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.
Work programme
The current work programme runs up until May 2027.
Advice notes and reports
Halfway Point Report
Halfway point report on the Independent Strategic Advisor's work programme.
Summary of Halfway Point Report
Summary of the Independent Strategic Advisor's Halfway point report around her work programme.
Public Service Reform Advice Note
Advice Note to the Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform from the Independent Strategic Advisor.
Public Service Reform Advice Note: Appendices
Appendices to the Advice Note to the Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform from the Independent Strategic Advisor.
Summary of Public Service Reform Advice Note
Summary of Advice Note to the Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform from the Independent Strategic Advisor.
Advice Note: Prevention— from Ambition to Practice
Advice Note from the Independent Strategic Advisor on putting a prevention approach into practice.
Summary of Advice Note on Prevention from Ambition to Practice
Summary of the Independent Strategic Advisor's Advice Note on putting a prevention approach into practice.
Discussion Paper on the Prevention Investment Framework
Paper on a possible starting point for the framework, to be read alongside "Prevention: from ambition to practice."
Strategic Investment: Disinvestment
Paper provided to the Promise Cabinet Sub-Committee in November 2024.
Local Area Visits Report 1: Initial Reflections
The Independent Strategic Advisor's report gathering her initial reflections on visiting local areas across Scotland.
Summary of Local Area Visits Report 1: Initial Reflections
Summary of the Independent Strategic Advisor's first report around her local area visits.
Fiona Duncan: Initial Reflections from local area visits blog
Independent Strategic Advisor Fiona Duncan blogs on her initial reflections report, based on the first of her visits to Scotland’s 32 local authorities.
Intensive Family Support Advice Note
Advice note setting out what underpins the advice to make Intensive Family Support available to all children and families who need it, whenever they need it, for as long as they need it.
Summary of Intensive Family Support Advice Note
Summary of the Independent Strategic Advisor's advice note around intensive family support.
Local Area Visits Report 2: Learning at the Halfway Point
The Independent Strategic Advisor's report on what she's learned from local areas across Scotland as she reaches the halfway point of her visits.
Summary of Local Area Visits Report 2: Learning at the Halfway Point
Summary of the Independent Strategic Advisor's second report around her local area visits.
Forward to the Future: what Scotland must do to sustain the relationships that matter
Independent Strategic Advisor Fiona Duncan blogs for care experienced week on the importance of relationships, and of sustaining them.
Secure Care Advice Note
Advice note on how Scotland should move from short-term management of Secure Care capacity towards a smaller, more specialised, nationally coordinated model by 2030,
Summary of Secure Care Advice Note
Summary of the Independent Strategic Advisor's advice note around secure care.