The Promise Data and Evidence Group Workplan: July 2026 – June 2027

3. Sub-group Two: Qualitative Research

3.1 Projects committed to in previous workplan

Tracking of emerging literature through:

• Monitoring of emerging qualitative literature, identifying potentially valuable sources on an ongoing basis and whether their data may be accessed.
• Developing a series of qualitative outcomes relevant to each Vision Statement.

Development of the qualitative strand of the Promise Story of Progress, through:

• The Promise Scotland leading the development of qualitative mechanisms and initial output to answer the Promise Story of Progress question “does the care community feel the impact of progress with The Promise?”. Centred on analysis of existing data held by organisations that work directly with children, young people, care-experienced adults, and families.
• Work to determine the most effective way to present the initial findings of the care community impact work.

3.2 Summary of progress in 2025/26

A tracker tool was established in late 2025 through which any relevant evidence being published in a substantial list of journals (including international literature) can be highlighted to the group for review on a regular basis.

Updates to The Promise Story of Progress were published in December 2025 as the first iteration of ongoing work to show the experiential impact of the Promise. Qualitative evidence relevant to each Vision Statement that has emerged since the Promise was made was reviewed to surface personal statements of both positive and less positive experiences, and analyse what that means for Scotland in terms of change.

In December 2025 the group published a report on work to develop outcomes for seven Vision Statements that could be indicated in qualitative data. Between August and November 2025, relevant experts across Scottish Government analytical services divisions and partner organisations were asked for proposals for qualitative outcomes. These qualitative outcomes were intended to articulate what data we need to understand how change is being experienced as a result of the promise.

The experiential sources referred to in the Story of Progress updates have since been reviewed with the assistance of AI to provide methodological summaries of each (indicating why and how they were commissioned, whose voices they include, how many children or young people provided qualitative evidence, methods used etc.). These are being checked and interrogated to support consideration of whether sufficient qualitative data exists to inform the published qualitative outcomes.

3.3 Work programme for July 2026 – Jun 2027

Qualitative outcomes and evidence tracking

Building on the developments in 2025/26, the focus for 2026/27 will be on consolidating and extending this approach across all areas. Progress will centre on completing qualitative outcomes for remaining Vision Statements, alongside identifying and articulating gaps in the existing evidence and engaging partners to refine this understanding. This will support a clearer, more joined-up picture of how available qualitative evidence aligns with the outcomes set out, with learning shared towards the end of the period to inform ongoing work and strengthen the use of experiential evidence across the group.

Milestones:

• End July 2026 – qualitative outcomes developed for Vision Statements 1, 9 and 10
• End of August 2026 – Map of evidence gaps drafted
• Early October 2026 – Consultation with partner organisation on identified evidence gaps completed
• November 2026 – Reporting of areas of qualitative evidence need in relation to all 10 Vision Statements
• December 2026/January 2027 – Sharing learning with relevant stakeholders and interested parties

Experiential Strand of Story of Progress

The experience part of the Promise Story of Progress seeks to support the change demanded by the Independent Care Review: a model of truly systemic listening that embeds children and families' experience into the way we do data, not as an add-on, but as a core part of how we monitor, report and learn. This means that the work in the experience part aims to:

• Provide an understanding of experience.
• Test ways to build capacity into the system to create the shift required for systemic listening.

In 2026, Corra Foundation and Inspiring Scotland have agreed to work to test a practical, replicable model for bringing experiential data into routine funder monitoring and reporting. The aim is to test and learn from approaches that are:

• Meaningful to children, families and the practitioners who work with them.
• Manageable for funded organisations without creating significant additional burden.
• Genuinely informative for funders, surfacing the kind of experiential insight that numbers cannot capture.
• Replicable by other funders and partnerships across Scotland

The pilot will test this model across both funders' portfolios, with each contributing a cohort of funded projects that can act as real-world test beds.

In parallel, medium to longer term work is being undertaken to support the development of mechanisms that enable and ensure systemic listening by and beyond 2030. A workshop involving TPS, SG and COSLA will be held by end August 2026. This will focus on approaches to listening, understanding and reporting by 2030 to enable engagement, planning and resourcing.

Milestones:

• End August 2026 – joint workshop held on reporting by 2030 on experiential strand.
• End November 2026 - A process report reflecting learning from this approach to funder monitoring and reporting will be developed. This will include lessons for taking approaches forward, as well as considerations for how approaches be scaled in an efficient way without adding burden to the ‘system’.
• End March 2027- Presentation of the data and evidence that was gathered and generated through this process.