Plans to improve Scotland’s care system have been slow to come together after not enough early delivery planning by the Scottish Government and COSLA.
The Promise, a national commitment to improving the lives of care experienced people by 2030, was made by the Scottish Government in 2020.
Organisations and individuals remain dedicated to achieving that goal. But five years on, there is still confusion about what different bodies should be doing to deliver the changes needed.
Plans to date have lacked detail and direction for individual sectors. New structures set up by the Scottish Government to help deliver The Promise have lacked clarity about their roles and responsibilities.
And Scottish Government efforts to streamline The Promise’s complex governance arrangements have been insufficient. This has contributed to slow progress and made collective accountability challenging.
From the outset, there was no assessment of what resources and skills were needed to deliver The Promise by 2030, or how success would be defined or measured.
A framework to measure progress was agreed in December 2024 but further work remains. The Scottish Government is working on national data, which is not currently good enough to assess if services are improving the lives of care experienced people.
Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland, said: “Public bodies remain committed to improving Scotland’s care system and the lives of people who go through it. But initial planning about how The Promise would be delivered didn’t provide a strong platform for success.
“The Scottish Government needs to work with its partners to clearly set out the action that will be taken over the next five years to deliver The Promise, and how that work will be resourced.”
Angela Leitch, a member of the Accounts Commission, said: “Despite public bodies working hard to support local and national change to the services underpinning Scotland’s care system, greater pace and momentum is now needed.
“Local bodies need to work with their national partners to clarify roles and responsibilities, and prioritise the work needed to achieve The Promise’s aims.”
Commenting on the latest report on the Promise by the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission, Mary Glasgow, chief executive of Children First, said: “This report makes it clear that time is running out to keep the Promise.
“Investing in prevention and whole family support is the best way to stop children going into care in the first place. No child should be taken into care because support isn’t available.
“Real efforts have been made across Scotland over the last five years but as today’s report recognises, lack of clarity and accountability and failure to value and invest in the crucial role of the third sector are standing in the way.
“Children can’t wait. At Children First our commitment to keeping the Promise is as strong as ever. But unless the recommendations of the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission are acted on immediately the Promise won’t be kept.”
Proposed changes to the services and support provided to people who are in, or have experience of, the children’s care system are set to be scrutinised in Holyrood.
MSPs from the Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee have launched a call for views on the Scottish Government’s Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill.
The Bill forms part of the Scottish Government’s response to the recommendations made in the Independent Care Review known as “The Promise”.
Proposed changes include an expansion in the right to apply for aftercare, wider access to advocacy services for care-experienced people and the creation of a national register of foster carers.
The Bill also proposes changes designed to avoid people or organisations making excessive profits from the care of children. It would set limits on the profits that can be made from children’s residential care and require fostering services to register as charities.
Changes to the Children’s Hearing System, which the Scottish Government describes as offering legal protections to children who are in need or at risk, are also proposed in the Bill. In a move designed to strengthen accountability, the Bill also sets out that, in future, all Integration Joint Boards will have responsibility for children’s services planning, alongside local authorities and health boards.
The Committee now wants to hear from care-experienced people, parents, carers, foster carers, kinship carers and adoptive parents, and others, to share their views on the proposals.
The call for views is open now and will close to responses on 15 August 2025. The Committee plans to hold evidence sessions with stakeholders in autumn.
Douglas Ross MSP, Convener of the Education, Children and Young People Committee, said: “In 2020 the Independent Care Review set out a series of promises to Scotland’s care experienced children and young people.
“We have kept a constant eye on progress towards meeting those promises and it is clear, from hearing from care experienced young people and those supporting them, that there are many challenges still to overcome.
“The Committee will look closely at this Bill, listen to the views of everyone affected by it, and assess whether it will bring about the changes needed to ensure that all care experienced children and young people can enjoy the childhood they deserve.
“If you are care experienced, or work to support care experienced children and young people, please share your views on the proposals in this Bill.”
Funding of over £4 million to establish new secure care houses has been announced by the Scottish Government.
The funding will allow for restored capacity and enable a different approach to be developed to ensure children with the greatest need are able to access intensive support. Additionally, this investment will support the creation of three four-bed secure houses, as well as a further four-bed contingency resource.
There are currently 82 contracted secure places provided by four independent charitable organisations in Scotland – Rossie, Good Shepherd Centre, Kibble and St. Mary’s Kenmure.
Children’s Minister Natalie Don-Innes said: “It is imperative that we continuously improve how we care for those children who have the greatest need of support.
