Our future brighter’ make plea to council

However, for much of the presentation Ms Degan let the young people themselves do the talking, playing a voice recording of one of the young people reading a joint letter, afterwards describing it as “pretty powerful”.

The committee also heard from other officers about progress with a range of initiatives aimed at improving the care and support of children and young people, including The Promise, and an increased focus on early intervention to help support youngsters in their own homes.

Provost Christine Simpson thanked officers for the “huge and complex piece of work”, welcoming the aim of addressing of “some of the unfairnesses so movingly described in the letter”.

She asked how issues such as the need for foster carers with larger accommodation could be overcome to help keep siblings together.

Committee convener Councillor Susan McGill said it was hoped more support at an earlier stage would mean fewer young people would need foster care, while senior manager for children and families, Marie Valente, said recruitment campaigns were also being developed specifically for foster carers able to take larger family groups.

On the wider refocus, Ms Valente said the next stage would be a shift from referrals to more intensive family supports in the hope of preventing children having to come into the system at all.

Councillor Martin Earl was concerned that crisis services could be under-resourced but still needed.

However, Ms Valente added: “This is a 10-year plan. Currently we are using crisis services too much because situations are reaching a head. If we have a suite of resources that are strong, intensive and readily available, crisis won’t be needed as much and resources can be transferred.

“I’m in no doubt as to the significant challenge of achieving that. We can’t place children at risk and it has to be intensively resourced. We have to almost overresource it at the start.”

Officers said, as well as the potential to save and shift monies, there was likely to be outside funding they could apply for and it wasn’t just about money but “service redesign”.

Councillor McGill said: “To achieve all that we need a cultural change and Marie has demonstrated already since I have been elected how that can happen.”

Councillor Margaret Brisley said: “We are not going to change the system until we change some other society problems.

“I find it so difficult hearing the young people speak about their aspirations and not knowing how to contact us.

“None of us would disagree with the sentiments of this report. We couldn’t. These young people deserve the best chances in life. I just worry how we practically implement it to ensure their lives are actually changed.

“They need the same opportunities as our own children. I’m not sure that writing reports and having these aspirations is going to change things, but it’s good to do the practical things that can happen and the funding is absolutely crucial.

“We need a commitment from elected members at all levels, and importantly at Scottish Government level that if they are signing up to this promise, they will adequately fund it so the changes we all want can actually happen.”