Promise Partnership Showcase: December 2024
Part of: The Promise Partnership
2024’s Promise Partnership Showcase was held on 4 December.
Hosted in conjunction with Corra Foundation, it highlighted some of the learning from projects funded through the Foundation’s keep the promise fund.
Some of this learning is highlighted below.
Design thinking
Several of these projects used some of the tools of design thinking in their planning and development. Doing so helped them create services which really put care experienced people at their centre.
Find out more with the Promise Design Tools.
Gallery
Scottish Attachment in Action
Scottish Attachment in Action created Wee Breathers— a supervision programme for the education workforce which is attachment-informed and trauma sensitive.
It was able to provide therapeutic spaces which were safe, supportive and reflective.
Key Links to Plan 24-30
- Anyone working alongside children, families and care experienced adults, including midwives, health visitors, family support workers and social workers will be well resourced and supported, and have sufficient capacity to care in the way the promise demands.
- The workforce will be nurtured throughout their care-giving journeys. This will be understood as a vital part of ensuring all children can grow up in an environment in which they feel loved and can thrive.
- Reflection, supervision and structured support will be recognised as an essential part of practice for anyone working with children, young people, families, and care experienced adults. Support for staff will be available, effective, flexible and regular.
- Schools and educational institutions will train their workforce to be trauma-informed and trauma-aware.
Key Insight
Creating therapeutic spaces which aren't therapy is complex and sensitive. To sustain this kind of provision, planning needs to be creative and flexible.
Partnering with local authorities and unions may:
- support the success of this kind of initiative
- help to promote its benefits.
Why Not? Trust
The Why Not? Trust developed Thinking Space, a confidential space for young people in care. It allows them to revisit their story from their own perspective, while exploring their own emotions.
The Trust also funded research in Polmont Prison to investigate trauma and the criminal justice system. This found that more than half of participants had diagnoses of Reactive Attachment Disorder and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder.
Key Links to Plan 24-30
- Scotland's listening practices will be inclusive of children and young people who have faced significant trauma in their life.
- Children and young people will receive appropriate, proportionate, age-sensitive, and trauma-informed support.
Key Insight
Thinking Space highlighted that young people prefer confidential space when sharing their emotions.
It also showed that focusing on the endings of relationships and phases in life could help young people when talking about their experiences.
Angus Council
Angus Council has worked to put a Care and Risk Management (CARM) programme in place.
This programme exists for those who care for children whose behaviours may present a risk to others.
It gives support needed for the workforce to increase their skill and competency, in a way which:
- is proportionate
- is trauma-informed
- balances rights and needs.
Key Links to Plan 24-30
- There will be access, at a level appropriate to roles, initial and lifelong learning that is grounded in attachment theory, trauma responsive care, physical and emotional wellbeing and a clear understanding and application of children’s rights.
- Learning will support the interaction across the workforce. This will nurture equal partnerships and encourage joint learning through informal education, mentoring, coaching and support networks, as well as opportunities for shared reflective practice.
Key Insight
Angus Council found that some key features of a service design process helped them create this course:
- Using empathy maps
- Using relevant data within a quality improvement framework
- Having the ability to change aim and process multiple times.
Children in Scotland
Pupil support staff work hard in supporting individual children and young people— but they’re often overlooked for training, development and networking opportunities.
So Children in Scotland developed the #KeepThePromise Pupil Support Staff Learning Programme, which was co-designed with care experienced young people and Support Staff.
Key Links to Plan 24-30
- Meaningful participation and engagement will be routine. Learning will be central to all activity related to planning, delivery and evaluation of systems and services that impact on the lives of children, young people and families in and on the edges of the ‘care system’ and care experienced adults.
- There will be access, at a level appropriate to roles, initial and lifelong learning that is grounded in attachment theory, trauma responsive care, physical and emotional wellbeing and a clear understanding and application of children’s rights.
- Schools and educational institutions will provide time, support and opportunity for all staff to develop kind, supportive relationships with care experienced learners.
