On the 5th of February 2020, Scotland made a promise to its children and their families. This was a promise like no other – after a 4-year long root and branch review, The independent care review published their conclusions. Conclusions that will shift the landscape of care forever.

The foundations of The Promise

The Promise is based around five foundations:

• Voice: ensuring that the voice of those with lived experience leads the way.
• People: ensuring that our paid and unpaid workforce are supported and nurtured to be the best they possibly can be.
• Care: encompassing all elements of the “care system” looking at the components that need to change.
• Family: ensuring that Scotland “keeps the promise” and supports children and families to realise their full potential. And that families are supported and nurtured to stay together wherever possible.
• Scaffolding: looking at the structural and systemic listening of organisations and how we can ensure the right structures are in place to realise The Promise.

A new team to Keep The Promise

On the 15th of March 2021, North Lanarkshire Council’s Education and Families team made another promise and welcomed four brand new development workers to help North Lanarkshire’s commitment to #KeepThePromise.

We are all Care-Experienced, so we understand what it’s like to have decisions made about you and what it’s like to grow up in care in North Lanarkshire. That’s what fuels our passion to make things better.

We want to ensure that all children and families have all the support where they need it, when they need it and by the right people at the right time to ensure that families can stay together as much as possible and if that can’t happen, that they are supported to stay connected and have influence and agency over their own lives.

That’s why we’re committed to #KeepingThePromise. We wholeheartedly believe in the values and ethos of The Promise, ensuring every child or young person grows up loved, safe and respected and are able to fulfil their full potential.

This is something we are really passionate about. We also believe that in order for North Lanarkshire Council to better support, uphold and enact the rights of children, young people and their families we need to speak, and actively listen to children, young people and their families. After all, they are the experts in their own lives.

Our work and current projects

The Promise Scotland has a vision that by 2030, we will have far less children and young people in care because help and support for families will be delivered much further upstream. This is something the promise team here in North Lanarkshire fully believes can be achieved in partnership with everyone who touches the lives of children and families.

Since we started in March, we have been very busy! We have been involved in creating and chairing a group on record keeping – looking at how we can make sure the things we write about children and families is relational, trauma-informed, and non-stigmatising. That these records are recognised as children and families holding their own narrative and that they provide memories of the positive, hopeful points in children's and families' lives.

We have also been involved in things like; contextual safeguarding, pathway planning, mental health services, youth justice review, brothers and sister’s policy, guidance and legislation, a survey commissioned by the Scottish Government on Corporate Parenting that compromised of a series of focus groups, co-chairing the Promise Partnership meetings (old corporate parenting subgroup), the possible pilot of a young inspectors programme and Family Group Decision Making to name but a few!

Alongside all this activity, we have been raising awareness of The Promise and two of us also participated in The Promise Scotland’s Promise Design School to help us understand service redesign. So, it’s been a very busy year for us!

We have also been working with partners from health, education, police, fire services, social work and justice to name a few.

Looking ahead to 2022, we want to further enhance the awareness of The Promise and how it affects you, the young people, and families you serve and any policy and practice changes to be implemented. We also want to progress the strands of work we are all involved in to ensure better outcomes for children and families.

We will also be progressing our “Keeping the Promise award” for schools as well through a series of training sessions to help education staff understand the impact of being Care-Experienced.

We are also running a participation programme for young people who have been in or on the edges of secure care, been in conflict with the law, or have ever been or felt unsafe in their communities (through a contextual safeguarding lens) and we are looking for young people who have these experiences to talk to us. If you know of any young people who may wish to be involved, please contact Beth-Anne Logan at loganb@northlan.gov.uk

Our vision and commitment to The Promise

Our vision is clear in marking the two-year anniversary of the publication of The Promise – we are here to serve the children, young people and families of North Lanarkshire. We want to ensure that you and your views are heard, respected and contribute to service redesign. You matter, you are valued, you are cherished and you are loved and, we want to make sure you have everything you need to flourish.

So, there is a lot to look forward to in 2022, (and beyond!) and we look forward to working with you all to realise the ambitions of The Promise. This is everyone’s job; it will take all of our collective efforts to realise The Promise and we, the promise team, will be with you every step of the way. Let’s show Scotland that North Lanarkshire can be the best place to grow up!