“We also need to address the challenges currently facing the secure care system, and this funding will ensure that both these aims can be met.
“Scotland is rightly proud of our unique, welfare based and focused approach to care and justice for children and young people. We want to build on that tradition and the current strengths of the system, while embracing a future vision for change as set out in the ‘Reimagining Secure Care’ report. And with that change, it is important that we maintain a resolute focus in ensuring that children and young people’s needs and rights remain at the heart of this process.”
This follows the publication of the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice’s (CYCJ) report on ‘Reimagining Secure Care’ which outlines a transformative vision for the future of secure care, and broader children’s care, in Scotland. The Scottish Government has responded to this report.
It is well acknowledged that too many care-experienced children and young people are not receiving the vital care and support they need to thrive in education, a point further reinforced in a recent report from the charity Who Cares? Scotland for the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland.
This highlighted the need for a whole-school approach to supporting care-experienced children, as well as a requirement for a statutory right to independent, relationship-based lifelong advocacy for all care-experienced people who need it. This aims to ensure that these individuals are aware of their rights and can make informed decisions about their lives.
The latter is eminently achievable, as the Scottish Government’s recent Programme for Government outlined that a Children and Young People (Care) Bill will be forthcoming.
This legislation aims to further support The Promise, produced by the Independent Care Review in 2020, and which is Scotland’s pledge to care-experienced children and young people that they will grow up loved, safe, and respected.
With the Promise Bill now part of the government’s legislative programme, it is time for this fundamental right, as committed to in The Promise itself five years ago, to be enshrined in law.
Too many individuals are currently missing out on the advice and support they desperately need, often when they need it most.
Scotland has an opportunity to lead the way, and the Bill provides the opportunity to deliver action on advocacy.
Outlined in the Scottish Government’s recent Programme for Government is the Children and Young People (Care) Bill.
This legislation aims to further support The Promise, produced by the Independent Care Review in 2020, and which is Scotland’s pledge to care-experienced children and young people that they will grow up loved, safe, and respected.
As a coalition, along with others, we have been advocating for care-experienced individuals, who often face complex situations alone, to have the right to lifelong, independent advocacy. This will ensure that care-experienced individuals are aware of their rights and can make informed decisions about their lives.
With the Promise Bill now part of the legislative landscape, it is time for this fundamental right, as committed to in The Promise itself five years ago, to be enshrined in law. Too many individuals are currently missing out on the advice and support they desperately need, often when they need it most.
Scotland has an opportunity to lead the way, and the Bill provides the opportunity to deliver action on advocacy.
Scotland can speed up progress to keep its promise to care-experienced children by addressing the unequal provision of “family group decision making” according to authors of a new report from Children First, Scotland’s national children’s charity.
Family Group Decision Making in Scotland found that while a majority of professionals who offer these services (60%) identified improving outcomes for children, including keeping children out of care, as a key strength, a third of local authorities have no family group decision making provision. Where services are in place provision is patchy, with an average of only two family group decision making coordinator posts per local authority.
Children First’s research included an online survey of children’s services professionals across Scotland, a review of how family group decision making fits with Scottish law and policy and learning from other countries about the impact of the approach. The research identifies a strong commitment from a range of professionals to family group decision making but says the impact for children is limited by an unclear legislative and policy framework and a lack of sustainable funding.
Earlier this year, the Promise Oversight Board warned that the Scottish Government’s ambition to make sure care-experienced children and young people grow up loved, safe and respected by 2030 is at risk of being missed.
At the time, the Oversight Board called for family group decision making to be consistently available across the country, saying: “there is a need to ensure it is available to everyone who would benefit from it wherever they live in Scotland, and that it is sustainably funded.”
Linda Jardine, Director of Children and Families at Children First, said: “If, for any reason, you were unable to care for your own children, you would want them to have the opportunity to be cared for safely by loving members of your wider family or a close friend. Yet too many children in Scotland are still going into care without that chance being fully explored through family group decision making.
“Our research shows there is a clear place for family group decision making within Scotland’s care and protection system and a strong commitment from a range of professionals to helping children and families benefit from it. But weaknesses in legislation, policy and funding arrangements create barriers which stop children that need family group decision making from accessing it. With the clock ticking closer to 2030 it’s time to seize this untapped opportunity to make faster progress towards keeping the Promise.
“The forthcoming Promise Bill is a key vehicle for the Scottish Government to clarify the place of family group decision making in legislation by ensuring it is consistently offered before compulsory interventions, such as children’s hearings.”
