Humza Yousaf has said there is still work to do to tackle the “postcode lottery” around The Promise – the pledge to improve the lives of care-experienced people.
The First Minister met with care-experienced students at the Hub for Success, based at Edinburgh University, on Wednesday.
Monday marked the four-year anniversary of the publication of The Promise, a wide-ranging set of commitments which received cross-party support at Holyrood.
The charity Who Cares? Scotland has said there is a risk the policy will not meet its goals by 2030, saying there is a lack of progress in education, the use of restraints on children, and the monetisation of care.
Mr Yousaf said there had been good progress in some areas – such as not separating siblings – but for other elements of The Promise he conceded it is still “too patchy, too much of a postcode lottery”.
First Minister @HumzaYousaf met care-experienced students supported by @HubForSuccess, four years on from @ScotGov's commitment to #KeepThePromise.
Progress since 2020 includes:
❤️a £500 million Whole Family Wellbeing commitment🤝improved support for kinship and foster carers pic.twitter.com/SgYE6orgnj
— First Minister (@ScotGovFM) February 7, 2024
He said initiatives like the Hub for Success, which supports care-experienced people re-enter or stay in education, will help improve educational outcomes.
Mr Yousaf said: “(The students) were telling me that their educational journey might not always be a linear one.
“They might be in education for a couple of years and then have to step back and then re-enter education.
“But the support that we’re getting from the Hub is really vital to completing that educational journey.”
He said Edinburgh University’s vice-chancellor told him there has been a “significant” rise in care-experienced people attending the institution.
The First Minister also said there will be no “diluting” of the goals around the use of restraint of young people in care – one of the concerns of Who Cares? Scotland.
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has made it “abundantly clear” to him in public and in private that she will continue to campaign for The Promise from the backbenches, Mr Yousaf said.
One of the care-experienced students Mr Yousaf spoke to was Alistair Stewart, 30, who is at Edinburgh Napier University.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Stewart said he had gone to college nine times before finally getting into university.
He has now been offered a place on a masters course and also acts as a student ambassador for Hub for Success.
He said: “When I was in school, I was told I wouldn’t amount to anything.
“I was put at a table at the back of the classroom facing a wall because the teacher had no time for me, because they didn’t know I was dyslexic.
“To be able to have an organisation that’s helping me, that also believes in me, has been really beneficial.”
He said finance is a barrier for many care-experienced young people and called for bursaries to be extended.
Mr Stewart praised The Promise but said more organisations should take on corporate parenting training as there is still stigma around care experience.
He said: “In order to destigmatise everything, I do think The Promise is a really good thing.”