The Stand Up For Siblings partners would like to offer best wishes in this festive season to all of our allies in the fight to protect the rights of brothers and sisters involved with the care system. We would also like to express our gratitude for your support throughout 2019.
We have made significant progress in recent months, particularly the commitment made by Scottish Government to strengthen the law to promote sibling relationships. Even without a change in the law though progress is being made. We hear stories daily of efforts made by corporate parents and practitioners to promote and protect relationships between brothers and sisters through creative use of resources and a commitment to the children in their care.
It has been a privilege to be invited to contribute to the Independent Care Review this year. The review has placed children and adults’ experience at the heart of their work and has inspired us here at Stand Up For Siblings to keep pushing for change. While consensus is building that change is urgently needed, we are also aware that there is much that still needs to be done.
We are not campaigning for more of what we currently have but instead a much more radical mindshift. Our imagination about what is possible is to some extent stifled by the current language around ‘placements’ and ‘contact’ rather than relationships. As we move into a new decade we are feeling optimistic that change is possible.
To kick off the New Year we will be posting over seven days our reimagined 7 steps to sibling relationships. These are bolder than the previous seven steps.
Please look out for these in mid January and let us know how you can help us realise these ambitions.