IT IS hard to lift your attention from the coronavirus crisis at the minute, but there are some things that must not get lost in our understandable preoccupation with Covid-19.

One such thing here in Scotland is the report of the independent care review, a root-and-branch review of Scotland’s care system. It is unique in the history of government reviews in that it has been driven by those with experience of care.

Over the past three years, the review team has listened to over 5,500 experiences. More than half the voices were of children and young people with experience of the care system, adults who had lived in care and different types of families. The remaining voices came from the paid and unpaid workforce.

What the care review has recommended are not just changes to the structures of the care system but changes to the entire culture of how we care for children who are looked after by councils. It emphasises the importance for these children, as for all children, to be loved, safe and respected.

It puts the focus back on the importance of relationships in supporting these most vulnerable children and their families. It tells us to listen to what children need and want and start from there.

It tells us that where children have positive relationships within their families, the priority must be to support them to remain in their families with long-term sustainable support.

It tells us that relationships are important to children and, if they need to come into care, they should be placed with their brothers and sisters — and important relationships should be maintained.

It also asks us, as social workers, to be less risk-averse and to make assessments not just on the basis of the risk young people are experiencing in their family and community but to set that against the risk of bringing them into care — especially when we know that care leavers are over-represented in the prison population, in drugs and alcohol services and in the unemployed and homeless.

Most social workers will find no surprises in this report. It is exactly what many have been calling for over many years.

Unison Scotland’s social work issues group has been pressing for management cultures that move away from managerialism and allow workers to return to relationship-based practice.

Most, like me, came into social work to support children and families to make positive changes, to enable children to be safe and happy and to make the most of their lives. We didn’t want to be complicit in a system that sees our care-experienced children fare so much worse than other children as they reach adulthood.

However, we know that things will need to change for those working in the field if the care review’s vision is to be realised.

A recent report by Unison Scotland, Save from Harm, surveyed our members in social work and painted a bleak picture of the pressures that many are working under after 10 years of austerity.

Many said they feel exhausted and undervalued and are struggling to deal with the demands placed upon them. Many are looking for new jobs.

They reported that social-work teams are severely underfunded. As well as the sheer volume of work, many staff commented that work has become much more reactive.

Workloads are heavier, and staff shortages mean that work is being pushed down to less-qualified and -experienced staff.

This report was published at the same time as children and family social workers in West Dunbartonshire voted overwhelmingly for action in a strike ballot for a second time — not for more pay but out of concern for the children and families that they work with.

Their dispute is about understaffing and under-resourcing of services to vulnerable children and the failure by their employer to take sufficient and timely action to address these concerns.

This is the social-work environment that will need to be addressed to enable the care review’s vision to be fulfilled. The cuts made over the years of austerity will need to be reversed. But more than that, management cultures will need to change from the Scottish government down, and workers must know that they will be protected when they take managed risks.

These challenges are recognised by the care review, but it leaves us in no doubt that the current situation benefits no-one.

At present it is not cost-effective for the public purse, it does not meet the care needs of most of our looked-after children and it does not allow workers to work with children in the way they would like to.

The review sets out a bold and ambitious vision of how care must change to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children and provide them with the same opportunities as every other Scottish child.

To succeed it will need buy-in from all those involved at every level within councils and the Scottish government. As the trade union of social workers in Scotland, Unison must ensure that we too participate in this process and make sure that our members’ voices are also heard.

This is too important to go by the wayside. We have never had a better chance to put the voice and rights of our children right at the centre of their care experience. That is what most workers want too.

Kate Ramsden is chair of Unison Scotland’s communications and campaigns committee.