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Video: What is the promise?

the promise exists
so that
children and young people
in Scotland can
grow up
loved, safe, and respected.


More about the promise

It's Scotland's promise

Scotland has known for a long time that its "care system" isn't working.

It's not done as much as it could to make sure care experienced children grow up loved, safe and respected, and that’s made things harder for those children.

Sometimes, things have remained hard as they've moved into adult life.

And because Scotland’s “care system” isn’t working, it comes at a real cost:

  • It comes at a human cost, because of the impact it has on the people in and around it.
  • It comes at a financial cost, because the money isn’t spent in a way that really supports people.

So in 2020, Scotland made the promise.

A pink map of Scotland.

Based on what care experienced people know needs changing

A lot of work went into understanding what needs to change in Scotland.

For over three years, the Independent Care Review listened to care experienced children, young people and families. It heard about how many of them did not feel loved. Were not kept safe. Were not respected.

Listening to their experiences of the "care system" helped make it clear what needed to change.

And it helped identify where gaps in Scotland’s knowledge existed.

Their input allowed the Independent Care Review to produce:

  • a series of detailed reports which outlined a vision for how Scotland should care, and
  • an evidence framework which set out in detail the research backing the promise, and which addressed the gaps care experienced people identified.

The promise is based on the experiences of real people, because it aims to create a new way of care that puts those experiences at the centre.

And it's also based on a large amount of data, research and evidence, so that this new system can work.

And that promise is achievable by 2030

Keeping the promise is a massive task, but it is an achievable one— and The Promise Scotland helps make sure it can happen.

It connects and supports people and organisations as they work to #KeepThePromise.

The Promise Scotland: Supporting Scotland's promise

The Promise Scotland supports Scotland’s promise to care experienced people.

It does this through:

  • leading projects to drive change across Scotland, and
  • supporting other organisations to make the changes they need to #KeepThePromise.

Find out about
The Promise Scotland.

logo of The Promise Scotland.