SCOTLAND must undergo a “radical” transformation to stop young people paying the price for care system failures “for the rest of their lives”, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

The comments were made in Holyrood last night after a landmark report revealed the realities for children and families.

This includes sibling separations, an overstretched workforce, the abuse of looked-after youngsters and some who “actively sought restraint as it was the only time they felt human touch”.

Thousands of individuals shared their experiences for the Independent Care Review.

It concluded that the care system “serves its own convenience”.

While running costs are £1.2 billion a year, the review found the system’s failings cost an additional £875 million annually due to the additional mental health, homelessness and addiction services that care leavers can require as adults.

READ MORE: Failures in Scotland's care system 'costs £875m a year'

Those who have been in care are twice as likely to experience homelessness than those who have not, and this group also earn 25% less than their peers.

As many as 15,000 children are currently living within the care system and the review recommends 80 separate actions to improve people’s lives. These include keeping families together where possible and listening to young people.

Chairperson Fiona Duncan said: “I have heard countless stories of when the care system gets it wrong; separation, trauma, stigma and pain.

“Too many childhoods have been lost to a system that serves its own convenience rather than those within it.

“This is a radical blueprint for a country that loves, nurtures and cherishes its children. This is Scotland’s chance to care for its children, the way all good parents should.”

Responding to the review last night, Sturgeon said she had felt “very emotional” reading its contents. Calling for a transformation in how care is delivered and regarded, she told Holyrood an independent team will be established “within weeks” to turn the report into a “detailed delivery plan”.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon pledges overhaul of Scotland's care system

She also announced the creation of an independent oversight body, with board members who have experienced care.

Sturgeon said: “The priority when a child needs our care must be the provision, not of a series of placements or arrangements driven by the needs of bureaucracy, but of stable, safe, secure, loving homes that allow them to experience the joys and the normal challenges of growing up, and to fulfil their potential in life.

“None of that should be at all controversial. But it distresses me, as I am sure it does all of us, that this is not the experience for all young people who are in, or who have passed through, our care. To be blunt, we let too many of them down. They pay the price of that for the rest of their lives. And in too many instances, the price can be a life cut short.”

Duncan Dunlop, chief executive of Who Cares? Scotland, commented: “Care experienced people are capable, thoughtful and have enormous potential. What we have seen, unfortunately, are generations of people living with the consequences of a care system that focused on containing them then leaving them, rather than ensuring that they are loved and supported forever.”

Dunlop said Care Inspectorate figures showing 36 “unexpected or untimely” deaths of those in state care from 2012-18 were an “under-representation”, adding: “The evidence shows that what the Scottish Government chooses to do next is literally a matter of life and death. We expect to see urgent action, in the next few weeks, that makes a tangible difference to young people’s lives.”