Vision statement three: Schools in Scotland must be ambitious for care experienced children and ensure they have all they need to thrive, recognising that they may experience difficulties associated with their life story.
Organisational Progress
What is Happening
This section brings together what the materials reviewed describe about how educational support for care experienced children and young people is being shaped and delivered. The evidence includes accounts of work focused on tailoring learning, strengthening relationships, joining up support across services and supporting the education workforce. Across the materials, there is an emphasis on approaches that respond to individual circumstances, reduce barriers to participation and provide greater continuity through change. The sources also reflect variation in how this support is experienced in practice, highlighting the importance of coordination, flexibility and sustained relationships.
Click on the take me to navigation pane and jump to different sections here, including sources. To see what changes Scotland is making and still has to make for the promise to be kept, click on the education route map in Plan 24-30. See more about the work of change across Scotland here.
Work is underway to provide individualised educational support for children and young people, including approaches such as tailored learning plans that reflect children and young people’s needs and interests, alongside additional wraparound support such as mentoring or regular check-ins. There are also efforts to make effective use of specialist support, including small-group provision, alternative learning environments or virtual-school-type approaches, to better meet specific needs.
Support for care experienced children and young people’s wellbeing and confidence is highlighted across the materials. Accounts describe staff encouraging and supporting children and young people to manage emotions, feel included and able to take part in learning and wider school life, and build relationships over time. Teams also describe celebrating achievements as a way of helping children and young people develop confidence and find enjoyment in learning, particularly where previous experiences of education have been difficult.
Efforts to create safe, supportive learning environments are also described. This includes work to respond with curiosity rather than judgement and, in some cases, providing reflective supervision to help staff deepen their understanding of children and young people who have experienced trauma or disruption in their lives.
Several examples describe efforts to reduce barriers to education, including practical help with attendance at school, college or university and approaches that take account of wider family circumstances. Support with travel, routines or other pressures is described as helping create more stable conditions for learning, particularly during periods of change at home.
Relationships with teachers and education staff are highlighted as important. Where strong relationships exist, staff are better able to understand what is happening in a young person’s life and adjust support accordingly. This often relies on trust and information shared by other services. The materials also describe support for children and young people to develop and maintain friendships, strengthening confidence, a sense of belonging and providing an important source of emotional support within school.
Personalised learning approaches, targeted programmes and efforts to create supportive environments are described across the materials. Some accounts describe coordinated approaches to supporting transitions, bringing together different services to guide young people moving into further or higher education, offering learning about how transition support can be more joined up and sustained.
Collaborative working across education, social work, health and policing partners is described as an important part of supporting care experienced children and young people. This includes efforts to recognise the additional pressures some children and young people face and to respond flexibly, rather than expecting them to fit standard approaches.
There is a strong focus on understanding the realities of the school day, including inflexible timetables and competing demands on staff time. Where this is taken into account, additional support is more likely to be planned in ways that fit around learning, rather than removing children and young people from class or singling them out. Partnerships between schools, local authorities and other services are described as helping create more coordinated plans that align support with education routines.
Integrated ways of working are also described, including multi-agency teams that bring together different forms of support around children and young people. These approaches aim to reduce duplication, improve communication and provide more consistent help. In some cases, a single point of coordination helps bring services together, acting as a consistent contact for children, young people and families. Timely information sharing, shared language and clear understanding of roles are highlighted as important features of this work.
There are also accounts of collaboration focused on key transition points, particularly as young people move toward further learning, training or employment. Building relationships with families early is described as helping establish trust and supporting smoother coordination later on.
Support for education practice through supervision, debriefs and reflective spaces is described as an important part of creating safer and more consistent responses for children and young people. Reflective, trauma-sensitive supervision supports staff to think carefully about experiences of disruption, loss or distress and how these may shape behaviour and responses in moments of difficulty.
The materials highlight efforts to support learning and reflection that help staff understand behaviour through trauma, disruption, disability and neurodiversity perspectives. Training, learning materials and reflective practice are described as helping shift responses away from purely behaviour-management approaches toward more needs-led ways of working.
The evidence also points to wider workforce pressures across services that support children and families. Addressing these pressures is described as important in ensuring education settings are not left holding complex needs alone, and that responsibility for support is shared across systems rather than sitting solely within schools.
What is being learned about change
This section draws together learning from the materials reviewed about how change is being understood and shaped in practice. It reflects what is emerging across accounts of work underway, rather than evaluating effectiveness or setting direction. The focus is on identifying patterns in how approaches are being adapted, what appears to make a difference to experience, and where learning continues to develop.
