The Independent Care Review was commissioned in 2016 to find out what Scotland needs to do to meet the needs of its care experienced people and make sure they grow up loved, safe and respected.
The Care Review listened to more than 5,500 experiences of care across Scotland. Over half of these were children, young people and adults who had lived in care, and the rest were families and the workforce.
On 5 February 2020, the Review published seven reports including the main volume ‘The Promise’ setting out what needs to change and how. The same day, the Scottish Government accepted all the recommendations of the Review and made a pledge to #KeepThePromise by 2030.
The Promise Scotland was established to support work towards keeping the promise. In March 2021, they published Plan 21-24 outlining what needs to change first. In June 2024, they published Plan 24-30.
The Fostering Network is committed to keeping The Promise.
This includes:
- amending our use of language and establishing a language and re-framing group
- continuing to place the voices of children and young people at the heart of our work by establishing a young people’s advisory board for children and young people in foster care, and birth children of foster carers, in Scotland
- continuing to deliver projects which align with the current work strands in Plan 24-30 including:
- taking a proactively child centred approach to our work, for example, rewriting our allegations, concerns and complaints signpost
Our engagement with The Promise:
We received Promise funding for a Promise Implementation Manager from August 2021 to June 2023, including from 'A Good Childhood Fund' to establish our young people’s advisory board.
We supported The Promise Scotland to consult with foster carers on the Children's Hearing System re-design.
Our engagement with the care review:
November 2020: Key areas of focus for The Promise
January 2018: Submission to the care review
The Promise Bill
The Scottish Government planned to introduce a Bill in 2025 to make the legislative changes needed to keep the Promise. The content of the Bill was informed by the recommendations of the independent care review and consultations held in 2024 and 2025.
Ahead of the Bill's introduction, in April 2025, we wrote to the Children's Minister setting out our key priorities for The Promise Bill.
The Scottish Government introduced the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) Bill in June 2025. We were pleased by provisions to introduce a register of foster carers and create a right to advocacy for care-experienced people, but disappointed that numerous other key changes are missing from the Bill. Read our initial response to the Bill here.
We submitted a response to the call for views on the Bill in August.