Leave this website quickly.

Several changes have happened on a national level since Scotland made the promise in 2020.

Some of these changes are highlighted below, and you can find several more on the Plan 24-30 website.

An image of Scotland.

What are some major signs of progress nationally?

Scotland has introduced payments which include:

  • The Care Experienced Student Bursary, which increased to £9000 in the 2023/24 financial year, and the additional loan for care experienced students of £2400.
  • The Scottish Recommended Allowance for foster and kinship carers, introduced in August 2023. This new national allowance has benefited over 9000 children, ensuring a consistent minimum payment across Scotland regardless of where children are living.

  • In 2024, the first tranche of the Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund (CECYP) funding for the 2023/24 academic term was paid to Local Authorities. This totalled £7 million, and enabled additional support to be provided for care experienced children and young people.

There are also plans to introduce the care leaver payment of £2000.

Scotland has passed new laws which move it towards keeping the promise, including:

  • the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act, which – among other changes – has ended the detention of under 18s in Young Offenders Institutions.
  • the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act, which incorporates the UNCRC into Scots law.

Scotland has introduced a Whole Family Wellbeing Fund to support local service transformation.

It’s been established with the purpose of driving the change which is required at the local level, principally through existing Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs).

So far, £96 million has been spent on:

  • building local service capacity for change
  • transforming family support services.

There is a commitment to spend £500m on the Fund.

Progress around Virtual Headteachers

The work of Virtual Headteachers has helped create environments where care experienced children can feel more settled, motivated, and nurtured. By doing so, they help create a better experience at school.

This work has led to significant reductions in exclusions of care experienced children and young people within some local authorities. In some cases, exclusions of this kind have dropped to zero.

The Keeping the Promise Award programme

Education Scotland has worked collaboratively with the West Partnership Promise Team to develop The Keeping the Promise Award programme.

The award aims to:

  • raise awareness and understanding of the promise
  • support consistency of language, messaging, and practice
  • reduce stigma
  • strengthen approaches to inclusion.

Two regions and at least six Local Authorities have become early adopters. They’re already training trainers or delivering the programme in their schools.

The Information Commissioner’s Office is currently undertaking work to ensure organisations are upholding care experienced people’s information rights. Once published, this should provide those working in the UK with clarity on how they can improve their processes when handling requests for care records.

The SSSC published revised codes of practice in May 2024 to ensure consistency with the skills and practice requirements of the promise, focused on relationships, staff wellbeing and trauma-informed practice.

Each and Every Child have been approached by over 130 organisations across Scotland to deliver bespoke training around framing care experience, including:

  • local authorities
  • Scottish Government
  • corporate parents
  • third sector organisations.

In 2021, the National Hub for Child Death Reviews (CDR) was created to make sure a review took place after every death of a child in Scotland.

The Hub’s focus is to use evidence to inform practice, so that fewer children and young people die.

Who Cares? Scotland's National Advocacy Helpline provides support to care-experienced people of all ages. Since its launch in July 2020, it has taken over 3,500 calls.

A number of local authorities and organisations are offering opportunities for care experienced people such as:

  • guaranteed interviews
  • ringfenced posts
  • ringfenced apprenticeships.

A refresh of the Care Inspectorate’s quality framework and guidance for regulated children and young people's services was published in November 2022, to ensure that services are rights-based and aligned with the promise.