The learning across the materials suggests that individualised plans on their own are not sufficient to support engagement in learning. Children and young people appear to benefit most when tailored support sits within environments that feel safe, predictable and responsive to their experiences, including what is happening in their lives beyond school.
Schools are often described as key places of support outside the home. The materials highlight the importance of education environments being informed by an understanding of trauma, disruption and the different ways children and young people express need, alongside adapting approaches to reflect diverse learning styles and circumstances.
Key elements of success
- Tailoring learning plans and educational practices to individual needs.
- Providing support that fits around the school day without reducing access to core learning.
- Creating safe, predictable and supportive environments.
- Building understanding of trauma and disruption and their impact on learning.
- Focusing on relationships and their role in wellbeing and education.
Examples
- Mentoring opportunities that help build confidence in learning and relationships, including regular check-ins that provide continuity and a trusted point of support.
- Leadership activities that support young people to develop their voice, skills and agency, helping them feel more involved in school life.
- Routes into volunteering or employment connected to school, so learning feels relevant to future goals.
- One-to-one, person-centred support, including family support where needed, that adapts as circumstances change.
- Reducing financial pressures through bursaries or practical help, so costs do not become a barrier to participation.
- Providing trauma-sensitive, disruption-aware supervision for education staff to support reflective and consistent practice.
What to stop and what to change
- Focusing narrowly on attainment without recognising wider outcomes such as wellbeing, friendships and confidence.
- Keeping education too rigid, limiting the ability to adapt support to changing circumstances.
- Offering limited subject choices that restrict engagement and aspiration.
- Overlooking the impact of previous negative experiences of education.
- Providing inconsistent support during transitions.
The materials suggest that collaboration is most effective when it moves beyond shared values into clear, practical coordination in day-to-day practice. Children and young people benefit when support feels coherent, with clarity about roles, shared understanding of pressures and timely information that supports joint planning rather than fragmented responses.
The learning also highlights the importance of coordination being visible and accessible to families. Where support is easier to navigate, children, young people and families are better able to understand what is happening and how different forms of help fit together.
Key elements of success
- Shared responsibility for support across services.
- Coordination that feels coherent and predictable.
- Timely sharing of information to support planning.
Examples
- Working with partners to develop plans that respond thoughtfully to children and young people’s wellbeing and lived experiences, and that can be adjusted as needs change.
- Using integrated teams to plan and deliver holistic, school-based support so help fits alongside learning.
- Building relationships with families at the earliest opportunity, supporting trust and clearer communication over time.
- Creating space for services to understand each other’s perspectives, reducing mixed messages for children and young people.
- Sharing essential information promptly following significant changes, so support can be coordinated without delay.
What to stop and what to change
- Lack of communication and coordination between services.
- Introducing additional support without planning how it fits with the school day.
- Families being left to join up support themselves.
- Support dropping away at key transition points.
The evidence highlights that reflective spaces, supervision and opportunities for learning are central to sustaining thoughtful and consistent practice in education. When time is protected for reflection, responses are more likely to prioritise safety, connection and de-escalation.
The learning also points to the importance of shared responsibility. Where pressures are held collectively across services, education practice is more likely to remain relational and responsive over time.
Key elements of success
- Protected time for reflection and supervision.
- Learning that supports consistent, needs-led responses.
- Shared responsibility beyond education alone.
Examples
- Ensuring access to regular, high-quality supervision and debriefs, so staff have space to reflect on complex situations and emotional impact.
- Using supervision to reflect on the needs of children and young people who have experienced disruption, loss or instability, and how these shape responses in school.
- Providing learning opportunities that link directly to classroom practice, with space to rehearse responses and reflect on what helps children re-engage.
- Debriefing after difficult incidents in a structured way, so learning is captured and relationships with children and young people can be repaired.
- Strengthening routes to advice and support from partner services, so education settings are not left holding complex needs in isolation.
What to stop and what to change
- Reliance on behaviour management approaches as the default response.
- Reflective practice being squeezed out under pressure.
- Education settings carrying complexity without wider support.
Sources Referenced
The purpose of the below citations and summaries is to ensure that sources used are clear and accessible. Web links to the sources are provided, where possible.
Document summaries are provided for any document where analysis produced more than ten ‘coded segments’. ‘Coded segments’ refer to portions of a document that analysts identified and labelled as relevant to the key themes for each Vision Statement.
All documents that have informed the development of the Vision Statement, even if they had fewer than 10 coded segments, are cited in the ‘Additional Sources’ box below.
This report was published by the Centre for Excellence for Children's Care and Protection (CELCIS), a leading improvement and innovation centre based at the University of Strathclyde.
