What to Consider in a Promise Bill?

It has been clear since the promise was made that there would be a need for legislative change. ‘The Rules’, produced by the Independent Care Review, outlines some of key areas where legislative change is required, including ensuring the legal rights of children are protected and upheld.

Today – 6 May – the Scottish Government announced the Children and Young People (Care) (Scotland) Bill will be brought forward to further Scotland's commitment to keeping the promise. To assist in the development and delivery of effective policy and practice changes, that can make a difference to children, young people, their families and care experienced adults, The Promise Scotland created and shared a range of documents to support The Scottish Government at the end of last year. The briefing and reports this includes will help all those interested in engaging with legislative change.

The documents include:

• The Promise Scotland briefing for the Scottish Government on key areas of consideration for legislative change
• A report, from solicitor Melanie Barbour, on:
• Understanding the current laws around the 'care system'
• What changes would make things simpler and easier for children, families, care experienced adults and the workforce to understand
• Options for how to improve things
• A high level summary of the areas The Promise Scotland has identified potentially need legislative change
• A table setting out all the relevant laws
• Responding to all Scottish Government consultations around the Bill

What is in our Briefing?

Legislative change is crucial in being able to keep the promise by 2030.

Building on the outline set out in The Rules, The Promise Scotland has created a briefing on all the areas that need to be considered and discussed by the Scottish Government when creating legislative change, including the Children and Young People (Care) (Scotland) Bill.

This briefing is in two parts. The first part of the briefing identifies the process that should be followed when legislating for changes linked to the promise and the fundamentals it must have.

The Children and Young People (Care) (Scotland) Bill and other legislation around the promise must:

• Be guided by the voices and experiences of children, families and care experienced adults.
• Have a coherent vision, which is clearly articulated so that members of the care community and the workforce understand the intention behind the Bill, and how its duties will be implemented.
• Be fully compliant with the UNCRC
• Contain clarity about the rights and entitlements of children, families and care experienced adults at every stage of their interaction with Scotland’s ‘care system’
• Contain measures to ‘declutter’ the landscape of care
• Address the areas of the promise which require legislative change
• Be properly sequenced
• Not cut corners
• Only propose legislative change in areas where it is absolutely necessary.
• Ensure legislative changes are fully evidenced and able to stand up to robust scrutiny.
• Identify where other pieces of enabling legislation around the ‘care system’ have not yet been implemented and prioritise and resource their enactment.
• Focus on implementation
• Have a robust financial memorandum to accompany the Bill, and set out the resources for implementation

The second part of our briefing sets out the relevant changes required, and is organised according to a child’s journey through the ‘care system’, under headings of:

• Early help and support for children and families
• Intensive support for children and families
• Decision-making alongside children and families (including the Children’s Hearings System)
• Children and families’ first engagement with the ‘care system’ (after a decision has been made)
• The rights of children for whom Scotland has caring responsibilities
• Moving on from care into adulthood & lifelong rights of care experienced adults
• People
• Scaffolding (creating an enabling environment for change)

Read the Briefing and all other documents here.