Chamber and committees

That is the vital bit: we need the children to feel the change in their experiences on the ground. Even though a lot of work has been taken up so far, there is still a lot of work to do before 2030. The experiences as they are felt on the ground will be vital.

Ms Moodie mentioned the social care workforce. Having a sustainable, supported workforce will be fundamental to keeping the Promise. The National Social Work Agency, which was established this year, is leading national workforce planning to create a stronger picture of workforce demand, recruitment challenges and future supply. Through the Scottish social work partnership, the National Social Work Agency is working with COSLA and Social Work Scotland to develop a strategic plan, which will set out a shared commitment to strengthening the social work workforce. That delivery plan is on track for publication in spring 2027.

I am proud of what Scotland is doing in trying to deliver the Promise, which we will do by 2030. That commitment has been made, and we have four years to go.

There has been progress. We have passed landmark legislation that provides significant packages of reform to support the Promise. We have committed £154 million to transform family support, and that figure will go up to £200 million by March next year. I could provide a list of things that we have already done. The delivery coalition will look at the pace of progress and at the challenges to ensure that we deliver the Promise by 2030.

I recognise the distress that uncertainty about a child’s future home can cause, particularly when they have developed a really strong, loving relationship over many years.

I cannot comment on individual cases, but there is clear evidence that children thrive when they have a safe, nurturing and permanent home. The best interests of the child must always be at the heart of permanence decisions, with their views, relationships and sense of belonging being fully considered.

Our good practice in permanence guides reinforce that children’s rights should be central to decision making. As part of keeping the Promise, we are reviewing delays in permanence decisions and strengthening advocacy rights for care-experienced children and young children.

Care-experienced young people should not have to repeat their stories or navigate disconnected services to enable them to access support. Having better national data could help to identify unmet need and gaps in provision, but that must be accompanied by effective information sharing between services, particularly when young people move between services and need further support. Children’s services planning and the wider public sector reform agenda provide opportunities to strengthen co-ordination. Our focus must be on ensuring that having such information helps young people to get the right support at the right time, while protecting their privacy and rights.

That is why we are already investing £80 million. We want to keep those children in school so that they can have better outcomes.

The delivery coalition has four years to go and has a widespread portfolio, with a lot of work happening in national and local government and in the third sector. There is a lot of work for the delivery coalition to look at, and that is what we intend it to do. Keeping the Promise is all about achieving better outcomes for our care-experienced children.

Keeping the Promise is public sector reform in action. Our focus is on reducing complexity, improving collaboration across services and shifting the focus towards prevention and early intervention. Those are central aims of our public service reform programme, and—through whole family support, strengthened planning in children’s services and the wider reform agenda—we are building more joined-up services around the needs of children and families, helping them to access support earlier and reducing reliance on crisis intervention. The forthcoming implementation strategy for the Promise will set out the actions that the Scottish Government will take to keep the Promise by 2030.

We are laying the foundations for a more resilient and sustainable secure care system for the future. In the reimagining secure care consultation, which took place this year, stakeholders’ views were sought on a range of issues, including the nationalisation of secure care services, to see how we could improve things. Future decisions will be guided by evidence and analysis of the consultation responses. No decision has yet been made on nationalisation.

Secure care in Scotland is currently provided by four independent charity organisations, and we will continue to work closely with providers, local authorities and other partners as part of our wider programme of reimagining secure care.

As I mentioned previously, in March we launched the national social work agency to strengthen and support social work across Scotland. Through the Scottish social work partnership, the national social work agency is working together with COSLA and Social Work Scotland. The partnership is currently developing a strategic plan that will set out our shared commitment to strengthening the social work workforce.

As I have said, the accompanying delivery plan will highlight the agreed actions and will be published in spring 2027.

I think that I have answered that question. We know what children are experiencing and feeling on the ground. We have made progress in the past four or five years, but we have more to make and we will measure that.

Since coming into this post six months ago, I have had much engagement with young people and have listened to their voices. I know that that happened prior to my coming into this role, and it will continue.

As I said in a previous answer, keeping the Promise is public sector reform in action. The Scottish Government will continue to provide whole family support and will strengthen children’s services planning. The forthcoming implementation strategy will set out the actions that the Scottish Government will take to deliver the Promise by 2030.