Plan 24-30 had to be different, proposed changes to the law show why

by Claire Stuart, Head of Policy and Partnerships, The Promise Scotland

When Plan 24-30 launched in June 2024, it wasn’t a typical strategy. It was intended to be used differently, so it looked different.

The collective work required to keep the promise had, like many priorities before it, been previously supported by more traditional planning documents; Plan 21-24 was a PDF setting out the actions needed over the three years it covered. But the learning from how useful it had been in supporting change at pace, and from many other previous strategies, was that, ultimately, it hadn’t been as effective as intended, put best by the Oversight Board in their Report THREE when they said; “the journey is behind schedule — but still on course.”

That stark reality, plus feedback given in the early stages of developing Plan 24-30, resulted in it being designed as a website. Launched in June 2024, “to be different, to enable cross-sector, multi-agency approaches needed to keep the promise.” At the time, that was a difficult message to convey to an over-stretched workforce who just wanted, needed in many spaces, something familiar, easier to understand, that told them what to do.

Put simply, there are loads of different organisations, people and services involved in the lives of children, young people, and care experienced adults, and any plan needed to be able to give a level of direction and support to all of them.

Commitment and willingness to keep the promise has never wavered, in fact it is growing. But the capacity and resources to do what’s needed are too often limited. With high levels of dedication and determination, no one wants to risk reducing the work down to only the actions the capacity within the current ‘system’ can accommodate. 

So, the focus of a single plan or strategy to keep the promise must be ‘what needs to be done, by when’ so it can support all of us responsible for action, and to be able to have an honest conversation about the challenges in doing so.

That is, in a nutshell, why Plan 24-30 couldn’t be a traditional plan. Things change too often, dependencies emerge as work gets underway, capacity comes under challenge, next steps only become clear once others have been completed. A PDF cannot respond to that complexity or flexibility.

Recently, there have been some major developments in the work to keep the promise, full of unknowns, that provide a tangible example of this, the biggest of which is the introduction of the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill.

A Bill is a proposal for a new law, or to change an existing law, which is presented to parliament to speak about, and see if it should become a law.

Ahead of the Bill being introduced, the areas it would cover, and which parts of the Independent Care Review would be addressed, were not known outside of the Scottish Government. It was not even known what the Bill would be called, with it previously having been referred to as the Promise Bill.

What was clear, was that the areas it included would influence the direction of all the work left within them to keep the promise. It would offer direction, budget, and a method for how the new law could make action happen in those areas. With what is not included requiring a different route without changes to the law, or possibly with a new law later.

Currently the Bill is going through a three-stage process to decide if it should become an Act (when it becomes a law). At this stage, the Education, Children and Young People Committee is taking evidence which could result in new things being added or parts removed - things could change.

In relation to Plan 24-30 and its 25 route maps, this means the route maps focused on advocacy, profit in care, changes to the children’s hearings system and support for care experienced adults, are all subject to change. As the Bill goes through the process, and potentially becomes an Act, more and more of the route maps and their content may require changes.

If Plan 24-30 had been published as a PDF last June, that simply wouldn’t be possible. It would now be out of date. There would be need for a new or updated plan. As it stands, the website can handle this level of change with ease. It can be updated and adapted, transparently with everyone sighted, as many times as is required to make sure Scotland can keep the promise by 2030.

Which brings us back to the tension: Plan 24-30 can’t just be flexible, to be effective it must include more detail and be easier to use. Work to achieve this has been ongoing since its launch – listening to feedback and making content updates to the website to make it easier to use, and to route maps to reflect progress so far. This continues, alongside work to develop all 25 route maps to 2030, so they have more content, with named organisations who must take responsibility and action, and to incorporate dependencies.

The result of this will mean, by December, route maps outlining:

• the starting position
• the destination
• the key commitments that are underway
• the milestones that must be reached to get from the starting position to the destination,
•  any dependencies that are emerging as progress is made
• who is responsible for taking forward each commitment and work to reach each milestone
• how Scotland will know progress is being made.

These route maps will not then be static; in many cases they will not be complete as not all of actions required to 2030 will yet be known given dependencies on earlier activity. Instead, as Plan 24-30 is designed to do, they will adapt and change to circumstances.

Understandably it will take time for Plan 24-30’s approach to feel familiar and many of us may continue to think fondly of the traditional printed plan. But by remaining laser focused on supporting Scotland to understand its destination and the actions required to get there, Plan 24-30 will prove its worth. Its approach to tracking the fluid collaborative nature of the work will support Scotland to keep the promise it has made to its care experienced children, young people, families, and adults.