! You can also see the full report on our website.
