Minister reveals how childhood ‘trauma’ drives her to help youngsters in care

A Scottish Government minister recounted her “extremely difficult” childhood as she pledged to do everything in her power to deliver a commitment to improve lives for those in care.

Natalie Don-Innes told how her father had died when she was a young child, adding: “I saw the problems drug and alcohol abuse can have from far too early an age, I witnessed domestic abuse from an early age.”

She added that for periods, “sometimes months at a time”, she had been unable to be cared for at home, and had instead been brought up by her grandparents in an informal kinship care arrangement.

Speaking in Holyrood, she told how she was “thankful” for them, adding they had been a “massive part of the reason I am standing here today”.

Now the minister for children, young people and The Promise – a flagship Scottish Government commitment to improve lives for those who have been in care – she revealed: “I actually had no idea how much this role meant to me.”

Recalling her childhood experiences to MSPs, she said her “trauma” drives her to work to bring about change for youngsters also facing difficulties.

Speaking in a Holyrood debate, Ms Don-Innes said: “As someone who has lived through some extremely difficult experiences growing up, who has experienced a sense of unbelonging, of fear, of disconnect,  I am fighting for all the children and young people across Scotland who are facing similar issues.

“Doing this role every day, speaking about these things regularly, I will admit has been very difficult. It has raised a lot of emotions I thought I had dealt with.

“However, over and above that, this trauma has driven me to work as hard as I possibly can to facilitate change for those who need it the most.

“Keeping The Promise is a priority for this Government, but it is a personal commitment from me to do everything I can in my power to improve the lives of care experienced children and young people, to tackle poverty and to work towards a country that supports families to stay together and to be happy.”

Her comments came as former first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was not certain that the commitments in The Promise would be delivered by the target date of 2030.

The former SNP leader, who was first minster when The Promise was made, said she believed that “with the right strategy, leadership and funding in place The Promise is deliverable by 2030”.

But she added: “Believing that it is deliverable is not the same as being convinced yet that it will be delivered.

“At this stage, I think that is a much more open question, which is why it is so vital, in this moment, that we significantly increase the scale and pace of change.”

Meeting the commitments made in The Promise are dependent on “significantly reducing the number of young people going into care”, the former first minister said.

And she added it was “profoundly disappointing£ that the full £500 million promised for a fund specifically set up to support vulnerable families would not be delivered by the end of this Holyrood term in 2026.

Ms Sturgeon said: “I understand more than most the financial challenges that the Government is facing, but I very much hope that the forthcoming budget significantly increases the amount available in the next financial year, so that as much as possible is delivered in this Parliament.”

Telling Holyrood that The Promise is about a “transformation for care-experienced young people”, she made clear: “There are few, if any issues which matter more to me than this one.

“The Promise is not just another Government policy, it is much more fundamental than that.

“It was a solemn commitment we made to some of the most vulnerable children and young people in our country, a promise to these children and young people that they will grow up loved and valued with the same life chances as their non care-experienced peers.”

She added that even though she is no longer part of the Scottish Government, she still feels a “heavy responsibility to see it delivered in full”.