- Schools and educational institutions will support staff to be aware of the issues facing care experienced learners so they can best engage and encourage.
- Schools and educational institutions will train their workforce to be trauma-informed and trauma-aware.
Key Insight
There were challenges with engaging young people to take part in the co-design process, which led to the engagement process being adapted.
The adapted process was centred around delivering in-person sessions with groups across three schools in different local authorities.
Key points to lead to engagement were:
- being in a familiar environment, with support from trusted adults
- engagement being free
- engagement taking place outside of the school day
- engagement being hybrid.
South Ayrshire Health & Social Care Partnership
This partnership worked to scope a supportive school structure to tackle high exclusion rates among young people who had previously been legally considered “looked after.”
Key Links to Plan 24-30
- Meaningful participation and engagement will be routine. Learning will be central to all activity related to planning, delivery and evaluation of systems and services that impact on the lives of children, young people and families in and on the edges of the ‘care system’ and care experienced adults.
- Care experienced pupils will not be excluded from education or have their timetables reduced to such an extent they are denied their right to education.
- Meaningful participation and engagement will be routine. Learning will be central to all activity related to planning, delivery and evaluation of systems and services that impact on the lives of children, young people and families in and on the edges of the ‘care system’ and care experienced adults.
- Learning will support the interaction across the workforce. This will nurture equal partnerships and encourage joint learning through informal education, mentoring, coaching and support networks, as well as opportunities for shared reflective practice.
Key Insights
The organisations produced a report, whose recommendations included:
- identifying pupils who are – or who have been – legally considered “looked after” through care setting type across all clusters. Care setting types include:
- those living at home
- those living away from home
- those who have been legally considered “looked after” in the past
- developing groups led by those with lived experience, to raise awareness, influence school policy, and influence practice.
- establishing consistent direction and support for care experience leads across all secondary schools— including opportunities to share practice, reflect and learn through joint training.
Each and Every Child
Each and Every Child worked on Framing Recommendations to Influence Practice Change. This involved beginning to work on:
- using framing to support trauma informed report writing
- including diverse voices in anti-stigma work.
Key Links to Plan 24-30
- Scotland's listening practices will be inclusive of children and young people who have faced significant trauma in their life - including babies and infants, children and young people with special educational needs or a disability, and those from whom English or Gaelic is not their first or preferred language.
- Schools and educational institutions will train their workforce to be trauma-informed and trauma-aware.
Passion4Fusion
Passion4Fusion aim to bridge the cultural gap and address disparities in social care experiences for children and families from black, brown and other ethnically diverse backgrounds. They created a toolkit to support this work.
Key Links to Plan 24-30
- Decisions will be documented in a way that is transparent, capturing the multiple perspectives involved and ensuring workforce perspectives do not dominate or drown out the voices of children, young people, families and care experienced adults, and quieter or alternative perspectives.
- Participation and engagement activities will be inclusive of children and young people for whom English or Gaelic is not their first or preferred language.
- The views and voices of people who services work alongside will be actively involved and included in the work to shape, create and evaluate them.
Key Insight
There is a lack of cultural understanding among social workers. 65% of surveyed families felt social services lacked the cultural diversity to meet their needs.
Action for Children and the CYCJ
The poster from Action for Children and the CYCJ highlights the publication of a new framework for practice, which aims to highlight core elements which are relevant to different stages of a young person’s exploitation.
This framework has allowed training to be delivered, and a screening toolkit to be created for practitioners.
Key Links to Plan 24-30
- Care experienced children and young people will not be criminalised, with a progressive, rights-based youth justice approach, building on the Kilbrandon principles (needs, not deeds), a reality for all.
- Criminal cases involving children and young people will be handled in environments that uphold their rights and support meaningful participation in proceedings, not in unsuitable, traditional criminal courts.
Key Insight
Insights from the framework included that:
- a change in language is required to avoid sterotypes or criminalisation
- there is a lack of connection across policy and legislation
- there is a lack of understanding on how to identify and support young people involved in child criminal exploitation.
