'My son wouldn't have gone into care if I'd had more support'

A Glasgow mother has said her son wouldn’t have had to go into foster care if she had been given the right support.

Sharon Graham’s son was taken into care 15 years ago after she began struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.

“I was struggling emotionally, and it became clear that I wasn’t coping with everything that was going on,” she said.

“It was really difficult at that time, I wanted to be a really good mum to him, because I’d had two daughters before who are older and I wanted him to have what they had.”

Ms Graham's son is now over 18, and she has regular contact with him. — Ms Graham’s son is now over 18, and she has regular contact with him. STV News

Ms Graham said her son did have good experiences in foster care, but it was support for her that was “lacking”.

“They’re wanting to bring this child back but if they’re not doing any work with the parent, then nothing’s going to change,” she said.

Ms Graham’s son is now over 18, and she has regular contact with him but believes her family’s outcome could have been different if she received better intervention.

“I didn’t get up one morning and decide I’m going to be an alcoholic or a drug addict, I’m going to hurt my family or my children, and I’m just going to give up on my son, that’s just not reality,” she said.

Her son was adopted three years after being placed in foster care, before that he was back and forth between his mum’s home and care.

“I think he was let down from the start. I believe that even with the assessment that was being done, it wasn’t looking at him and what he was experiencing, it was more about the fact that I was an addict,” she said.

Ms Graham has gone on to work with services and help other families experiencing similar trauma but said people still aren’t getting enough support.

Her story has helped inform a study of the care system led by the University of Glasgow and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).

Scotland

System failures in Scottish care ‘putting children’s mental health at risk’

Researchers looked at improving the mental health of children aged up to five-years-old in foster and kinship care.

The results show the rate of children getting a permanent home in England, where a judge oversees the process, is nearly four and a half times faster compared to Scotland.

Researchers followed a study of over 500 children aged zero to five in foster care and concluded that fundamental changes are needed to the Scottish Care System.

The recommended changes include the allocation of a single sheriff assigned to each child’s case, stricter compliance to court-ordered timescales, balancing time for birth families to access therapy and mental health support for infants.

Scotland’s children’s minister Natalie Don-Innes said: “I am committed to delivering The Promise and ensuring we have a care system that provides children and young people with the stability, support and love they need.

“We have consulted with children, families, carers, the legal profession and social work to inform work on improving experience of the care journey including considering how to support timely, rights-based decisions for children and young people.

“I value the commitment of foster carers and we are currently developing a new model of foster care based on a flexible, child-centred approach.”