Video transcript: Focus on Change

Our new strategic work programme means that The Promise Scotland this coming year will be focusing on four key areas.

The first is the development of the Plan 24-30 detailed route maps.

The second is the continued development of the Promise Story of Progress.

The third is continuing the work we do around policy and parliamentary engagement –recognising that we have a Scottish election coming up in May 2026 – and the fourth area is the continued support we provide to Fiona Duncan, the Independent Strategic Advisor, and the Promise Oversight Board.

The development of the Plan 24-30 route maps is going to be a critical part of our work this coming twelve months.

Plan 24-30, by design, is Scotland's plan. The whole idea is that it needs to be owned and developed and delivered by the people who are responsible for delivering the change that will keep the promise by 2030.

The Promise Scotland's job, therefore, is to bring those people together, to convene groups, to ensure that the collaborative activity that needs to take place actually happens on time, and at times, perhaps, to provide a bit of challenge in the system to make sure that those with responsibility are actually developing the route maps in the timescales required.

The whole idea is that by the time the route maps are developed through 2025 and beyond – because they will be continually updated, there will be an iterative process –the idea is that the people who have developed the route maps will then own the actions required to keep the promise so that it doesn't rely on The Promise Scotland.

The Promise Scotland is here to ensure that the changes demanded by The Independent Care Review are delivered by Scotland.

And the work that we've been doing over the last three or four years since the organisation has been in existence is to ensure the people out there working really hard – day in and day out – to make those changes have the kind of support that they need to do that,  and also to ensure that we understand what's getting in the way so that we can build the bridges that will overcome some of those barriers. And that work continues.

So when we're developing the route maps, that'll be a really collaborative process. Our job is to help understand what's getting in the way to help design the solutions together.

Our work around the Promise Story of Progress is all about better understanding how we monitor progress so that we can adapt and change the activity that's required, and – crucially – this year we'll be looking to understand how we can better measure the extent to which change is being felt in people's lives.

Our work around policy and parliamentary engagement will ensure that MSPs and local councillors and others working in the system are properly briefed and supported to do the important work of parliamentary scrutiny— but also really ensuring that beyond the elections in 2026, the change continues.

So the team here at The Promise Scotland will continue to be available to help that support locally, nationally, across the country, to make sure that everyone out there working hard to keep the promise has what they need be able to do that.

So this year, you can expect continued support from the team here at The Promise Scotland, who will be working hard to support the online learning collaboratives that we've been running, the in-person learning events that we do, some of the regional collaboratives that the team help facilitate, as well as continuing to run Design School events like design sprints and masterclasses and other things. So it'll be a very hands-on way of working.

A lot of that work will feed into the route map development for Plan 24-30 that I mentioned earlier— but it's key activity in terms of people out there, working hard to keep the promise, learning from each other and being able to implement solutions that have been found in other parts of the country.