Articulate
This poster highlights the work of The Articulate Hub, which promotes awareness of, access to, engagement with and participation in the arts for care experienced young people.
It’s created a trauma-informed, neuro-affirming , and co-designed with target learner demographics.
It’s also creating online learning courses for children and young people.
Key Links to Plan 24-30
- Care experienced children, young people and adults will have ownership over their own stories. They will be able to influence how their stories are shared.
- Children will be supported to understand the narrative of their lives in ways that are appropriate and have meaning for them.
Falkirk Council
This poster describes how Get to Focus – a community focus group of parents with experience of care systems – explored what support they felt was missing from Falkirk.
Their work led to the purchase of a town-centre, community-owned space— where families and the workforce can share learning and lived experiences.
Foster Care Connect
Foster Care Connect have developed Creating Trauma Informed Foster Carers.
This is a new accredited qualification for foster carers which supports children and young people who have experienced trauma.
Key Links to Plan 24-30
- Young people will be encouraged to ‘stay put’ in their setting of care for as long as they need or want to. Rules, processes and culture will support that approach. There will be no regulatory barrier for young people to stay with foster carers for as long as is required.
- Foster families will have access to the support and services needed.
- The way Scotland cares will be underpinned by the guiding principle of attachment and will be informed, responsive and reflective about the nature and impact of trauma.
Key Insight
Consultation played a key role in developing the qualification. It included talking to:
- foster carers
- other professionals
- care experienced children and young people.
Family Journeys
The "All About Me“ children’s voice program has become the cornerstone of the Family Journeys commitment to embed child-led, trauma-sensitive relational practices into every service.
It provides children with ways to express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences in a safe and supportive way, including:
- creative tools
- personalised storytelling
- life story narratives
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- Decisions will be documented in a way that is transparent, capturing the multiple perspectives involved and ensuring workforce perspectives do not dominate or drown out the voices of children, young people, families and care experienced adults, and quieter or alternative perspectives.
- The voices of Scotland’s infants, children, young people and those who are important to them will be actively listened to and will influence every aspect of delivering, inspecting, and continually improving services and care.
- Children and young people will receive appropriate, proportionate, age-sensitive, and trauma-informed support.
Key Insight
The commitment to children’s voice has significantly influenced family court experiences, with children’s views now significantly influencing case outcomes.
The King’s Trust
The King’s Trust offers young people chances to get started in life, and to overcome the challenges they face.
But their internal data showed that care experienced young people were 27% more likely to disengage at the start of the process of becoming involved.
So it bought together a group of young people into a co-production group, which came up with the following solutions as a result of the problems identified within the key insights section below:
- A referral form that embeds the trauma informed principles of choice and empowerment.
- Staff biography cards to foster relationship building, given to young people to help calm their nerves.
- A guidebook to provide young people with more information about the King’s Trust offer, as well as more information about their rights and entitlements.
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- The voices of Scotland’s infants, children, young people and those who are important to them will be actively listened to and will influence every aspect of delivering, inspecting, and continually improving services and care.
- Meaningful participation and engagement will be routine. Learning will be central to all activity related to planning, delivery and evaluation of systems and services that impact on the lives of children, young people and families in and on the edges of the ‘care system’ and care experienced adults.
Key Insight
The co-production group identified some problems with The King’s Trust’s onboarding process:
- Young people lack choice in referral and onboarding, with limited consideration of their preferences or needs.
- Many young people are unaware of The Prince’s Trust offer, making initial meetings feel daunting.
- Inefficient processes and paperwork get in the way of relationship-building with caseworkers.
- Induction spaces feel unwelcoming and overly formal to some young people.
Clan Childlaw
To improve legal support for children and young people in conflict with the law, Clan Childlaw produced an animation which explained what a good children’s lawyer is.
This project helped improve the legal support which the organisation was able to offer.
It realised that lack of criminal law expertise has – at times – limited its ability to act. It identified the next significant contribution it could make as pursuing strategic litigation which is focused on criminal justice matters for children.
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- Children and their families will have a right to legal advice and representation if required.
