TO BE PUBLISHED March 2025
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This conference will focus on children in care in Scotland and progress in delivering The Promise, looking at the practicality of achieving its 2030 targets.
Stakeholders and policymakers will discuss priorities for improving Scotland’s care provision moving forward, and for implementing effective measures to improve outcomes for children in care, care leavers, and care-experienced adults.
We are pleased to be able to include a keynote session with Fraser McKinlay, Chief Executive, The Promise.
Delegates will discuss opportunities for multi-agency coordination to ensure than plans continue to progress and how this can best be measured and tracked. It comes with the recent publication of Plan 24-30 which sets out roles and responsibilities, changes that might be needed to meet key targets, and deadlines. We also expect discussion on implications of measures recently coming into force through the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act, including the impact of aims to improve support for young people in care and their families.
With the recent announcement in the Budget of an immediate £1.5bn and subsequent £3.4bn for The Scottish Government through Barnett formula in 2025/26 to support investment in areas including health and social care, housing, and education, it will be an opportunity to discuss priorities for utilising funding to support policy delivery for children in care.
Sessions will also examine milestones already reached from Plan 21-2, looking at outcomes in the context of recent reports from Who Cares? Scotland and COSLA highlighting concerns over implementation. Areas for discussion include findings on the need to provide comprehensive support systems for those in care, alongside long-term stable housing solutions for care leavers, increased training and support for the care workforce to increase capacity, and improved coordination and collaboration between agencies and services to provide holistic support for care-experienced children.
Discussion is also expected on the forthcoming third report from the Oversight Board for The Promise, which will look in further detail at the pace and progress of strategy implementation. The Board’s Chair, David Anderson, is also a keynote speaker at this conference, as is a senior representative confirmed from the Care Inspectorate.
Further sessions look at how to improve outcomes for care leavers, looking at how to improve education attainment levels, address mental health concerns and stigmatism, alongside increasing access to housing and job opportunities. The role of local government and the third sector will be considered, especially in the context of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill which is currently progressing through the Scottish Parliament, to identify how collaboration and good practice can drive forward meaningful change.
All delegates will be able to contribute to the output of the conference, which will be shared with parliamentary, ministerial, departmental and regulatory offices, and more widely. This includes the full proceedings and additional articles submitted by delegates. As well as key stakeholders, those due to attend include officials from The Scottish Government; Education Scotland; and DCEDIY, ROI.
