A decade of care: A corporate parenting update from Scottish Ministers 2021 - 2024

2: Corporate parenting and the policy and legislative landscape

The policy and legislative landscape within which corporate parenting sits has significantly evolved during 2021-2024, including work that continues to drive Scotland’s collective responsibility to deliver on The Promise, landmark legislation to incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into Scots law, and our efforts to improve how we understand and measure outcomes for children and young people through the Children, Young People & Families Outcomes Framework.

What is Corporate Parenting?

Part 9 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 (2014 Act) defines corporate parenting in Scotland. The term refers to an organisation’s performance of actions necessary to uphold the rights and secure the wellbeing of a looked after child or care leaver, through which physical, emotional, spiritual, social and educational development is promoted, from infancy through to adulthood. In other words, corporate parenting is about how the Scottish Government and other public bodies are proactive and determined in ensuring that our collective efforts meet the needs and help realise the potential of children and young people with care experience and care leavers across Scotland.

Scotland should be a good parent, and at every turn and in every setting, children must have access to safe, consistent nurturing relationships and environments which enable them to reach their full potential.

Corporate parenting duties

It is through these six duties set out in section 58 of the 2014 Act that corporate parents uphold the rights and promote the wellbeing of Scotland’s looked after children and care leavers.

Although corporate parents will fulfil these duties in a variety of ways, in view of their varied functions, it is important to note that these six duties are not a menu from which corporate parents can pick and choose. The corporate parenting responsibilities are interrelated; good ‘corporate parenting’ depends on each of the duties being fulfilled (in a manner appropriate to the corporate parent). Corporate parents will differ in what they can practically deliver in respect to each duty; for instance, some corporate parents will be able to fulfil a duty independently, and others only through collaboration.

Under section 59 of the 2014 Act a corporate parent must prepare, keep under review, and publish a Corporate Parenting Plan. This plan must set out how the corporate parent proposes to fulfil its corporate parenting responsibilities. Before preparing or revising the plan, the corporate parent must consult with other corporate parents (and other persons it considers appropriate).

Section 60 of the 2014 Act requires all corporate parents to collaborate with each other, in so far as is reasonably practicable, when exercising their corporate parenting duties. Collaboration can mean sharing information, providing advice or assistance, co-ordinating activities (and seeking to prevent unnecessary duplication), sharing responsibility for action, funding activities jointly or exercising functions jointly, for example, by publishing a joint plan or joint report.

Under section 65 of the 2014 Act Scottish Ministers must, as soon as practicable after the end of each three year period, lay before the Scottish Parliament a report on how they have exercised their corporate parenting responsibilities during that period.

Who are Scotland’s Corporate parents?

A corporate parent is defined under section 56(1) of the 2014 Act. All persons and organisations listed, in schedule 4 of the 2014 Act are ‘corporate parents’ for the purposes of Part 9. There is a wide range of organisations listed and this reflects the diverse network of corporate parents who support the care experienced community.

Graphic text below:

Independent Living Fund Scotland

The Scottish Ministers and Executive Agencies of the Government*

Healthcare Improvement Scotland

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service

Health and Social Care Partnerships

32 Local Authorities

SCRA The Scottish Children’s Reporters Administration

SQA The Scottish Qualification Authority

The Scottish Legal Aid Board

Further and Higher Education Bodies

The National Convener of Children’s Hearings Scotland

14 NHS Health Boards

sportscotland

CYPCS The Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland

7 Special NHS Health Boards

Children’s Hearings Scotland

The Scottish Social Services Council

The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland

Creative Scotland

Police Scotland

The Principal Reporter

Care Inspectorate

SDS Skills Development Scotland

The Scottish Housing Regulator

Scottish Police Authority

Bòrd Na Gàidhlig

*(This is the category that includes Accountant in Bankruptcy; Disclosure Scotland; Education Scotland; The Scottish Prison Service; The Scottish Public Pensions Agency; Student Awards Agency for Scotland; and Transport Scotland).

Corporate parenting – The planning landscape

The National Performance Framework, Children, young people and families Outcomes Framework and Keeping The Promise to our children, young people and families: progress update 2024 demonstrate the Scottish Government’s main approaches to planning, delivering and reporting on our responsibilities as corporate parents.

National Performance Framework

The National Performance Framework sets out a vision for collective wellbeing. It supports a shared way of working and asks everyone to work together to help improve the lives of people in Scotland.

To help achieve its purpose, the framework sets out ‘National Outcomes’. The National Outcome for children and young people is that they grow up loved, safe and respected so that they realise their full potential. The framework measures Scotland’s progress against the National Outcomes and helps us to understand if we are moving in the right direction. To do this, it uses ‘National Indicators’, which give a measure of national wellbeing. They include a range of economic, social and environmental indicators.

Children, Young People and Families Outcomes Framework

The Children, Young People and Families Outcomes Framework complements the National Performance Framework and provides an overarching understanding of the wellbeing of children and families in Scotland. The framework has children’s rights at its core and is consistent with national and international definitions of child wellbeing. It aims to support greater policy cohesion in decision-making, as well as in the strategic planning and delivery of policies services, support, and improvement activity at both national and local level.

In September 2023, the Scottish Government published the ‘Core Wellbeing Indicators’ analysis, which offered headline data, socio-demographic differences and time series data, where available, based on the agreed set of 21 Core Wellbeing Indicators which are part of the framework.

This report establishes an initial national baseline, against which progress can be measured in future years. The Core Wellbeing Indicators provide a high-level and holistic overview of the current levels of wellbeing for Scotland’s children, young people and families, as well as highlighting any differences in outcomes for particular groups of children and young people, such as those with experience of care.

