Route map: Data and information

This route map was last updated in December 2025 with all information that is known about work underway and still required. It is not yet fully populated and work continues to identify what still needs to happen. Route maps are shared planning tools to support delivery of the promise and as progress is made and the rest of the route becomes clearer, this route map will continue to be updated.

Where is Scotland now?

Key activity includes the launch of The Promise Story of Progress and work to improve data availability, quality and use. There is growing recognition of the need to better capture lived experience, outcomes and inequalities, including sibling relationships and equalities. Next steps focus on improving consistency, accessibility and integration of qualitative and quantitative evidence, aligning data activity across partners, reducing duplication, and ensuring information supports participation, transparency and accountability. Sustained collaboration is essential to embed a meaningful, person-centred approach to data across the system.

Where does Scotland need to be by 2030?

All of the promise's calls to action have been grouped into delivery-focused outcomes that make clear what Scotland must deliver to keep the promise. The route map then identifies who must take responsibility for action by when for each outcome. This means the outcomes are fully aligned to what children, young people, and care experienced adults said must happen and the actions required are in a format that supports delivery, accountability, and monitoring.

The outcomes in Data and Information are:

Scotland collects and uses data that reflects what matters to children, young people, and care experienced adults - supporting learning, relationships, and better decisions. Data is accurate, comprehensive, and representative, filling long-standing gaps such as equalities, sibling relationships, and adoption breakdowns.
Scotland’s data systems are integrated and interoperable, allowing visibility of journeys and outcomes across services, and improving accountability for change.
The workforce is confident and supported to gather, interpret, and use data that reflects lived experience and relationships, not just statistics.
Children, young people, and care experienced adults have control over their information and how it is shared. Decision makers are able to access the right information at the right time, with digital tools supporting ownership, and workforce knowledge recognised as key to effective decisions, meaning decisions are made and services are designed using diverse, high-quality data and lived experience to meet real needs, rather than repeating historical patterns.

The route map to get there

The Promise Story of Progress was launched in December 2024 by The Promise Scotland, COSLA and The Scottish Government, and work is ongoing to update and iterate the data contained within it. The Scottish Government established The Promise Data and Evidence Group to support this work.

The Promise Data Map has been developed to support organisations to improve their data aligned to what matters to children, young people, families, and care experienced adults. It has launched in December 2025.

First full annual Promise Story of Progress published across national and organisational progress and experience questions. In 2026, COSLA alongside the Scottish Government will collaborate with a number of multi-agency planning structures to undertake work that brings together further local experience and data as part of the Promise Story of Progress.

The Scottish Government will begin rolling updates of the data contained within the Promise Progress Framework.

Feedback on Promise Story of Progress website features, dashboard and user interface used to enhance and publish second iteration.

The Promise Scotland share reflections and implications from the first development of the experiential component of the Promise Story of Progress.

Public Health Scotland is leading a project to see if linking existing data can provide a sustainable way to regularly track health, mental health, and healthcare measures for children and young people with care experience. If routine monitoring of care experienced children and young people's health and mental health related indicators are deemed feasible, the co-authors of the Promise Story of Progress will continue to review these for inclusion within the Promise Progress Framework.

Public Health Scotland take forward the Children's Health and Monitoring the Promise (CHaMP) project, using data linkage to understand health outcomes and equity in access to health services for children and young people with care experience. If this is linkage is deemed feasible, indicators will be considered for inclusion within the Promise Progress Framework. Public Health Scotland aims to agree the next step programme of work by October 2026.

The Scottish Government, COSLA and the Promise Scotland will review the Promise Progress Framework indicators in conjunction with The Promise Data and Evidence Group. COSLA, The Promise Scotland and Scottish Government will explore how best to integrate learning and place based data in the Promise Story of Progress.

If routine monitoring of care experienced children and young people's health and mental health related indicators are deemed feasible, the co-authors of the Promise Story of Progress will continue to review these for inclusion within the Promise Progress Framework.

Broader improvements in the data landscape will be monitored, and considered for inclusion within the Promise Progress Framework.

There are no milestones identified for this year yet. Once progress is made in earlier years, the work required in this year will be clearer and milestones will be added here.

Who needs to work on this:

Scottish Government, COSLA, The Promise Scotland, Public Health Scotland

Other route maps this links to:

Listening

Documenting decisions

Participation and engagement

View calls to action from the promise under this outcome

The Promise Story of Progress has been built upon strong foundations: what was heard by the Independent Care Review; the development of the What Matters questions from what was heard from over 5500 voices; and the work of change since the promise was made. It gives Scotland a shared way of understanding change without creating new burdens or turning the promise into a performance system, supporting the long-term commitment at the heart of keeping the promise.

The Promise Story of Progress has been created as a way for Scotland to understand how change is happening and where improvement is needed. It offers a structured approach that brings together different forms of data and evidence, helping Scotland see what is shifting, what is challenging and what needs sustained attention. It is not a performance tool and does not assess or rate organisations. Instead, it provides a consistent and coherent approach for understanding progress, supporting collective learning and guiding the ongoing work required to keep the promise.

The Promise Data Map was launched in December 2025. It has been developed to support organisations to improve their data aligned to what matters to children, young people, families, and care experienced adults.