The Scottish Government asked CELCIS to conduct this research to gather information to help them make decisions about how to best deliver children's services in Scotland. The main goal of the research was to answer: "What is needed to ensure that children, young people and families get the help they need, when they need it?".
This specific report is 'Strand 4' of a larger study and focuses on understanding the opportunities, challenges, and barriers faced by the children's services workforce. It explores their views on local services, how different agencies work together, support for young people moving into adult services, relationships between families and professionals, and the support available to the workforce itself. The report uses surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gather these perspectives.
Dr Alex McTier, Mihaela Manole, Jane Scott, et al. Children’s Services Reform Research: Scotland’s Children’s Services Landscape: The Views and Experiences of the Children’s Services Workforce. CELCIS, 2023. https://www.celcis.org/knowledge-bank/search-bank/childrens-services-reform-research-scotlands-childrens-services-landscape-views-and-experiences-childrens-services-workforce.
This report, published by the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection (CELCIS), and the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR), was created to better understand the experiences and outcomes of children and young people in kinship care in Scotland, especially since this type of care has significantly increased. The study also aimed to evaluate how useful existing administrative data is for this kind of research.
The research used anonymised data from approximately 19,000 children in formal kinship care in Scotland between 2008 and 2019. This data was linked with records from education, health visiting, and children's hearings. The study found that kinship care is increasingly common, with regional differences often linked to deprivation. Children in kinship care often have complex needs, including higher rates of additional support needs and developmental concerns, and face poorer educational outcomes compared to other children, although these have improved over time.
Most children entered kinship care early in their care journey and often remained within their wider family network after leaving. The report highlights that while many children thrive, tailored support is crucial for kinship families. It also points out the need for more timely data, better understanding of regional variations, and further research into informal kinship care. The authors stress that administrative data alone cannot fully capture children's experiences, and direct feedback from those with lived experience is essential.
Dr Joanna Soraghan and Dr Robert Porter. Growing Up in Kinship Care. CELCIS; Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR), 2024. https://www.celcis.org/news/news-pages/new-research-highlights-need-increased-support-scotlands-kinship-families.
This Care Inspectorate report looks at how children and young people are cared for in secure care and what needs to improve to ensure their rights are respected, including whether new rules made by the Scottish Government are helping young people and staff.
Approximately 200 people participated in the study, including young people, family members, professionals and Local Authority representatives. The journeys of 30 young people were also tracked over a one-year period.
The Care Inspectorate found that progress has been made in meeting the aims of the secure care Pathway and Standards, but significant gaps remain across the full journey into, through and out of secure care. The new rules have had the strongest impact for those in secure care, where most young people experienced improved safety, felt listened to, had their rights upheld, and benefited from specialist support and education. Some positive preventative effects were noted—where intensive, relationship-based community support and clear risk-planning processes helped prevent admission.
However, the greatest weaknesses were found after young people leave secure care. Many experienced a sharp drop in support, struggled to access health and wellbeing services, lost educational progress, and faced homelessness or serious safety risks, leading to re-admissions. Ongoing problems included unequal access to community resources, inconsistent understanding of secure care’s therapeutic purpose, lack of stable relationships, and variation in restrictive practices.
Secure Care Pathway Review. Care Inspectorate, 2023. https://www.careinspectorate.com/images/documents/7293/Secure%20care%20pathway%20review%202023.pdf.
This report, prepared by The Lines Between for Scottish Attachment in Action (SAIA), evaluates the Wee BREATHERS project. The evaluation aimed to assess the project's effectiveness against its intended outcomes for various stakeholders, including staff, leadership teams, young people, and families.
Wee BREATHERS, developed by SAIA, provides attachment-informed, trauma-sensitive supervision to staff in schools and early years settings. This support is offered through one-to-one and group sessions, creating a safe space for reflection and learning. The project seeks to improve staff understanding of attachment theory and trauma, ultimately benefiting young people and school culture.
The evaluation gathered data through online surveys and interviews with staff from early years, primary, and secondary school settings, as well as supervisors. Key findings indicate that Wee BREATHERS positively impacts staff wellbeing, confidence, and understanding of children's developmental issues and behaviours. Staff reported improved relationships at work and a different mindset that extended to their personal lives.
The project's engaging delivery model, characterised by safe and non-judgmental spaces, was highly valued. Supervisors also reported positive experiences, noting the significant need for such support within the education sector. Challenges included the practicalities of freeing up staff time and ensuring suitable private spaces for sessions.
Overall, Wee BREATHERS is seen as a valuable initiative that helps education staff reflect, learn, and adapt their practices to better support pupils. It contributes to a more inclusive school culture and significantly impacts the professional and personal lives of participants.
