A new team is being recruited to help local authorities deliver ‘The Promise’, which aims to transform the way care is in Scotland for children and young people. The project is funded through the Scottish Government’s “The Promise Partnership” Keep The Promise Fund Round 2 which is distributed through the Corra Foundation.
It has been known for some time that Scotland’s care system hasn’t been working as well as it should, and in 2016 the Scottish Government set up the Independent Care Review to see how it could be improved.
The Review’s conclusions were reported in 2020 based on listening to what care experienced people were telling them about the changes that needed to happen.
The resultant ‘The Promise’, to be delivered by 2030, sets out 84 actions that need to happen to improve the care system and ensure that all children and young people in Scotland can grow up loved, safe, and respected with the best possible life chances.
The team will be led by new Senior Development Officer, Beth-Anne Logan.
‘This is really exciting time to be working in this area, there is a real opportunity to break down barriers and improve the lives of children, young people and families,’ said Beth-Anne.
Beth will lead a team of three who will have at its heart a focus on what matters most for children, young people and families.
‘Initially, our work will revolve around Community Mapping, finding out who is doing what, and to what level will be key to delivering what it is children, young people and families need. Then we can start building relationships to ensure support for children, young people and families is delivered effectively.’
The team have strong ambitions to work to support every local authority in the country in helping them to deliver and #keepthepromise to children and young people in their area.
‘Key areas will be looking at what best practise is in each local authority area and supporting staff to replicate elsewhere as appropriate. Practitioners and managers in this sector can be risk averse and we need to be able to enable and empower people to have the confidence to make positive changes more flexibly,’ said Beth.
Delivering ‘The Promise’ and making sure children and young people have the best possible life opportunities could play big dividends said Beth Anne.
‘It is estimated that £875 million is lost to the economy every year through lost opportunities from people going through the care system and not realising their potential, through lack of good employment and often being unnecessarily criminalised.’
In Scotland, a third of young offenders identified as having been in care at some point in their life.*
‘If we can go some way to helping local authorities reverse this by improving the care experience, the project will have been a success,’ she added.
If any practitioners think includem’s Promise team can support them in some way please do get in touch with Beth-Anne at beth-anne.logan@includem.co.uk
* Scottish Prison Service. 2016. Prisoner’s Survey 2015 – Young People in Custody. SPS: Edinburgh.
