The Scottish Government held a public consultation on the future of foster care from October 2024 to February 2025 to inform their forthcoming Promise Bill. The consultation sets out proposals for a new 'flexible fostering' approach, alongside plans to launch a national recruitment campaign for foster carers and measures to improve the retention of foster carers.
We held numerous online and in person engagement sessions on behalf of the Scottish Government to give foster carers the opportunity to share their views on the consultation. We also submitted a written response to the consultation based on our own positions, informed by data from our 2024 State of the Nations' Foster Care survey.
In our written response, we shared our support for proposals to create a national recruitment campaign, a national learning and development framework and a national register for foster carers. We encouraged the Scottish Government to fund a pilot of our Step Up Step Down model to provide preventative support to families on the edge of care in Scotland, in line with the principles of The Promise. We also called for a national fee framework and increased allowances, including for Continuing Care, to ensure foster carers have the financial stability they need to look after children and young people.
You can read our full response to the consultation here. The Scottish Government will publish an independent analysis of consultation responses in Spring 2025.