The Lines Between. Evaluation of Wee BREATHERS. Scottish Attachment in Action, 2025. https://scottishattachmentinaction.org/wee-breathers-2/.
This interim report, authored by Nadia Ayed, Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Peter Mackie, and Ian Thomas, and published by I-SPHERE and Heriot Watt University in February 2025, evaluates the first year of the Upstream Scotland pilot. The report aims to understand how the initiative, inspired by the Australian Geelong Project, is being put into practice in Scotland to prevent youth homelessness.
The Upstream Scotland pilot, led by Rock Trust, involves six secondary schools across three local authority areas. It uses a school-based survey to find young people at risk of homelessness and offers them support. The evaluation highlights the successful recruitment of different schools and the strong relationships built with them.
Key findings show that over 1 in 10 young people in pilot schools are at risk of youth homelessness, like elsewhere in the UK. Many of these young people are engaged with school but show lower levels of resilience and wellbeing. A significant challenge has been getting parents' permission for support, which has caused delays. The report suggests considering a "whole family" approach and improving data privacy and consent processes for future implementation.
Early impacts include increased awareness of homelessness among students and teachers, reduced stigma, and improved wellbeing for some young people. The report highlights the need for clearer communication about the initiative, refining consent processes, and potentially expanding the support to include whole families to address the root causes of youth homelessness more effectively.
Ayed, Nadia, Suzanne Fitzpatrick, Peter Mackie, and Ian Thomas. Upstream Scotland Pilot Evaluation. Interim Report. Rock Trust, 2025. https://www.rocktrust.org/download/upstream-scotland-pilot-evaluation-2025/.
Who Cares? Scotland—a national independent membership organisation for care experienced people, dedicated to supporting, empowering and amplifying the voices of Scotland’s care community—provided targeted analysis of their existing evidence for The Promise Story of Progress, sharing material that mapped to the relevant vision statements and contributed insight into how their internal data, participation activity, and qualitative evidence could inform the experiential strand of the Promise Story of Progress.
Their reports reflected advocacy work carried out between 1st January 2020 and 30th June 2025, during which time Who Cares? Scotland advocacy workers supported around 4,800 individuals. Although the report findings do not represent the experience of every care experienced individual in Scotland, they highlight issues that need continued attention as Scotland works to understand what is changing and what still needs to be addressed.
An anonymised and abridged collation of these reports is available at: Who Cares? Scotland. The Promise Story of Progress: Vision Statement advocacy reports by Who Cares? Scotland (abridged). The Promise Scotland, 2025. https://www.plan2430.scot/media/r0jiy2pl/2025-12-17-the-promise-story-of-progress-vision-statement-advocacy-reports-by-who-cares-scotland_abridged.pdf
Bettencourt, Michael, and Leanne McIver. “Learning More about Scotland’s Virtual Schools.” CELCIS, 2024. https://www.celcis.org/knowledge-bank/search-bank/blog/learning-more-about-scotlands-virtual-schools.
Bettencourt, Michael. CELCIS’s Response to the Scottish Government’s “Prescribing the Minimum Annual Number of Learning Hours: Consultation.” CELCIS, 2023. https://www.celcis.org/knowledge-bank/search-bank/response-celcis-scottish-governments-prescribing-minimum-annual-number-learning-hours-consultation.
Brown, D, E Gedeon, M Henderson, A Leyland, P Wilson, and A Mirjam. ‘Mortality Outcomes of Children and Young People Who Have Spent Time in Care: Evidence from Children’s Health in Care in Scotland, a Population-Wide Administrative Data Cohort Study’. Pub Med, June 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40473467/.
Care Inspectorate. “Children’s Rights, Care Experience and Corporate Parenting.” https://www.careinspectorate.com/index.php/corporate-parenting.
CELCIS, Aberlour, Care Inspectorate, and Includem. Love InC Final Project Report. CELCIS, 2022. https://www.celcis.org/knowledge-bank/search-bank/love-inc-project-final-report.
Children and Young People Monitoring Report 2023-24: Admissions of Young People under the Age of 18 to Non-Specialist Wards in Scotland. Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, 2024. https://www.mwcscot.org.uk/news/continuing-fall-numbers-young-people-admitted-adult-wards-mental-health-treatment-scotland.
Children and Young People’s Contact with the Police- Public Briefing. Scottish Police Authority, 2023. https://www.spa.police.uk/publication-library/children-and-young-people-s-contact-with-the-police/.
Continuing Care Focus Area Findings Inspection Year 2024-25. Care Inspectorate, 2025. https://www.careinspectorate.com/images/documents/Continuing_care_findings/Continuing_care_focus_area_findings_inspection_year_2024-25.pdf.
