Concerns raised over childcare services

THE different systems designed to help vulnerable youngsters lack any overall cohesion, a committee of MSPs has said.

Holyrood’s education committee has been looking at how children in care are helped. Committee convener Stewart Maxwell said “many systems” are in place to support these children, but that these could “often present a confusing picture”.

In a new report, the MSPs said there is “no over-arching system for determining when children require to be taken into care”.

While there is some “overlap” between the children’s hearing system and the child protection system, these are still “distinct from each other”.