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Trade unions are key partners. Just last week, I engaged with them on separate matters relating to the Promise. I regularly engage with social workers, and I am sorry to hear examples of specific difficulties. I have alluded to a number of different moves that the Government is making to provide support, because I know that social workers are dealing with extremely difficult and complex issues. As Iona Colvin has said, they are absolutely committed to delivering the Promise, which sometimes means that they go above and beyond their expected duties. I thank them for that commitment. I have set out a plan that will help to support the current workforce and add to it, so that work is spread more evenly and people do not have to work such long hours.

Iona, do you have anything to add?

If you could, please, Mr Rennie.

Sure. The Scottish Government does not collect data on the number of children from hearings who are not allowed entry to, or are not able to enter, secure care. If a space was not available to a child who needed entry into secure care, intense discussions would take place between COSLA, the secure care centres, social workers and all the other relevant stakeholders to ensure that what was carried out would best suit the child’s needs.

Of course. As I said, discussions in relation to joint work on secure care are continuing with COSLA. What was the specific question? Was it about national referral?

I will bring in Iona Colvin in a second. We are doing a number of things to try to improve the situation in secure care, but we are not considering that at the moment, because, as I said, given the work that we are currently doing to overcome capacity issues and our planned work on the future of secure care, I do not necessarily believe that that would be required.

As I said, we have been having those conversations. As you say, Mr Rennie, such situations can arise. We do not know what is going to happen tomorrow. I sat here and said—

I am going to provide a full update on the contingency measures, the discussions that have taken place and the actions that are being taken to ensure that that does not happen again.

When I speak to foster carers, I hear about some of the challenges. They are dealing with an increasing number of really complex issues. I understand that finances are also an issue, and the Scottish Government is taking action on that through the Scottish recommended allowance. I appreciate, however, that there may still be concerns about that.

When I am out and about talking with foster carers and kinship carers, I hear loud and clear that, although money is of course important—I am not downplaying that—it is the wraparound support that is most important. It is a matter of ensuring that we get that right. Having somebody to pick up the phone to when there is a problem and getting respite are important.

Those are some of the issues that we are considering to inform what happens following the consultation and to inform the forthcoming bill.

For me, part of the basis of the Promise is to keep children at home where it is safe to do so. If that is not possible, I would say that the next best place would be with their family, as long as that is a safe and loving environment for them. I promote kinship care, which is very important and instrumental for our aims in delivering the Promise.

I have met kinship carers. Just last week, I was out in West Dunbartonshire with kinship carers, and I have had some very challenging conversations with them. They feel that there is a lack of support for them. Finances can be difficult but, although that is important, it always comes back to the need for wider support from local authorities and an understanding that, just because a child is placed with their family, that does not mean that everything is okay—there can still be complex issues. Equally, a carer might be elderly or have other needs, so it is about ensuring that we have wraparound support for those families. At the end of the day, if a child stays in a kinship care arrangement, they will not go through the organisations and responses that would be required to help them if they were not staying with family.

I will do my best to answer it.

As I said in my previous answer, I fully appreciate the issues that kinship carers have brought to me—they are very challenging. I know that kinship carers feel that they are not necessarily getting the financial support that they are entitled to and that there is a discrepancy in that respect. I should say that we are carrying out a review of the Scottish recommended allowance; indeed, I introduced that review, because I felt that it was important, given some of the challenges that I am hearing about in that respect.

As for the wider picture, there are also problems with kinship carers’ ability to access benefits and so on. We have ensured that that is not the case in Scotland but, in the UK benefits system, there are problems with, for example, universal credit when it comes to recognising kinship care. I continue to engage with UK counterparts on that, and I know that my officials have been in discussions, too, to try to ensure that kinship carers can get at least what they are entitled to.

Mr Briggs says that even that might not be sufficient to meet their needs. As I have said, I have discussed the issue with kinship carers, and I am looking at it, but not strictly from a financial point of view; after all, the support piece is very important, too. I have spoken to, for example, kinship carers who are elderly and have not looked after a child in a long time, and their support needs are a little bit different from those of other families. Every family is different and complex. From what I have heard, such carers can sometimes feel a little bit abandoned, and that is something that we absolutely need to combat. When it comes to the financial and support aspects, I am looking to the Promise bill for those things, too.