Deeley, Sarah, and Kyle Fleming. ‘A Promising Change’. Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care 22, no. 2 (2023). https://doi.org/10.17868/STRATH.00087199.
Dr Joanna Soraghan and Dr Robert Porter. Growing Up in Kinship Care. CELCIS; Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR), 2024. https://www.celcis.org/news/news-pages/new-research-highlights-need-increased-support-scotlands-kinship-families.
Fostering and Adoption Statistical Bulletin 2024-2025. Care Inspectorate, 2025. https://www.careinspectorate.com/images/documents/fostering_and_adoption/Fostering_and_adoption_statistical_bulletin_2024-2025.pdf.
Impact Evaluation Phase 5 (2020 to 2023) CashBack For Communities Final Report. CashBack for Communities, 2023. https://cashbackforcommunities.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/CashBack-Phase-5-Final-Evaluation.pdf.
In Safe Hands yet? A Progress Report on the Campaign to Regulate the Use of Seclusion and Restraint in Scotland’s Schools. ENABLE Scotland, 2022. https://www.enable.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/InSafeHandsYet-Report-Oct-2022-FINAL-1.0-2.pdf.
McTier, Dr Alex, Mihaela Manole, Jane Scott, et al. Children’s Services Reform Research: Scotland’s Children’s Services Landscape: The Views and Experiences of the Children’s Services Workforce. CELCIS, 2023. https://www.celcis.org/knowledge-bank/search-bank/childrens-services-reform-research-scotlands-childrens-services-landscape-views-and-experiences-childrens-services-workforce.
Ottaway, Heather, Alexander McTier, Mihaela Manole, et al. Children’s Services Reform Research: Learning and Implications for Scotland. CELCIS, 2023. https://www.celcis.org/knowledge-bank/search-bank/childrens-services-reform-research-concluding-report.
Physical Intervention in Schools Guidance Consultation Response by the Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG). Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG), 2022.
Re: Proposed Restraint and Seclusion (Prevention in Schools) (Scotland) Bill. Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG), n.d. https://www.celcis.org/application/files/3517/0972/1557/Proposed_Restraint_and_Seclusion_Prevention_in_Schools_Scotland_Bill_Consultation__SPRAG_response.pdf.
Reaching Back Earlier for Care Experienced Learners: An Evaluation of the Learning Explorers Pilot. The Hub for Success, 2022. https://hubforsuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/LE-evaluation-report.pdf.
Reimagining Secure Care - Final Report: A Vision for the Reimagined/Future World. Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ), 2024. https://www.cycj.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Reimagining-Secure-Care-Final-Report.pdf.
Restrictive Practice 2024. Care Inspectorate, 2025. https://www.careinspectorate.com/images/documents/8207/Restrictive_practice_statistical_bulletin_2024.pdf.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Corporate Parenting Plan 2023-2026. Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, 2023.
Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG) Care & Justice Bill Consultation Response. Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG), n.d. https://consult.gov.scot/children-and-families/childrens-care-and-justice-reforms/consultation/view_respondent?uuId=287690777.
Scottish Police Authority Corporate Parenting Plan 2024-2027. Scottish Police Authority, 2025. https://www.spa.police.uk/publication-library/corporate-parenting-plan-2024-27/.
Secure Care Pathway Review. Care Inspectorate, 2023. https://www.careinspectorate.com/images/documents/7293/Secure%20care%20pathway%20review%202023.pdf.
Spolander, Gary, Janine Bolger, and Joanna Santos-Petiot. Upstream Scotland Pilot Evaluation. Rock Trust, 2025. https://www.rocktrust.org/download/upstream-scotland-pilot-evaluation-2025/.
Update on Progress: #KeepingThePromise PHS Contribution February 2024. Public Health Scotland, 2024.
Update on Progress: Correspondance to Fiona Duncan- The promise. Police Scotland, 2024.
Update on Progress: Email Response from the Scottish Police Authority. The Scottish Police Authority, 2024.
Update on Progress: Update on the promise Plan. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, 2024.
Whitelaw, Dr Ruby, and Ross Gibson. Preparing to Keep The promise: A Comparative Study of Secure Care and Young Offender Institutions in Scotland. Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ), 2023. https://www.cycj.org.uk/resource/preparing-to-keep-the-promise-a-comparitive-study-of-secure-care-and-young-offender-instituions-in-scotland/.
Whyte, Dr Emily, and Dr Lisa Craig. Scottish Attachment in Action Wee BREATHERS: A Learning Account. Corra Foundation, n.d.