Clackmannanshire Council Online

Clackmannanshire Makes The Promise to Support Our Care Experienced Children

Clackmannanshire Council has pledged to make 'The Promise' to ensure that our families in the care system are listened to and experience a less fractured and bureaucratic system during some of the most difficult times of their lives.

This follows the Scotland-wide Independent Care Review which engaged with 5,500 people from across the care system as part of the far reaching review including 2,500 children and young people with lived experience in a care setting. 

The review concluded that for lives and futures to change, Scotland must change the way it supports families to stay together. Despite Scotland’s aspiration for early intervention and prevention, its good intentions, and the hard work of many, the experience of far too many children and families is of a fractured, bureaucratic, unfeeling 'care system' that operates when children and families are facing crisis.

This has led to the development of 'The Promise' which is a Scotland-wide blueprint to deliver on the review’s recommendations.

The five key foundations of Care in The Promise are:

• Voice: children must be heard and listened to in all of the decisions about their care.
• Family: whenever possible, families should be supported to stay together with their children. Our first priority should be to do all we can to keep children out of care and with their own families.
• Care: where living with their own family isn’t possible, children must stay with their brothers and sisters where safe to do so, and they must belong to a stable, loving home. 
• People: those in the workforce and wider community who look after children must be well supported so that they in turn can provide compassionate care and decision making.
• Scaffolding: the system that surrounds all of this - the system of help, decision-making, support and accountability - must be more supportive and responsive

The Council's People Directorate has begun the work to assess the current position, consider where changes need to be made, and how these might be implemented.  This will include listening to our families, staff and partners, and will be carried out with the support of the The Promise team.  This work will be ongoing over the months and years ahead, and progress will be reported to the People committee.

Cllr Les Sharp, Spokesperson for Health & Social Services said: "The publication of The Promise is a chance for everyone in Scotland to hear directly from children and families about their lived experience of the care system, and what needs to change.

"The Council is a corporate parent for children in Clackmanannshire, and we have a duty to make sure that we are meeting the ambition of the Care Review to 'make sure that every child grows up loved, safe and respected, able to realise their full potential'.  

"I was pleased that our Clackmannanshire Alliance partners were able to hear directly at the most recent meeting from a member of The Promise team about how we can all make sure that our organisations are asking the right questions of ourselves to make sure we meet The Promise.  We owe it to our children and families to get this right, and I look forward to seeing us make the progress that is required."

ENDS