Council to support services to Keep The Promise in Highland

As part of Highland Council’s corporate parenting responsibilities, Members of the Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Committee have agreed to support Council services to Keep The Promise.

The promise is a Scottish Government commitment that Scotland's children and young people will grow up loved, safe and respected. Organisations, institutions, bodies, communities, and groups across Scotland pledged to Keep The Promise, including The Highland Council.

Members have scrutinised a report welcoming area of progress across service delivery in Keeping The Promise and the work of three delivery groups focussing on ‘family’, ‘care’ and ‘doing data differently’ to facilitate the Promise Plan for 2025 – 2028.

Local data on care experienced infants, children and young people from 2023 to 2025 has shown a positive direction of travel for children living in kinship care at home with parents or with friends and relatives. This family based care approach is being achieved with investment in a dedicated Kinship Team and a Family Group Decision Making Team who will work to increase the number of children supported to stay at home or within the family network.

While Highland is experiencing similar national trends in a reduction of foster carers, Highland is aspiring to ensure that where residential children’s care placements are required that they are closer to the child’s family and community where possible.

Councillor David Fraser, Chair of the Health Social Care and Wellbeing Committee said:

“I welcome the work and progress being made by the teams on this journey that The Highland Council is on to Keep The Promise. One example of how Keeping The Promise is making a difference is the recruitment of the specialist Kinship Team. I am very pleased that management and social work staff have already been appointed, and I look forward to the support worker roles being advertised in the coming month.

“Highland is a fantastic place to live and work and I welcome anyone with the desired qualifications to apply to join us in Keeping The Promise to our children and young people.”

Other key areas of progress in Keeping The Promise include:

• refocussing the roles of a specialist health team in Child Health to deliver developments that aim to improve outcomes for care-experienced infants, children and young people;
• a Whole Family Support Project has commenced that offers early intervention support to pregnant women and families requiring additional support; and
• the work of the Children’s Rights and Participation Group has been nominated for a Cosla Excellence Award for “Participation in Practice – Children Shaping Highland’s Future” in the Strengthening Communities and Local Democracy Category – the winner of which will be announced on 13 November.
• The development of a strategic initiative ‘Learning without Boundaries” which aims to improve the urgent and complex needs of children and young people who are either currently disengaged from education or at significant risk of their school placements breaking down.

The report can be viewed on the Council’s website at this link.