The Promise Scotland: Supporting Change
Since being established in 2021, The Promise Scotland has supported organisations to keep the promise at a local and national level.
Several of the conclusions of the Independent Care Review require changes in how people and organisations work together. The Promise Scotland exists to make sure that this happens.
How has The Promise Scotland been working to help keep the promise?
The Promise Scotland has enabled collaboration
The Promise Scotland helps people and organisations to work together, so they can:
Share learning
The Promise Scotland holds events which allow the workforce to share their learning around keeping the promise.
Through sharing what’s worked and what hasn’t, they’re able to work more effectively.
Develop collective understanding
The Promise Scotland helps the workforce to work together, so they can better understand a problem that they face.
Through its Design School and Design Tools, they help people and organisations find effective solutions to resolving the barriers they face to keeping the promise.
Set a collective direction
Sometimes, organisations need to work together to understand what actions they need to take to keep the promise. In some cases, The Promise Scotland has worked to align them.
Take collective action
Sometimes, organisations have needed to work together to allow key actions to happen around the promise. The Promise Scotland has been able to facilitate this.
The Promise Scotland has influenced laws and policies
The Promise Scotland influences the Scottish Government and Parliament to make the changes to law and policy that need to happen so that the promise can be kept.
The Promise Scotland provides support around monitoring and progress
The Promise Scotland provides support to:
The Oversight Board
The Oversight Board exists to check up on whether the promise is being kept by highlighting what is and isn’t happening around keeping it.
Independent Strategic Advisor
The Independent Strategic Advisor advises Scottish Ministers around how the promise is progressing. They’re responsible for updating Plan 24-30— Scotland’s plan for change.
What’s been done
Below is a summary of some of what The Promise Scotland’s done through the last four years.
Sharing learning
In November 2024, The Promise Scotland launched a revised support offer for the workforce.
This offer centres on collaboration through learning events, including:
- in-person Promise Learning Collaboratives
- Online Sessions.
Their learning from the first in-person session will be available on this website very soon.
The Promise Scotland delivered several learning events in the last year, including:
- 9 learning labs
- 8 masterclasses
- 2 spotlight sessions
- 1 showcase event
- 6 learning partnerships.
464 learners registered for learning offers.
The Promise Partnership Fund has been delivered by Corra Foundation to support organisational work around the transformational change which is needed to keep the promise.
The Promise Scotland shares learning which comes out of work like this. Recently, it held a showcase event of what’s been learned from organisations across Scotland.
In February 2024, over 500 attendees from across Scotland gathered in Edinburgh for the Stories of Change Conference.
As part of this conference, several organisations across Scotland developed posters showing what they’d learned around keeping the promise, and The Promise Scotland has highlighted these on our website.
Developing collective understanding
The Promise Design School helps the workforce develop services which are designed around the needs of those that interact with them.
In 2024, it supported 24 projects across 20 different organisations.
The Promise Design Tools are a range of new downloadable resources which have been developed to increase the reach of the Design School.
They’re intended to support practitioners by providing them with practical, easy to use resources in their local contexts.
Launched in December 2024, The Promise Progress Framework gives the first high-level understanding of progress towards keeping the promise.
It’s been created by The Promise Scotland, The Scottish Government and COSLA, and brings together nearly 50 different streams of national data into one place. It’s the first time that this national level data relating to children and young people with care experience.
The Framework is the first part of the Promise Story of Progress, which has been designed to enable Scotland to understand if the promise is on track to be kept.
Access The Promise Progress Framework on the Plan 24-30 website.
The Promise Scotland has been working with partners to support, grow and better connect the Community of Practice for Siblings, which has grown into a network of over 100 practitioners. It’s also been working to establish clearer governance arrangements around this community of practice.
The Community of Practice is supported by a Planning Group which includes key individuals across several organisations and networks, including:
Set a collective direction
The Promise Scotland – working with the Data for Children Collaborative and other partners – has launched an innovative collaborative project designed to overcome barriers to sharing information and data.
The Promise Scotland worked with advocacy providers on recommendations and proposals around how a national, lifelong advocacy service could be scoped and delivered in Scotland.
This has been shared with Scottish Government, and the work will also contribute to the development of The Promise Bill.
In Clackmannanshire, The Promise Scotland co-facilitated the Language of Care Conference.
This brought together representatives from children services and young people to review work which had already been done to keep the promise.
The Promise Scotland has explored the benefits of developing a Charter for care experienced parents in work alongside:
The Promise Scotland has facilitated the Northern Promise Collaborative, which supported links between local authority areas to:
- share innovative approaches
- support work to engage schools across the region in the new Keeping The Promise Award Programme
- The Collaborative has developed into a strong network for leaders of work to keep the promise across the North and East of Scotland.
The Promise Scotland’s Head of Support co-chairs the Children’s Services Planning Partnerships Strategic Leads Network .
This makes sure the promise is at the heart of the work of these crucial partnerships, which are responsible for planning children’s and families services across Scotland.
Taking collective action
The Promise Scotland facilitated the Hearings System Working Group, which produced Hearings for Children: The Hearings for Children Redesign Report in May 2023.
This Report sets out 97 recommendations that will deliver transformational change in the Children's Hearings System, in line with the conclusions of the Independent Care Review.
In December 2023, the Scottish Government accepted the majority of the recommendations in full. Now, it’s considering how to implement them. The Promise Scotland has been working with the government on shaping the next steps. In October 2024, it responded to a significant Scottish Government consultation on Hearings System redesign.
The Promise Scotland partnered with Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum (Staf) to develop and deliver the Moving On Change Programme.
This programme will result in a shared set of standards and principles, which will guide practice and delivery within the “care system.”
The 100 Days of Listening project formed a part of this programme, engaging with over 360 moving on experts. Through doing this, it developed a deep understanding of the challenges those with care experience can face as they transition into adulthood.
Influencing policy and law
For the promise to be kept, some changes will need to be made to Scots law. The Promise Scotland works to make sure that these take place.
This includes its work around the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act, which – among other changes – has ended the detention of under 18s in Young Offenders Institutions.
It also includes its work around recent Scottish Government consultations, and around the upcoming Promise Bill.
The Promise Scotland is involved in helping Scotland move to a way of working where families get holistic, whole family support, through being a part of:
Work around the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund has involved advising the Scottish Government on its development, as well as on the impact its likely to have. This includes advice around the revised investment approach, which explores new funding streams to support local transformation.
Scotland’s latest Programme for Government, published in September 2024, places a renewed – and welcome – emphasis on whole family support, as well as the need to streamline budgets and reporting at the local level. This is something The Promise Scotland has been advocating for.
Supporting monitoring and progress
The Promise Scotland provides secretariat and communications support to the Oversight Board for the promise, to allow them to report on whether or not Scotland is on track to keep the promise.
The Promise Scotland provides support to the Independent Strategic Advisor in her work to update and populate Plan 24-30— Scotland's plan for change.
2020-2025: Signs of National Change
Several changes have happened on a national level since Scotland made the promise in 2020.
2020-2025: Signs of Local Change
Throughout the last five years, Scotland’s local authorities have been working to drive local change.
2025 and beyond: Moving faster
In the five years since the promise was made, Scotland has seen real and positive change.