Independent Strategic Advisor

Fiona Duncan is the Independent Strategic Advisor on the promise and Chair of The Promise Scotland.

Fiona Duncan is the Independent Strategic Advisor on the promise and Chair of The Promise Scotland. She previously chaired the Independent Care Review, which listened to thousands of children, families and care experienced people and led to Scotland’s commitment, made in 2020, to keep the promise by 2030.

Her role as Independent Strategic Advisor is to look across Scotland’s systems and structures, identify what is helping or hindering progress, and provide independent advice on what needs to change, who has the authority to act and where greater collective action is required.

In November 2025, Fiona took the unusual step of publishing her 18-month work programme, setting out what she intended to do, why she was doing it and what she hoped it would contribute.

This page brings together the Advice Notes and reports produced through that work. Some are formal pieces of advice; others bring together learning, evidence or reflections from work over time. Many were written for specific audiences and are necessarily detailed, so each is accompanied by a short summary explaining what it is about, who it was shared with, why it matters, the main advice or conclusions, where responsibility sits and what happens next.