- Every effort will be made to implement the Kilbrandon approach to youth justice, by keeping children within the Children's Hearings System. If cases must take place in formal criminal courts, disposal will occur within the Children's Hearings System.
- The minimum age of criminal responsibility will be in line with the most progressive global standards.
- In line with UNCRC, 16 and 17-year-olds on remand and who have been sentenced will be recognised as children and if necessary placed in Secure Care rather than Young Offenders Institutions, never the adult prison estate. Young people who turn 18 while in Secure Care will not be automatically transferred to a Young Offenders Institute.
- All care experienced children and young adults will have access to justice legal remedies such as appeals, reviews and judicial reviews.
Key Insight
Areas of the promise which Clan Childlaw have considered raising actions around include:
- The lack of an automatic entitlement to a lawyer when a young person is referred to the CHS on offence grounds
- Use of deprivation of liberty orders
- Failure to implement provisions in the Care and Justice Act in relation to children in prison16 and 17-year-olds in the Children’s Hearings System
Glasgow Virtual School
Glasgow Virtual School compared the educational outcomes of care experienced learners to the general population.
Glasgow Virtual School receives most referrals from education stages s3 and s4.
Many of them are disengaged from education and show signs of anxiety. As they’re not attending school, they’re unable to access the services they require.
The Speak Up Hub supports young people who are looked after at home, as well as their families.
In it, young people are supported to help design services for:
- transitions
- re-engagement into education in a community setting
The Hub offers support to young people not attending school or receiving necessary supports, including:
- mental health
- education
- housing
- education
- community involvement.
Evidence of impact on each care experienced child or young person was measured and tracked using quantitative and qualitative data.
Outcomes which were focused on included:
- wellbeing
- attainment
- engagement
- attendance
- reduced exclusions
- positive destinations.
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- Data will be readily understood to be more than numbers alone and will also include qualitative measures. The workforce will have the capacity and skills to use this high quality, holistic data in decision making and service design, and not just in reporting and
- Have a clear understanding of the rights of children and how to champion and uphold them with access to resources to do so.
- Support staff to be aware of the issues facing care experienced learners so they can best engage and encourage.
Key Insight
The Speak Up Hub highlights the need to have recording mechanisms that tell the story of the individual behind the data. Everything recorded or shared is done so only with the young person’s involvement and consent.
Hub for Success
The Hub for Success has created in person and online opportunities for any professional supporting care experienced people to come together and to learn from each other.
Their student ambassador programme has grown into a collaborative environment where everyone has the opportunity to contribute meaningfully.
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- Meaningful participation and engagement will be routine. Learning will be central to all activity related to planning, delivery and evaluation of systems and services that impact on the lives of children, young people and families in and on the edges of the ‘care system’ and care experienced adults.
Key Insight
Co-design principles are the foundation of The Hub for Success. They’re used at every stage of a design process, from initial ideation to final implementation.
City of Edinburgh Council
This project sought to identify whether care-experienced young people in Edinburgh were disproportionately represented in the justice system.
This would help them to:
- understand contributing factors to any disproportion
- propose preventative measures
Data was collected on 8-18-year-olds for the fiscal years between 2018-19 and 2023-24. It included young people across all placement types, including:
- residential homes
- kinship care
- family or carers.
It found that care experienced young people are 4.16 times more likely, on average, to accrue police charges than their non care experienced peers.
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- Care experienced children and young people will not be criminalised, with a progressive, rights-based youth justice approach, building on the Kilbrandon principles (needs, not deeds), a reality for all.
- The workforce will be supported to interact with and treat children and young people in a relational way, rather than interaction being driven by process and procedure.
- Criminal cases involving children and young people will be handled in environments that uphold their rights and support meaningful participation in proceedings, not in unsuitable, traditional criminal courts.
- Children and young people will receive appropriate, proportionate, age-sensitive, and trauma-informed support.
Renfrewshire Council
Johnstone High School
This project aimed to reduce the exclusion of children and young people with care experience through ensuring they have a key person who is their advocate.
This advocate’s aim was to support their attendance and participation in education.