Scottish Government Promise Planning

In March 2022, The Scottish Government published its Promise Implementation Plan, setting out actions and commitments across different parts of government to keep The Promise to care experienced children, young people and their families. The plan complemented The Promise Scotland’s Plan 21-24 and Change Programme One and was the first stage of the Scottish Government’s route map to Keeping The Promise by 2030.

In September 2024 Scottish Government published Keeping The Promise to our children, young people and families: progress update 2024, providing a status report on our progress so far in delivering the actions and commitments set out in The Promise Implementation Plan.

The Scottish Government Theory of Change

The Scottish Government has developed a high-level Theory of Change, which maps and allows us to continually test how we deliver the changes required to achieve the objectives of The Promise as a corporate parent. The Theory of Change is aligned to The Promise Scotland’s Plan 21-24 and progress against all of the actions and commitments are mapped against this Theory of Change.

The Promise Plan 24-30

The initial idea of having new plans every three years was changed and Plan 24-30 was launched in June 2024 as The Promise Scotland’s plan to keep The Promise by 2030, setting out a route map for what needs to happen, who must act (including corporate parents), and by when.

It is structured around the five foundations of The Promise and it builds on the progress made so far in delivering Plan 21-24. As the route to keeping The Promise becomes clearer, the Plan will be updated so that it keeps track of progress and of what still needs to happen.

The Promise Plan 21-24

When Plan 21-24 was published in 2021, the intention was that it was to be the first of three plans each lasting for three years and outlining the priorities and action across that period. It was anticipated that each plan would build on the progress made by the one before it to make sure transformational change happens across all the Independent Care Review’s conclusions. Plan 21-24 focused on the period from 1 April 2021 until 31 March 2024 and outlined a set of outcomes which should be concluded by 2024.

The Promise Scotland

The Promise Scotland was established in March 2021 with a dual responsibility of oversight of progress towards Scotland’s commitment to keep The Promise and to provide support for its delivery by leading, collaborating, and driving change. The Promise Scotland provides secretariat to The Promise Oversight Board, which is tasked with monitoring the progress organisations make individually and collectively towards the commitment to keep The Promise. The Promise Oversight Board will report to the care community and publicly on the progress made and will use its networks, relationships and governance structure to provide support and guidance wherever necessary.

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC)

‘Getting it right for every child’ provides Scotland with the consistent framework and shared language which puts the rights and wellbeing of children and young people at the heart of policies and services. This underpins the delivery of high-quality holistic and multi-agency whole family support. The GIRFEC National Practice Model provides practitioners, together with children, young people and families, with the tools to structure and analyse information in a consistent way, holistically take account of a child or young person’s needs, identify their strengths and any challenges they face, and consider the most appropriate offer of timely support. This framework provides corporate parents a shared approach to fulfilling the six corporate parenting duties (Section 58 of the 2014 Act) – Alert, Assess, Promote, Opportunities, Access and Improve.

The ‘Getting it right for every child’ approach is at the heart of all our policies and services to support Scotland’s children, young people and families at all ages and stages, and is key to fulfilling many commitments, including eradicating child poverty, Whole Family Wellbeing, Early Childhood Development and keeping The Promise. The effective implementation of the ‘Getting it right for every child’ approach influences the successful planning of services for children and families at a local level, by providing a framework for preventative, joined up support across the continuum from universal to specialist services, with Children’s Services Planning duties driving the collective leadership and delivery of GIRFEC in local areas.

Child Poverty

Scottish Government action to tackle child poverty has continued to evolve and expand. Best Start, Bright Futures, the second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan covering 2022-26, sets out wide ranging action to drive progress in our national mission to end child poverty.

This includes through the now completed expansion of the Scottish Child Payment to eligible children under the age of 16, continued investment in affordable housing, and place-based pathfinder activity to support improvements in ensuring services and approaches to eradicate poverty are integrated across partners to help families where and when they need it.

United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

The UNCRC sets out the specific rights that all children have to help fulfil their potential, including rights relating to health and education, leisure and play, fair and equal treatment, protection from exploitation and the right to be heard.

In March 2021, the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill, a landmark piece of legislation which would incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into Scots law to the maximum extent possible within the powers of the Scottish Parliament, signalling a revolution in children’s rights in Scotland.

The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that certain parts of the Bill fell outwith the competence of the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government amended the Bill to address the Supreme Court’s judgement and the revised Bill was approved by the Scottish Parliament in December 2023, received Royal Assent in January 2024 and all the provisions were commenced by the end of July 2024.

The key provisions in the Act include:

• a compatibility duty which makes it unlawful for public authorities to act incompatibly with the UNCRC requirements, as set out in the Act;
• an interpretation duty that means that words in legislation originating from the Scottish Parliament must, if possible, be given an interpretation that is compatible with the UNCRC requirements;
• in respect of legislation originating from the Scottish Parliament which pre-dates the Act coming into force, a court will have the power to ‘strike down’ words in the legislation if it finds them to be incompatible with the UNCRC and
• in respect of legislation originating from the Scottish Parliament that post-dates the Act coming in force, the courts will have the power to make ‘incompatibility declarators’. The effect of an incompatibility declarator is simply to state that the legislation is incompatible, but the legislation would remain in place until action is taken by the Scottish Parliament.
• a legal requirement for Scottish Ministers to prepare and publish Childs Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments for all Bills, most Scottish Statutory Instruments (except commencement SSIs) and decisions of a strategic nature relating to the rights and wellbeing of children.

The Act also introduces a new ability for children, young people and their representatives to use the courts to enforce their rights.