BARNARDO’S OUTLINES NEW APPROACH TO FOSTERING TO GOVERNMENT MINISTER
Foster carers representing the country’s leading children’s charity today met with the Scottish Government’s Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, Natalie Don-Innes MSP, to outline a pioneering new “extended family” model approach to foster care.
To tackle the ongoing crisis in fostering, Barnardo’s Scotland first unveiled the ‘Mockingbird model’ in 2021 in collaboration with The Fostering Network which is inspired by the support and relationships of an extended family. Today, the Minister met with several foster carers who undertake care for children using this exciting model.
Speaking about the Mockingbird model, Natalie Don-Innes MSP said: “All children should have the support, love and stability they need throughout their childhood, to enable them to have the opportunity to thrive.
“Foster carers have a vital role in this, by providing secure, stable and nurturing homes for children in their care. Foster care is key to delivering The Promise by 2030 and to supporting our collective efforts to tackle Child Poverty and I would like to thank foster carers for all that they do.
“I am grateful for the work Barnardo’s and the Fostering Network have put in to developing the innovative Mockingbird approach, which will enhance the support network available to children, and provide increased resilience for carers.”
Anne Whyte, Assistant Head of Fostering and Adoption at Barnardo’s Scotland, said: “The Mockingbird model helps children, young people and foster families build a strong, caring community. This involves creating a ‘hub home’ with an experienced carer acting as a ‘grandparent’, surrounded by nearby homes that form a ‘constellation’.
“The aim is for the caring community to mirror an extended family, so that children can develop relationships not only with their own carers, but also with other children and carers. Everyday childhood experiences are encouraged, such as sleepovers and playdates.
“The service builds a community around a child, helping to provide stability, and if a foster care arrangement is put under strain, a child can go and stay with the hub home or move into another home within the constellation.
“The young people have the opportunity to go on sleepovers, on a regular basis, to build relationships with other families and children – and this is not just when their main home is under strain.
“There is no doubt that the Mockingbird model is proving to be a huge success in Scotland. We are keen to expand this offering, but, to do that, we need more people to come forward to become foster carers.”
Barnardo’s Scotland has eight families in its 2021 constellation. There are eight foster children and one young person in continuing care. The carers can be couples or single carers and some are short break carers.
The charity’s latest constellation currently has six families with seven foster children and one young person in continuing care. Working with The Fostering Network, Barnardo’s first introduced the Mockingbird model to its service in Edinburgh.
Janet Davidson, a foster carer from Fife, said: “The Edinburgh Mockingbird is more than an extended family to me; it has developed into a group of understanding friends, who themselves are also living with the challenges that fostering presents to its carers and young people.
“The support and knowledge within our group is well beyond what I expected and there is always someone 24/7 available and willing to listen to me, or to give me advice.”
Jackie*, also from Fife, has been a foster carer for more than 25 years, and became a carer for Barnardo’s in Edinburgh in 2021. She is keen to highlight the many positives of the Mockingbird model: “The Mockingbird is an extended family that provides lots of different support, planned and emergency sleepovers and short breaks. It gives our young people peer support, social activities to meet, build friendships and just have fun.
“We are in it together, so we never feel alone. This is because it is modelled on a family setting so other carers become almost like aunties and uncles and the other young people are like cousins once the relationships have been built.
“The aim is to improve the stability of fostering homes and to strengthen relationships between carers, children, young people and siblings who could be nearby with other carers, and extend it to when the young person moves away from their present carer to a home of their own or into an adopted home. This provides them a strong family connection that a lot of fostered children do not have.”
A crisis in fostering in Scotland was identified last year when Barnardo’s pointed to research by The Fostering Network that revealed the number of foster families required stands at 500.
Speaking at the time, Martin Crewe, Director of Barnardo’s Scotland, said: “Fostering in Scotland is in crisis as the numbers of people registered to foster continues to fall year on year.
“A shortage of foster carers leaves hundreds of children without a safe and loving home, and that is something we are keen to address. But we strongly believe that any loving person can make a wonderful foster parent to a child who needs us the most.”
Barnardo’s Scotland is committed to keeping The Promise to care-experienced young people and to ensure every child in Scotland grows up safe, loved and respected. That is why the charity is calling on people to consider joining Barnardo’s Scotland as a foster carer. Barnardo’s has more than 80 years of experience of successfully matching children and young people with families, and there are many benefits to being a carer.
For more information on becoming a foster carer with Barnardo’s in Scotland, please visit www.barnardos.org.uk/foster, or call 0800 0277 280. The charity’s friendly and supportive staff are available from Monday to Friday, between 9am and 5pm.
