The postcode lottery of financial support for kinship carers has remained in place in Scotland after the Scottish Government failed to support Labour’s amendments during the Children and Young People bill that has passed in Parliament last week.

Kinship care, where a member of the child’s extended family looks after the child as the parent cannot, can vary wildly in both eligibility and support depending on where in Scotland you live.

Kinship carers are family members such as grandparents and uncles and aunts that have taken the decision to look after children and should be given our support. Everyone wants what is best for their family and if the parents can’t, for whatever reasons, look after their child then we should be making it easier to ensure that child remains with their family.

That is why Scottish Labour worked closely with both Children 1^st and Scottish Kinship Care Alliance in bringing forward amendments at both Stage Two and Stage Three of the bill but both times these amendments were defeated.

Apart from ensuring the family bond is maintained, kinship care is a positive alternative for many of these children would be going down the foster care route and become looked after by the local authority. Whilst some progress for kinship carers was made through the bill it was disappointing that we couldn’t secure a minimum rate of national support so we could end a postcode lottery of payments across Scotland.

Before the vote I met with kinship carers from the Kirkcaldy area who were telling me about the struggles they have providing for their family. This really isn’t acceptable considering the levels of dedication they are showing to their family. I will continue to do all that I can to support them to get a fairer deal.