Response to Education and Skills Committee call for evidence on the Disclosure (Scotland) Bill at Stage 1
Topic: Corporate parenting, Foster care, Kinship care, Legislation, Residential care, Throughcare and aftercare
Author: Lizzie Morton
We support the Education and Skills Committee's scrutiny of the Disclosure (Scotland) Bill to help strengthen and simplify the disclosure system and make sure children and vulnerable adults are safeguarded.
Young people and adults with care experience are more likely to have had contact with the police and been involved in formal processes which lead to their behaviour being recorded. The current disclosure system can make the barriers faced by care experienced people more difficult to navigate and may limit their opportunities, for example through the automatic disclosure of childhood convictions and the labelling of some Children's Hearings contacts as convictions.
We recommend that the proposed changes are strengthened further to make sure that there is greater awareness of these potential issues and how changes made to the system would impact care leavers.