In the past year, Barnardo’s provided essential support to more than 11,500 children, young people, parents and carers in Scotland through more than 150 specialised community-based services and partnerships across the country. The charity works to ensure that every child has the best possible start in life.
A scheme that provides dedicated advocacy services for children and young people who are attending Children’s Hearings has been praised by those who use it, according to a new independent report.
The report, Children’s Hearings Advocacy Scheme Scotland-wide provision evaluation, features testimony from children and young people in the Hearings system.
The national Children’s Hearings Advocacy Scheme was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide support for children and young people attending Children’s Hearings.
The demand led scheme is backed by £2 million from the Scottish Government annually and taken forward by a network of ten organisations that provide advocacy services before, during and after a hearing.
The report highlights the benefits of the service, ensuring children and young people feel:
the Advocacy Worker is on their side and there to support them and make sure they understand the Hearings process
more prepared, less worried, safer, confident and more in control ahead of speaking at the Hearing
supported by having someone else say the things they find difficult to say or to speak for them when they find it hard to attend the Hearing
they can access wide support – including at school, health services, social activities and legal support through the advocacy scheme
Access to advocacy is a key element of work to keep The Promise and this scheme, alongside ongoing efforts to reform the Hearings System, plays an important role in ensuring children and young people have their voice heard.
It also aligns with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Act, ensuring children who take up the offer of independent advocacy are able to express their views, feelings and wishes in matters affecting them.
Speaking on the fourth anniversary of the launch of the service, Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise Natalie Don-Innes said: “The Children’s Hearings System is unique to Scotland and I’d like to pay tribute to the outstanding service and dedication of all those who have worked and volunteered within the system over the past 50 years.
“The Scottish Government has committed to The Promise, ensuring children and young people’s voices are at the heart of this system and the decisions made about their care. Central to this is the support provided by advocacy services and I’m pleased that over 5,000 children and young people across the country have felt supported while attending a Hearing.
“However, we know there is still much more to do to improve the experiences of children and young people who go through the Children’s Hearings System and our commitment to Keeping The Promise is as strong today as it was in 2020.
“The Scottish Government is continuing its work to change the system and will ensure children and young people are at the heart of its redesign.”
The recent Scottish Government report highlighting the work done to date on improving the lives of care-experienced children and young people is to be welcomed. There is however much to be done.
‘The Promise’ is a commitment that by 2030 all care-experienced children in Scotland will grow up loved, safe and respected, with the ability to reach their full potential.
Those in this category represent some of the most vulnerable members of our society, experiencing considerably fewer life chances than their peers, with poorer health and educational outcomes.
Recent data reinforce this, noting that the figures for exclusion of pupils who have been looked after in the past year are still between five and six times as high as the levels found across the total pupil population. This is despite a commitment that all formal and informal exclusions of care-experienced pupils would end. Scotland is still very far away from achieving that.
As a society, if we want to build a care system which has love and respect at its very heart, we must provide the resources necessary to ensure that that this group of individuals get the vital care and support they so desperately need.
Only through this can we ensure that ‘The Promise’ is kept.
All under 18s who were previously detained in YOI Polmont have now been moved into secure care settings.New regulations came into force on 28 August and as of that date, there will be no new admissions of children under 18 to Young Offender Institutions.
Funding of up to £7 million is being made available by the Scottish Government to cover the costs of placements this financial year. This is in addition to £500,000 funding which has been offered to secure accommodation providers to support their preparations for the movement of the children, ensuring their wellbeing and safety is the top priority.
As part of wider work to embed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and to Keep the Promise, the 2024 Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act’s provisions aim to improve children’s experiences of the care and justice systems, whether victims, witnesses or children who have caused harm.
Minister for The Promise Natalie Don-Innes said: “We have been moving at pace since the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill received Royal Assent in June to implement this reform and ensure no under 18s will be detained in a Young Offenders Institution from now on, moving to suitable settings such as secure care.
“This move will ensure children in conflict with the law are placed in safe suitable accommodation which will ensure their wellbeing and rehabilitation is at the heart of their care, while also keeping communities safe.
“I value and appreciate the work the providers will undertake to make the young people feel settled. Implementing this reform has been an enormous collaborative effort.
“I am very grateful to the secure accommodation providers, the Scottish Prison Service, Social Work Scotland, Crown Office, Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service and the Care Inspectorate.
“The success of their combined effort demonstrates our commitment to ‘Keep the Promise’, further protect children’s rights and keep communities safe.”
