The Promise: Areas of Research Interest 2026-2029

Background

Scotland has committed to keeping The Promise by 2030, ensuring that children and young people with care experience grow up loved, safe and respected. This Areas of Research Interest (ARI) document outlines the research needs that would help support this work over the coming years.

The ARI sets out the areas where further evidence would be useful for policy development, service improvement and understanding progress. It highlights where we need a stronger understanding of people’s experiences, where there are gaps in the available data, and where additional research could help build a clearer picture of what can help to drive change.

It should be emphasised that this document presents an agreed set of research priorities, not policy priorities in general, and that if an issue is absent from this list, this does not indicate that it is not a policy priority. The research priorities reflect areas where there is both an ongoing policy interest, and a need for additional evidence in order to support policy development or service improvement. There may be many issues that are high priority but do not appear in this list, either because the present research evidence is adequate for our current purposes and stage in the policy cycle, or research to fill gaps in the evidence base is already being planned or is underway. This approach helps ensure that research effort is directed where it can add the most value.

This ARI has been developed through the Promise Data and Evidence Group (DEG). The DEG was established in March 2025 to bring together analysts from across sectors to review the data and evidence landscape, support improvements to data infrastructure, and help identify longer‑term research priorities. Membership includes analytical teams across the Scottish Government and partners such as The Promise Scotland, COSLA, Public Health Scotland and the Improvement Service. The group’s work supports the development of the Promise Story of Progress.

The ARI is for anyone with an interest in research and policy about children and families in Scotland. We hope this document helps researchers and funders to focus on the kinds of research that could make the biggest difference to future government decisions.

This is not a call for bids or research proposals, and it does not have any funding attached to it.

Coverage

Between 2016 and 2020, The Independent Care Review ^[1] heard from over 5,500 voices with experience of living and working in and around the ‘care system’, and undertook a review of the underpinning legislation, practices, culture and ethos. These insights provided the basis for The Promise. In order to focus research where it is most needed and most valuable, we would ask researchers to be mindful of avoiding duplication of this original work, and where findings from the Independent Care Review already provide sufficient understanding in a given area, to focus consideration on how outcomes, experiences, and the care sector itself have changed since the review took place.

The Promise aims to deliver positive changes across many aspects of the lives of those in and around the care system, spanning a wide range of policy areas across Government. The content within this document is organised around the ten vision statements used in The Promise Story of Progress:

• Supporting Children to stay with their families
• Carers, stability and permanence
• Education
• Brothers and sisters
• Restrictive practices
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Physical Health
• Justice
• Transition to young adulthood (Continuing Care and Aftercare)
• Support for care experienced adults

These vision statements set out the broad areas where Scotland aims to make progress by 2030 and provide a shared framework for understanding change. Where helpful, questions under vision statements have been organised into themes. Certain themes such as prevention or early childhood development cut across multiple vision statements, as highlighted throughout the document. Research questions sit underneath each theme, and neither are listed in any form of priority.

The ARI has been developed to reflect the needs of all four population groups within scope of the DEG:

• Children currently in the care system and their families
• Children at risk of entering care and their families
• Young people transitioning out of care and into adulthood
• Care experienced adults

Unless stated otherwise, children currently in the care system refers to children currently formally looked after in community settings (including at home with parents, kinship care and foster care) or residential care settings, including secure care. As set out in Promise Data and Evidence Group’s second annual workplan, it should be recognised that within these groups there will be children who have previously experienced care but are no longer looked after, and children who have experienced adoption, and their families. It also considers the caregivers and workforce who support these groups.

This ARI covers the period Summer 2026 to Summer 2029. It will be reviewed in Summer 2029, taking account of policy developments and feedback on how well the ARI has met its aims. Work to keep The Promise will continue to evolve in the period to 2030 and beyond, and research that supports this work is valuable. However, due to the complexity of many topics, there is no expectation that all research identified here will conclude by 2030.

Methodologies

Questions in this ARI may be addressed through a range of methods, including quantitative and qualitative research, literature reviews, evaluations or mixed‑methods approaches. We have deliberately avoided prescribing methods to allow researchers to choose the most appropriate approach for each question. We are particularly interested in innovative methods which can be employed to provide new insights into long-standing problems. For example, novel linkages of existing administrative data have the ability to unlock insights across multiple research questions. Further information from ADR Scotland on accessing linkable data is provided at the end of this document.

In 2025, the Promise Data and Evidence Group published qualitative outcomes aligned to seven of the 10 vision statements within the Promise Story of Progress. Consideration has been given to these outcomes throughout the development of this document, and researchers are invited to refer to them when using qualitative methods to address the questions presented below. Researchers conducting experiential analysis may also wish to refer to the What Matters questions, developed directly from what was heard by the Independent Care Review.

Language

The Independent Care Review heard from children and young people that language can compound a sense of being different, exacerbate low self-esteem and reinforce stigma. Many of Scotland’s analytical publications and reports use terms as they are established in law to reflect specific legal definitions or data collections. In those cases, particular words or phrases are used to ensure clarity about what the report is describing and to avoid any confusion or misinterpretation.

In developing The Promise ARI, effort has been made to avoid using acronyms and terms that are disrespectful and stigmatising, or to use single quotation marks to highlight where there is language that needs to be challenged. To make this clear, the table below set out the technical or legal terminology alongside the alternative terms that researchers are encouraged to use wherever possible.