Nicola McCartney on NTS installation One Hundred Voices: 'People should care about the care system'

This is the Welcome Room, says Nicola McCartney, with barely a shred of irony. After the welcome which isn’t really, there’s a form to fill out in the Admin Room, and then the discombobulating Dislocation Room. Moving through these and other spaces is not straightforward; you might find yourself going backwards, or having to start over. There is a lot of waiting.

One Hundred Voices is an immersive installation with audio developed by McCartney and her team after listening to the stories of (just over) 100 care-experienced people of all ages. It debuts at the Scottish Parliament for the Fringe and the Festival of Politics before touring to venues around Scotland.

“We’re not asking you to get into the shoes of a person in care,” McCartney says. “But we are trying to make people feel in their body some of the same feelings young people in care feel: confusion, frustration, moments of joy and fun. You can forget lots of information, you can even forget stories, but you never forget how something makes you feel in your body.

“This is theatre. It’s not an exhibition or a guided tour. It’s dramatic, it’s a battle for control of the narrative. You are stepping into a place where you become a character.”

The aim is simple: to inspire people to care about the care system. McCartney, as well as being a leading Scottish playwright, has been a foster carer for 16 years, including for a period in which she gave up theatre and fostered full-time. She has seen the system work – and fail to work – in many contexts, and her verdict is damning.

“It just left me with an absolute feeling of rage,” she says. “Children and young people coming into the system may have already had some very challenging life experiences, but the system abuses and mistreats them as much if not more.

“Ultimately, the system is protecting the adults in it and serving itself, rather than serving the children and young people. My experience was that procedure trumps everything, and that’s about keeping social workers safe, and keeping lawsuits at bay. But the kids are devastated by the decisions being made which they have no control over.”

While she agrees that there are still good people doing good work within it, McCartney believes the system itself is broken: underfunded, overstretched, fragmented. The findings of an Independent Care Review which concluded in 2020 support this, making over 80 recommendations for an overhaul of the care system for children and young people in Scotland.

The Scottish Government responded with The Promise Scotland, a pledge to fix the care system by 2030, taking as its foundational principle that “all children and young people will grow up loved, safe and respected so that they will realise their full potential”. It means the blueprint for change exists, but in practice the implementation has been kicked into the long grass time after time.

“I think when you watch a young person’s life be so damaged, their dreams and their future taken away from them, in the way I watched happen over and over again to some of the young people I worked with, because of lack of resources…” McCartney says. “I would go as far as to say we’re doing something profoundly evil by ignoring this situation in our nation.”

While she is speaking, Scott Kyle sits nodding quietly. The actor, who worked with Ken Loach on The Angel’s Share, toured Scotland with the play Singin’ I’m No A Billy, He’s A Tim, and appeared in a whisky commercial with Harrison Ford, told his own story for One Hundred Voices, and is one of ten care-experienced people photographed by Chris Scott for the accompanying exhibition, Ten Portraits, which will have its own tour. He is both care-experienced and a foster carer.

“Nicola mentioned social workers not having enough time. I see that every day. It’s overstretched, there’s not enough time and resources. It’s a patchwork. There are more kids than there are social workers, that’s the summary. So it needs investment. Maybe we need to rip it up and start again.

“When acting work dried up in lockdown, I got a job supporting a young autistic lad. It changed my life and inspired me and my wife to become foster carers. I’d love more folk to know more about the care system, to maybe consider getting involved. We just need good people.”

Care for children and young people has been a focus for National Theatre of Scotland since 365 – One Night to Learn a Lifetime in 2008, written by David Harrower and directed by Vicky Featherstone for Edinburgh International Festival. In 2021, McCartney worked on Holding/Holding On, a verbatim piece about the care system for NTS which was turned into a film during lockdown.

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The current three-year lottery funded project, Caring Scotland, has created an archive of stories which is now part of the National Archive held at the National Library of Scotland. McCartney and a team of creatives – dramaturg Roxana Cole, poet Kevin Gilday poet, musician and songwriter Jo Mango, playwright Sara Shaarawi and filmmaker Mali Fraser – travelled the length and breadth of Scotland to record stories after an open call went out for care-experienced people to come forward.

McCartney hopes that, having seen the installation, people will be drawn into listening to their stories. But she is under no illusions: it is a challenge. “I’m delighted with and really proud of the archive, but the main thing now is get people to want to listen and engage with this subject matter. There is a stigma around it, but also people just think it’s going to be really sad. And some of it is. But actually, 102 people told us their stories, each of those people is an amazing human being, with an amazing story. It’s often very funny as well.

“People should care about the care system. Ultimately, it does affect all of us. I want to people come out of this feeling some of what I feel. To come out and say, ‘Come on, that’s ridiculous, we have to do something about this’.”

One Hundred Voices and Ten Portraits are both at the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh, from 12-28 August, then touring Scotland until 10 October. For more information and to book tickets for One Hundred Voices, see www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/events/one-hundred-voices This feature was produced in association with The National Theatre of Scotland

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