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- Care experienced pupils will not be excluded from education or have their timetables reduced to such an extent they are denied their right to education.
St Andrews, Paisley
Transitions are a natural part of school life, but some care experienced young people can find them particularly difficult.
Through creating a promise team in their largest secondary, Paisley is exploring how to overcome the issues that “last minute” transitions can cause.
It’s looking at what works well from the current transition programme, and how this can be amplified to provide intensive support for any child.
and look creatively at how this can be amplified to provide intensive support for any child (in particular Care Experienced Child) who are allocated a space at secondary towards the end of their P7 year.
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- Support staff to be aware of the issues facing care experienced learners so they can best engage and encourage them.
Key Insight
Advocates bring benefits— but care experienced learners have to be genuinely involved.
And schools must be adaptable, flexible and non-judgemental.
CYCJ
This project centred the voices of children and young people to identify barriers in youth justice and supportive systems. In doing so, it enabled the co-creation of solutions which reflect their lived experiences.
Creating systemic change takes time, collaboration, and commitment across agencies. Embedding and creating space for meaningful change is a complex, ongoing effort.
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- The voices of Scotland’s infants, children, young people and those who are important to them will be actively listened to and will influence every aspect of delivering, inspecting, and continually improving services and care.
- By 2030, the interactions children and young people have with any part of the justice system will champion and uphold their rights, wellbeing and participation. It will recognise the impact of trauma, abuse and neglect on children and families.
Key Insight
Creating systemic change takes time, collaboration, and commitment across agencies.
Embedding and creating space for meaningful change is a complex, ongoing effort.
Angus
Angus has a well-established CARM (Care and Risk Management) process in place for children whose behaviours may present a risk to others.
Restrictive actions can increase risk to a young person, as well as infringing their rights. They can also mean that children and young people are placed away from home.
As such, support is required for the workforce to increase skill and competency in relation to managing high levels of risk. This should help them balance rights and needs in a trauma-informed and proportionate way.
This programme aimed to upskill the workforce by providing them with support in this way. Designing it involved the use of a Quality Improvement Framework.
Creating conditions and understanding systems when working within a multi-agency context is paramount and takes a significant amount of time.
This impacts on the timescale of projects however is a vital part to the success of any change idea.
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- There will be access, at a level appropriate to roles, initial and lifelong learning that is grounded in attachment theory, trauma responsive care, physical and emotional wellbeing and a clear understanding and application of children’s rights.
Key Insight
Creating conditions and understanding systems when working within a multi-agency context is paramount, and it takes a significant amount of time.
This impacts on the timescale of projects. However, it is a vital component of success.
SPRAG
Plan 24-30 says that by 2030, Scotland will be a nation that does not restrain its children unless the only option is to ensure their safety.
With this in mind, SPRAG (Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group) have set up The Reflection and Action Learning Forum (RALF).
It aims to provide a practical and evidence-based approach to supports members of the residential childcare workforce.
Through doing this, it aims to allow this workforce to develop the habits and skills which are needed to develop genuinely reflective practice.
The RALF model was co-designed with SPRAG members, as part of the group’s overarching commitment to help bring about a change in culture around restraint and restrictive practice across Scotland’s residential childcare sector.
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- Scotland will respect, uphold, champion and defend the rights of children and recognise their rights are most often realised through relationships with loving, attentive caregivers.
- Scotland will be a nation that does not restrain its children unless the only option is to ensure their safety.
Circle
Circle Group set up a short-term test of change to offer a reflective practice space for residential care staff in a local authority. Its aim was to:
- help staff identify strengths and areas for improvement
- explore ways in which they can address challenges
The sessions provided a regular opportunity for a small group of staff to come together to support critical reflective conversations, and to facilitate continuous learning.
Key Points from Plan 24-30
- The voices of Scotland’s infants, children, young people and those who are important to them will be actively listened to and will influence every aspect of delivering, inspecting, and continually improving services and care.
- Participation and engagement activities will be inclusive of children and young people who have faced significant trauma in their life.