Nicola Sturgeon needs to do more for children in care

If you’ve glanced at a photograph of Nicola Sturgeon in the past year or two, you won’t have failed to spot a recurring theme. The SNP leader surrounds herself at every opportunity with young people who have been in care. It is Sturgeon’s current cause – with education and social justice having fallen by the wayside. Scotland’s First Minister has been in the job four and a half years and deputy for seven before that. She is in the market for a legacy, and with every passing day it is less likely to be Scottish independence.

Whatever the politics, that Sturgeon has taken an interest is an indisputable good. There are almost 15,000 children in care in Scotland and, between those being cared for by local authorities and those on the child protection register, around one in 50 children north of the Border is being ‘looked after’ by the state. Eighty-eight per cent of young people were referred to the children’s hearing system on care or protection grounds, rather than for criminality, yet somewhere between one third and one half of Scotland’s prison population has been in care.