Ensuring the law can help to keep the promise
Part of: Policy
Legislative change is needed to keep the promise
For Scotland to keep the promise, policy, practice and legal changes need to happen.
As part of this process, the Scottish Government will propose changes to the law, including through the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill, which was introduced in June 2025.
This Bill should help Scotland to keep the promise in the manner set out by the Independent Care Review – in particular The Rules report – and as set out in Plan 24-30.
By 2030, the law must be clear— and enable people to be able to keep the promise
Currently there are a lot of policies, plans and laws around care. Not all of them work together.
This is confusing, and leads to people not understanding where they stand— including the workforce, care experienced children, care experienced adults, and their families.
So legislation around the promise must sort this out, to make sure that the workforce understand their duties and how to implement them, and that all care experienced children and adults:
- Understand the processes which exist around them and their lives
- Know their rights and how to use these.
It must also:
- Support families to stay together wherever it’s safe to do so
- Protect relationships and allow them to flourish
- Protect children and allow them to thrive
- Protect care experienced adults and allow them to access lifelong support.
What is The Promise Scotland doing around the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill?
We are working to make sure the upcoming Bill can do as much as possible to keep the promise.
The Bill is currently at stage one of a three stage process to decide if it should become an Act. At this stage, the Education, Children and Young People Committee is calling for views on the Bill. We have responded to this call for evidence, which you can read below.
When the Scottish Government were drafting the Bill, we sent advice and guidance on developing policy, consultations and legislative approaches. This includes:
Producing a Briefing Document
This covers all the areas we believe need to be considered and discussed by the Scottish Government when creating the Bill.
The first identifies the process for developing a Promise Bill, and the fundamentals it must have. It must:
- Have a coherent vision
- Be fully compliant with the UNCRC
- Be clear about the rights and entitlements of children, families and care experienced adults at every stage of their interaction with Scotland’s ‘care system’
- Include measures to ‘declutter’ the landscape of care
- Address the areas of the promise that 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 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 the resources for implementation.
The second part 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.)
Report: Understanding the current laws around the care system
A report 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.
Further work
We’ve also produced work which includes:
- A high-level summary of the areas The Promise Scotland has identified potentially need change
- Responses to all the Scottish Government consultations on the Bill.
Read the documents below.
Resources supporting legislation
Response: Call for views on the Children (Care, Care Experience and Service Planning) (Scotland) Bill
The Promise Scotland's response to the Education, Children and Young People's Committee's call for views.
Briefing: Promise Bill
A briefing document on all the areas we believe need to be considered and discussed by the Scottish Government when creating the Promise Bill.
Report: Current laws around the 'care system'
Report on understanding the current laws around the 'care system,' and what changes would make things easier for children, families, care-experienced adults and the workforce to understand.
Understanding the legal landscape for the 'care system'
A high-level summary of the specific areas identified by The Promise Scotland as potentially requiring legislative change and which therefore should be considered for the Promise Bill.
Promise Bill: Table of legislation
Table setting out legislation relevant to the 'care system.'
Consultation responses to inform the Promise Bill
Consultation response: Foster care
The Promise Scotland's response to the Scottish Government's consultation on foster care.
Consultation response: Financial Transparency and Profit Limitation in Children’s Residential Care
The Promise Scotland's response to the Scottish Government's consultation on financial transparency and profit limitation in children’s residential care.
Consultation response: Definition of 'care experience'
The Promise Scotland's response to the Scottish Government's consultation on a legal definition of "care experience."
Consultation response: ‘Moving On’ from care into adulthood
The Promise Scotland’s response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on ‘Moving On’ from care into adulthood.
Consultation response: Children's Hearings Redesign
The Promise Scotland's response to the Scottish Government's consultation on redesigning the Children's Hearings System.