Future of foster care: consultation

Part 1: Consultation Purpose and Process

What is the consultation about and who is it for?

The aim of this consultation is to generate open, honest and constructive conversations about the future of fostering and how we improve the existing system. We want to hear all views and ideas. The proposals have been informed by engagement with stakeholders, including feedback from foster carers through direct discussions, and their representatives and Government officials in the four UK nations. We thank stakeholders and foster carers for their contribution which has enabled us to consult on various key issues impacting on fostering in Scotland.

We now want to seek formal views on our proposals, specifically:

• a vision for fostering in 21^st Century Scotland to support the delivery of The Promise;
• a flexible fostering approach to meet the specific and unique needs of children and young people, and respond to changes in the sector and society;
• an approach which meets the challenges in the recruitment and retention of foster carers; and
• how to improve the status, recognition and value given to foster carers.

The consultation is open to all members of the public. We are particularly keen to hear from foster carers (current, past and those considering becoming foster carers). We also want to hear from people who have care experience, in particular those with experience of foster care, birth families, and those who support foster carers and young people with care experience professionally or otherwise.

Following the outcome of the consultation, and taking into account all views and suggestions, the Scottish Government is committed to working collaboratively with local partners, foster carers and children and young people to further shape the vision and flexible fostering approach, and work through, in detail, how we can implement change in practice.

Package of consultations about The Promise

In addition to this consultation, there are a number of related public consultations and engagements on issues related to Keeping the Promise underway or planned during 2024 including:

• ‘Moving On’ From Care Into Adulthood consultation closed on 3 October 2024, and the responses from that consultation are due to publish in due course.
• The Children’s Hearing Redesign consultation opened on 26 July 2024 and is due to close on 28 October 2024. While that consultation is open you can find a link to that consultation here. Children's Hearings Redesign - Scottish Government Consultations - Citizen Space
• The Care Experience definition consultation opened on 10 October 2024 and will close on 8 January 2025. While that consultation is open you can find a link here. Developing a Universal Definition of ‘Care Experience’

Connected engagement with the care experienced community will take place to consider issues across the four consultations.

Deadline

This consultation was published on 24 October 2024 and will close on 6 February 2025.

How to respond

You can respond to this consultation online via Citizen Space or by post. Our preference is to receive responses online.

Respond online

In order to respond, please use the Scottish Government's consultation hub, Citizen Space, which can be accessed Online.

You can save your responses and return to them while the consultation is still open. However, please ensure that consultation responses are submitted before the closing date above. You do not need to respond to every question.

Other ways to respond

If you are unable to respond using our consultation hub, please complete the Respondent Information Form and send your responses and consultation questions to FosterCareConsultation@gov.scot.

If you prefer, you can also submit a written response in hard copy to:

Fostering and Kinship Care Team
2C South
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

Please ensure that you complete the ‘Respondent Information Form’ provided separately on the main consultation page as a supporting document and attach it alongside your response. This lets us know how you wish your response to be handled, and in particular whether you are happy for your response to be made public. It is helpful if you can be clear which questions you are responding to so that we can make sure to take your views into account in the right place.

Handling your response

If you respond using the consultation hub, you will be directed to the ‘About You’ page before submitting your response. Please indicate how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, if you are content for your response to be published. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

If you are unable to respond via Citizen Space, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form included in this document. To find out how we handle your personal data, please see our Privacy Policy.

Engagement sessions

In addition to the online consultation, Scottish Government officials have arranged engagement sessions to inform the consultation report.

These engagement sessions have been arranged with –

• Children and Young People - Who Cares? Scotland and Barnardo’s
• Foster Carers – The Fostering Network
• Local Authority and Independent Fostering Provider Professionals – Scottish Government

If you wish to attend one of these sessions, please contact FosterCareConsultation@gov.scot.

Next steps after you respond to the consultation

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made available to the public at http://consult.gov.scot. If you use the consultation hub to respond, you will receive a copy of your response via email.

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us. Responses will be published where we have been given permission to do so. An analysis report will also be made available. We plan to publish the report in Spring 2025.

Why does the Scottish Government consult

Consultation is an essential part of the policymaking process. It gives us the opportunity to consider your opinions and expertise on a proposed area of work. You can find all of our consultations online: Scottish Government Consultations.

Responses are analysed and used as part of the decision-making process, alongside a range of other available information and evidence. We publish a report of this analysis. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:

• indicate the need for policy development or review;
• inform the development of a particular policy;
• help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals; and
• be used to inform legislation.

While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments. These should be directed to the relevant public body.