In 2006, the Social Work Inspection Agency’s review of services and outcomes for looked after children6 concluded that:
[...] the single most important thing that will improve the futures of Scotland’s looked after children is for local authorities to improve their corporate parenting skills.
The importance of high quality corporate parenting was reinforced in the Scottish Executive’s 2007 report Looked After Children and Young People: We Can and Must Do Better.7
As corporate parents, local authorities have a challenging role, and acting like good parents and being aware of the needs of their children and young people must be a key priority. In discharging their corporate parenting responsibilities, they need to put and keep the needs of the child and young person at the centre of everything they do. It is essential that the individual agencies who form the corporate parent for Scotland’s looked after children and young people are more aware and alert to their children’s needs and work together to deliver them.
The Scottish Government is committed to improving life outcomes for all children, with recognition of its special responsibility for those who are looked after. Much work has been done already to promote this. (A list of key publications and policies is reproduced in Appendix III.) Improving corporate parenting provides the most effective means of delivering real and lasting improvements for looked after children in the care they receive in all areas of their life. The guidance issued to community planning partnerships to support them in their corporate parenting task notes that:
Looked after children and young people are not a homogeneous group with the same backgrounds and needs. They are individual children and young people with their own personalities, needs and experiences.
The guidance summarises what good corporate parenting aims to achieve:
Young people who have experienced the care system will be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors, whose life outcomes mirror those of their peers.
While individual services will be able to use the guide to help evaluate the outcome of their corporate parenting, it will be most effective when used in partnership with all agencies involved in the corporate parenting task. This partnership approach will provide a full picture of the support available to children and young people and how this meets their needs.