INTRODUCTION

It has long been recognised that children who have experienced state care tend to suffer disadvantage in comparison with children brought up by their own parents, this disadvantage can last well into adulthood and in some cases throughout their whole lives. A shocking picture of the contemporary position was revealed in the statutory guidance issued with the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

In relation to care leavers’ educational qualifications, the statistics make deeply depressing reading.

• 40% of looked after children leave school with one or more qualification at SCQF Level 5 or more; compared with 84% of all school leavers.

• 74% of looked after children who left school in 2013/14 were aged 16 or under; compared with only 27% of all school leavers.

• the exclusion rate for looked after children is over seven times that for all children.

• 73% of looked after children were in a positive destination nine months after leaving school, compared with 92% of all children.

• 6% of looked after children were in higher education nine months after leaving school, compared with 39% of all children.

There is little possibility that these levels of disadvantage, which are likely to have life-long effects, were any less bad in the earlier periods of the development of Scottish child protection law. Some of the disadvantage will, of course, be traced to the very circumstances that required the state to intervene in the child's upbringing, but the disturbing fact remains that the intervention itself, though designed to protect the child from harm, is likely to have contributed not insignificantly to the lack of guidance and support, as well as the disruption of the child's education. That this has long been known explains why aftercare has always been an inherent part of the design of the statutory provisions authorising state intervention in family life.