Programme for Government 2026-2031: Key commitments around the promise

The current Scottish Government have reaffirmed their commitment to keeping the promise throughout key areas of the Programme for Government 2026-2031, which sets out the priorities for the next five years.

In line with their reaffirmed commitment to keeping the promise by 2030, the government will:

• Build on the significant progress and change under way at a national and local level, strengthening support to the care experienced community by implementing the Children’s (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Act.
• Work with partners to ensure children and young people can participate in learning to achieve academic and vocational excellence and reach their full potential regardless of background or need by reforming school curriculum, ensuring post-covid development concerns for children are overcome, reducing the poverty-related attainment gap, and keeping the promise.
• Continue to reform foster, kinship and adoption, helping ease placement pressures and providing increased support for carers.
• Publish an updated Implementation Strategy that demonstrates the progress made, and the key actions that the Scottish Government will lead, to keep the promise by 2030.
• Ensure that learning about the value of intensive family support is appropriately embedded as part of ongoing work to keep the promise.
• Support babies, children, and families in the foundational early years of their life, ensuring Whole Family Support includes sufficient focus on the pre-birth to 3 period, so families feel supported, prepared, and confident to provide the care their children need from before birth.
• Strengthen support for care experienced young people to access secure long-term housing.

It is this Government and Parliament who must ensure that the promise is kept by 2030, honouring the courage of those who shared their stories with the Independent Care Review in the hope of change, and to the care community to whom the promise was made.

This will require sustained commitment and resourcing. We will continue to work with the Scottish Government and partners, including through the development and implementation of Plan 24-30 to ensure work to keep the promise continues quickly and effectively.