Nicola Sturgeon stepped down as First Minister in March last year
Nicola Sturgeon has spoken at First Minister’s Questions for the first time since she resigned as SNP leader last year.
The Glasgow Southside MSP today asked her successor, Humza Yousaf, about support for care leavers.
The former first minister pressed him on whether he would commit to deliver funding for the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund to support care experienced people.
Sturgeon stood down as SNP leader in a shock move early last year. She was later arrested and released without charge as part of an investigation into the party’s finances.
The £500m Whole Family Wellbeing Fund is to help families stay together and avoid reaching a crisis.
The former first minister said that the fund is key to keeping The Promise. The Promise, which Sturgeon committed to in 2016, aims to ensure children growing up in Scotland are “loved, safe, respected and realise their full potential”.
She urged Yousaf to continue the funding.
She said: “Does the First Minister agree that to keep the promise the significant progress that has already been made does need to continue and now intensify?
“In particular, does he agree that the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund is absolutely essential to provide the funding to transform services so that families are better supported and fewer young people then need to enter care in the first place?
“And to that end, will he give a commitment that this fund will be delivered in full and that it will be fully invested to improve the lives of the young people present and future to whom that promise has been made?”
Yousaf replied: “First and foremost can I recognise that there frankly would not be a Promise if it wasn’t for the efforts of the former first minister.
“And I think Nicola Sturgeon would be the first to say that there would be no promise if it wasn’t for the efforts of young care experienced people.
“So, I want to pay tribute to them for the impact that they have had on all of us – not just on government but I suspect every single member of the Scottish Parliament who has engaged with care-experienced young people and care-experienced people more generally will have been impacted.
“I have had the pleasure of engaging with a number of care-experienced people in my time as First Minister and before. Most recently hosting them in Bute House for a Christmas party, which was not just great fun but actually gave me the opportunity to hear from them directly on the improvements we had to make.
“To answer Nicola Sturgeon’s question directly, the whole family wellbeing fund is of course an essential component for us in terms of keeping The Promise.
“And despite the very challenging Autumn Statement, despite the continued cuts over a number of years to our budget, we have prioritised £50 million for the fund in the 2024/25 budget.
“As I said, even in the face of significant financial constraints, reflecting our priority and the importance that we attach to keeping the promise.”
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