Call for jobs guarantee for Scottish young people leaving care

Alex Cole-Hamilton will insist youngsters leaving care should be given a guarantee of a traineeship or “a real workplace opportunity”.

The former youth worker will make the call in a speech to his party’s autumn conference in Edinburgh today.

It comes a decade after former first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced an independent review of how children in care are treated.

She later championed “The Promise”, a flagship policy to make the lives of care-experienced youngsters better by 2030.

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“It’s ten years this week since the SNP promised that change, and thousands of children have grown up in care and not seen any difference,” Mr Cole-Hamilton will tell activists, insisting he “came into politics because of my experience of working with these young people”.

The Lib Dem leader will add: “More than 5,000 young people have already grown up and left the care system since The Promise was first made. They deserved better.

“The state has a special responsibility to give them the best chance to be everything they can be, with stable, lifelong, and loving relationships they can rely on. The absence of these relationships is why so many are dying young.

“And that moment, when people leave care, and the professionals disappear, is pivotal. Which is why, today, I am calling for a job guarantee for care-experienced young people.

“A guarantee of a traineeship or a real workplace opportunity for everyone at the point that they leave care.

“Let’s help them into jobs which suit them. Let’s get employers excited about working with them. Let’s give them real hands-on experience, mentoring and colleagues who’ll look out for them.

“They may not have had the best start in life, but we can surely help them with a good career, and a better chance at adulthood. We cannot allow young people to age out of care with empty promises.”

Ms Sturgeon used her final speech in the Scottish Parliament in March to urge MSPs to “keep The Promise”.

However a recent report by its oversight board warned the government there is a “real but narrowing opportunity for this Parliament to demonstrate what Scotland is capable of when it turns commitment into change in people’s lives”.

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The body, set up to monitor whether authorities are keeping The Promise, said resources and capacity were not matching demand, including a shortage of suitable care places.

It said said some commitments have not been delivered while some action was taken too late.

Speaking in September, David Anderson, chairman of the oversight board, said: “If keeping The Promise was like building a home, the foundations have been laid and some of the walls are up, but after six years the country should be much further forward.

“A house is not a home because the plans exist – it becomes one when there is food in the cupboards, heat in the radiators and people who know they are safe, loved and belong.

“That is what delivery looks like in real life, and it is what Scotland must make happen.”