Hope has, for many, felt like something hard to find in 2019

“2019 is the year that Scotland has the opportunity to fundamentally reshape what a childhood can be for people who are or have grown up in care.

I went into care when I was 11 and while that meant I was saved from the neglect that I lived in, it also meant spending the rest of my childhood surrounded by legal processes and professionalism.

I had staff, not parents. I lived in a unit, not a home. I was physically restrained by the people who looked after me when it was deemed I wasn’t being compliant. I was part of routine conversations about whether it was a good idea for me to live in the same place as my brother, even though he was the only person who understood my life.

I hear versions of this still, 10 years on, compounded by the fact that young people still don’t have the right to independent advocacy in legal meetings where enormous decisions are made about their life. Hope has, for many, felt like something hard to find in 2019. I have felt like a bit of an anomaly this year because I have relished political conversations.

Having spent the year campaigning and speaking to politicians from every party, I know that while there are fundamental disagreements about our constitutional make-up, there is political will to do something different for care experienced people. I believe that our politicians want something revolutionary to happen for those are or have been looked after by the state. “