Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill: islands community impact assessment

Consultation and Engagement

6. The Promise Bill has not been subject to a dedicated consultation process (i.e. a draft Bill has not been consulted on). Instead, consultation and engagement work has been undertaken separately relating to the key elements within scope. This includes four public consultations on: Children’s Hearings Redesign: Moving On from Care into Adulthood: Definition of care experience and the Future of Foster Care consultations. Analysis of the responses is ongoing and has been used to inform the drafting of the Bill’s provisions. As the inclusion of a provision to tackle profit from children’s residential care has been included at a late stage, it has not been possible to undertake consultation or engagement work on that prior to introduction.

7. On 11 July 2024, the Scottish Government published the ‘Moving on’ from care into adulthood consultation which invited views on a wide range of issues impacting young people as they transition from care, including a question on whether there should be a change in the eligibility criteria for Aftercare. A formal 12-week public consultation was undertaken from 11 July 2024 to 3 October 2024, and 69 responses were received from a wide range of stakeholders from public, private and third sector organisations and individuals. Non-confidential consultation responses were published on 6 January 2025 on the Scottish Government Citizens Space website . The Scottish Government commissioned the independent consultancy organisation The Lines Between to undertake a formal analysis of consultation responses, and this report was published on 6 January 2025.

8. A public consultation on ‘Developing a Universal Definition of “Care Experience” was launched on 9 October 2024 and ran for a period of 16 weeks, closing on 31 January 2025.

9. The consultation included two sections. The first section asked for views on the need for a universal definition of care experience, the potential scope of a definition and who this could include, and what the potential impacts of a universal definition could be. The second sought views on the wider language of care, and how to build on existing local good practice to set a national direction for language that is used relating to care.

10. A programme of engagement was progressed to support the consultation which consisted mainly of online workshops with stakeholders and the care experienced community. Stakeholders from a range of sectors and organisations engaged in this process including health, local authorities and the third sector. The outputs of these engagement sessions were considered alongside written responses to the consultation.

11. There has not been a public consultation on the provisions relating to profit in residential care. However, the Scottish Government intends to work closely with the children’s residential care sector on the issues of financial transparency and profit alongside the many inter-connected and complex issues requiring to be worked through collaboratively. This will enable a focused approach to be taken to the development of regulations on increasing financial transparency and, subject to assessment of information received in exercise of that, any subsequent regulations to be made in relation to profit limitation provisions. Public consultation will be undertaken on any such regulations before they are introduced.

12. In 24 October 2024, the Future of Foster Care consultation was launched. The consultation was open for 15 weeks and closed on 6 February. In total, 99 responses were received – 55 from individuals and 44 from organisations, with the majority of organisational responses submitted by local authorities and health and social care partnerships. Other responses came from advocacy organisations, Independent Foster Agencies (IFAs) and representative bodies. A significant number of responses also reflect lived experience of foster care, either directly or through organisational representation. 89 respondents have consented for their responses to be published on the Scottish Government’s Citizen Space platform.

13. In parallel, officials undertook a broad programme of engagement events during the 15-week consultation period. This included six online sessions with professionals and stakeholders, attended by over 80 participants, and in partnership with The Fostering Network, eight events with foster carers - three online and five in person, reaching over 150 carers.

14. The Scottish Government launched the ‘Children’s Hearings Redesign – legislative proposals’ consultation on 26 July 2024 for a 13-week period, which closed on 28 October. The consultation comprised a detailed paper seeking views on potential legislative changes to the children’s hearings system. A series of public engagement events also took place online and in person, reaching over 500 people. Engagement sessions with children and young people were held by a number of organisations, and a composite set of young people’s responses was provided directly to Ministers. There were 105 responses to the consultation, many of which presented detailed views on the complex issues being considered. A comprehensive, independent analysis of the responses was undertaken by the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice at the University of Strathclyde and published in February 2025.

15. There has not been a public consultation on the provision to extend statutory responsibility to Integrated Joint Boards in the development of Children Services Plans. Learning from the Independent Review of Adult Social Care in 2021 (Feeley Report), the Independent Care Review in 2020, the CELCIS Children’s Services Reform research in 2023, The Promise Oversight Report 3 in 2025, in addition to the Scottish Government’s statutory review of three cycles of children’s services plans has identified barriers which impact on realisation of Scotland’s ambitions for a joined-up approach to strategic planning/commissioning, operation delivery and frontline practice which results in improved outcomes for children, young people and families.