Emma Seith

The Herald | Society Section

For youngsters coming out of care, the future is bleak. For many, ambition doesn't extend beyond getting their own tenancy, claiming benefit and getting drunk with their mates.

As First Minister Jack McConnell said three years ago: "it's extremely hard to mature into an ambitious, confident adult when no-one seems to care whether you live or die."

When he made that comment, he was announcing funding for a pilot project on Skye, funded by the Scottish Executive at a cost of more than £1m.

Figures about to be published will show that the project has transformed dramatically the lives of young people who are coming out of care, spurring them on to seek out work or enter training.

Now, the executive says, it's up to local authorities to decide if they want to fund their care-leavers through the six-day leadership academies run by the Skye scheme. But with a price tag of £1800 per person, will councils have the foresight to foot the bill?

The charity which runs the pilot - Columba 1400 - doubts it. Its staff question why it is easier to persuade local authorities to pay for their staff to attend than the young people in their care. (The centre's leadership courses for head teachers, for instance, are popular with education authorities.)

Around 1000 youngsters leave care in Scotland every year. Of those, 60% leave without any qualifications. And when they begin living independently, 60% fail to get jobs or even work towards a career.

In November 2003, Jack McConnell announced support for Columba 1400, the Skye-based charity dedicated to brining out leadership qualities in young people whose early life has been tough, to develop work with young care-leavers.

In April 2004, a two-year pilot project was launched at Columba 1400's community and international leadership centre in Staffin, on Skye.

The charity was given £1.2m by the executive to allow councils to send young people between 16 and 25, who were set to leave care, to their young people's leadership academy, which is designed to help them make the transition from care to living independently. Now the pilot has come to an end, with more than 400 youngsters and staff having attended 36 leadership academies.

The Executive's report on the scheme's success is due to be published on Friday but Columba 1400 has already carried out its own evaluation.

It tracked down 145 youngsters how had come to Skye and found out how they were doing. The results were impressive: 74% of youngsters were in education, training or employment, almost twice what might otherwise have been expected.

So, what causes youngsters to rethink their lives after a week on the island?

Columba 1400 was founded seven years ago by Norman Drummond, a former Black Watch padre, the youngest head teacher to be appointed at Loretto School, near Edinburgh, and former BBC governor for Scotland.

Drummond wanted to set up a charity that helped kids from "tough realities" to unlock their potential. "so many initiatives are about doing things to and for children," says Drummond. "Columba is about enabling a child to find his or her inner greatness".

He decided to do this through leadership academies. Fundraising began for the centre to host the programme in Staffin on June 9th, 1997, the 1400th anniversary of the death of St Columba - hence the name. Local people, led by Drummond, their minister at the time, set out to raise a million pounds. In the end, they raised closer to £2m.

Today the charity runs four leadership programmes. The young people's leadership academy remains the core programme but the charity's head teacher leadership development course and ambassadors' leadership academy have also come in for praise.

During 2006-07, 257 participants will attend school programmes. Dr Nicola Richards, chief executive of Columba 1400, says: "If we can change the way a head teacher runs a school, it affects all the pupils in that school.”

Underlying each course is the Columban code of responsible leadership and its six principles, awareness, focus, creativity, integrity, perseverance and service 

Last July, Nick Newlands, of Edinburgh City Council’s social work department, took a group of nine youngsters aged 15-25 to Skye, with the help of the charity, Who Cares? Scotland 

Among them were Barbara Moohan, 25, Kyle McKechnie, 18, and Ashley Whalen, 16. Each of them was changed by the experience. Barbara was suffering from post-natal depression and an eating disorder when she went to Skye. Things remain difficult for Barbara but her Columba 1400 experience is, she says, helping her keep her head above water. “Some people have the Bible or some other faith; I have my Columban code,” says the mum of two, who plans to undertake a philosophy course in Edinburgh this year 

Kyle was signed up to a college course when he travelled to Skye in July but found the prospect of starting it daunting. “I just needed something to make me feel more confident,” he explains. He believes Columba 1400 helped him stick with the course and now Kyle’s considering doing an HND in music technology when he finishes his HNC. Perhaps, however, the change is most marked in the youngest of the group. Before Columba, Ashley was “getting into trouble all the time”, hanging around in gangs and drinking every night. Ashley says: “Columba just made me realise all of the people I was hanging round with were older but younger in the head and that I have a steady head on my own shoulders. 

Ashley is now holding down a full-time job, has an entirely new set of friends and is looking forward to moving into her own flat. 

“It made me realise who I was and what I wanted,” she says of Columba 1400. 

The trio weren’t always so confident that Columba 1400 was for them – especially when they arrived after a seven-hour bus journey to find a bunch of “mad workers” in the car park ready to welcome them. “It was a bit daunting, to be honest,” admits Kyle. 

But this is all part of the Columba 1400 experience. Drummond explains: “One of the things that really hits people is the atmosphere when you arrive. 

“It’s so respectful that it really takes young people aback. They get a proper Highland welcome, a beautiful setting, a lovely building and well-equipped facilities” 

It’s location, in particular, is considered vital. “People can develop when they are removed from their local community and peer-group pressure because it allows them to step aside and consider: do I want to continue making a mess of my life?” Drummond says. 

Stevie Siegerson, who runs the centre, agrees. He says: “There is something about where we are, the space we are in – you can’t help but slow down. It makes it easier for them to think about their lives. 

“I find people frozen to the windows, looking out and slavering.” 

Another feature of the location, considered to be vital by Newlands, is that you can’t get a mobile-phone signal. Newlands says: “There was a moment on the way back on the bus when everybody started getting texts and phone calls. You could almost see the burdens coming back on people’s shoulders. 

Newlands has another group scheduled to go to Columba 1400 this summer. This trip is fully funded – as were all the academies during the pilot. 

However, when Newlands asked Edinburgh City Council to pay for another trip, he was told it couldn’t afford it. Glasgow City Council refused to take part in the pilot at all. In fact, only 15 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities opted to send care-leavers to the academies. Whether Columba 1400 becomes a common destination for care-leavers is now very much up to local authorities, says the executive. 

An Executive spokesperson says: “We have always been clear that our commitment was to fund a two-year pilot programme so councils could trial this approach and that. Following the end of the pilot programme, it would be for councils to decide whether to participate again in the future. 

“We believe local councils are best placed to decide how to provide services in the community to meet local needs, including those of young care-leavers.” 

Cosla, the umbrella group for Scotland’s local authorities also insists that how councils spend their money is up to them. A spokesperson says: “It is absolutely right that councils make their own spending decisions, particularly in relation to using a specific programme.” 

Richards maintains that Columba represents good value for money and would be cheap at twice the price. If a youngster is not in employment, education or training (Neet) they cost society considerably more, she argues. “If a youngster is Neet between the ages of 16 and 18, the cost in terms of benefits, tax lost and health service and criminal justice costs is £84,000. So £1800 for a place at Columba seems pretty small beer in comparison.” 

She adds, “We will continue to encourage local authorities to invest in this work – it seems easier to convince authorities to make this investment in developing their staff than it is for them to invest directly in the young people."