The Scottish Government will engage with the Community of Practice for Siblings to develop next steps on data to reflect the stories of sibling connection and those living in kinship care.

The Connect 4 project investigated the federation of data services across the UK’s four national Trusted Research Environments. The finding of this project are now available as part of the roadmap to a federated data service. The roadmap outlines what improvements and arrangements are required to sustainably allow a researcher to discover, apply for and analyse federated data, held at two or more of the UK’s national Trusted Research Environments.

By end 2026 the full business case for a Common Data Platform will have been developed and shared by the Prevention Hub, and presented at a Complete full business roundtable to agree options and next steps with key national stakeholders (Health, Justice, Education, Scottish Government, Local Authorities).

Support organisational use of The Promise Data Map to identify opportunities for data sharing and joined up data approaches.

By March 2027, COSLA, Local Government Digital Office, Scottish Government Digital Health and Care will have collaboratively worked to roll out Microsoft 365, enabling health and local government employed social work and social care staff to collaborate and share information.

Establish agreed standards for organisational learning contributions (not targets or scoring) and local contextual data use where available (variation not ranking).

There are no milestones identified for this year yet. Once progress is made in earlier years, the work required in this year will be clearer and milestones will be added here.

Who needs to work on this:

Scottish Government, COSLA, local authorities, Social Work Scotland, Community of Practice for Siblings, Prevention Hub, The Promise Scotland

Other route maps this links to:

Workforce support

Rules, processes and culture

View calls to action from the promise under this outcome

Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative and CELCIS are hosting a series of learning sessions on how family voice, and the qualitative data generated as a result, supports improvements across the system from strategic planning through to individual practice improvement.

The Promise Scotland and Edinburgh Futures Institute develop and test data, ethics and participation toolkit to prevent repeat asks of care community.

The learning and feedback from the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative and CELCIS sessions should be used to inform ongoing support and learning offers. The Promise Scotland and the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative will work together to host workshops supporting the workforce around voice, data and systemic listening.

Data, Ethics and Participation Toolkit refined and made available.

There are no milestones identified for this year yet. Once progress is made in earlier years, the work required in this year will be clearer and milestones will be added here.

Who needs to work on this:

The Promise Scotland, Edinburgh Futures Institute, Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative, CELCIS

Other route maps this links to:

Workforce support

Rules, processes and culture

View calls to action from the promise under this outcome

The Improvement Services' Scalable Approach to Vulnerability Via Interoperability (SAVVI) team are working with councils and their partners to navigate the legal, ethical, and technical challenges of using data to support the early identification of those who may need extra help and support. The SAVVI team are also working with East Lothian Council to identify the needs of young people more effectively by linking together existing data in order to better provide targeted, preventative support.

The Promise Scotland and the Data for Children Collaborative are working with others on an Information Sharing Project, to clearly establish the barriers to information sharing across current systems and identify solutions.

The Scottish Government published an evaluation of the Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025.

The Census undertook a consultation on the inclusion of additional data points, one of which is care experience. The consultation is now being analysed. Once the responses to this consultation have been analysed, and topic experts and stakeholders have been engaged with, The National Records of Scotland will decide which topics to include in the next census. They will undertake research and testing to make sure they ask the right questions.

In autumn 2026, the Improvement Services' Scalable Approach to Vulnerability Via Interoperability (SAVVI) team will produce a set of resources to help local authorities and other organisations navigate the legal, ethical, and technical challenges of using data to support the early identification of those who are facing financial hardship and may need extra help and support. The SAVVI Team’s work with East Lothian will identify key data sets, legal gateways, and complete ethics processes by the end of 2026.

The interim reports for The Promise Scotland and Data for Children Collaborative Information Sharing Project have been published.

The Promise Scotland via the Data for Children Collaborative held workshops with members of the workforce to develop the findings of the Information Sharing Project into usable resources. The final outputs will be developed and available by August.

The Scottish Government published an evaluation of the Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025. This evaluation provides an assessment of improvements to the equality evidence base and identifies areas for improvement to take forward as part of the next Strategy.

The next Equality Evidence Strategy will continue to prioritse improvements to equality and intersectional evidence across Scottish Government. This Strategy will be developed collaboratively with the governance board (EDIP), analysts, policymakers and external organisations interested in improving equality evidence. It is expected that a draft of the Strategy will be ready for consultation by Autumn 2026.

The Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Act 2026 was passed on 19 March 2026 and received Royal Assent on 15 May 2026.

Scottish Government to explore options to strengthen or simplify child protection legislative and policy framework.

Scottish Social Work Partnership will formally launch in autumn 2026. The Partnership will be led by the National Social Work Agency, COSLA and Social Work Scotland. They will work together to ensure a skilled, supported and sustainable social work workforce in Scotland.

The Improvement Services' Scalable Approach to Vulnerability Via Interoperability (SAVVI)’s project with East Lothian will move into a delivery phase by early 2027. This phase will see East Lothian Council use the new data sharing approach to assess and provide targeted support to young people (P6 - S1) using a whole family, strengths-based approach.

Scottish Government to outline next steps for further legislative or policy reform - if agreed, development of draft legislative amendments or secondary guidance strengthening workforce roles and reporting responsibilities.

Updates to local child protection procedures to align with the National Guidance (2023) and any new legislative provisions. Develop a national reflective practice framework for those making child protection decisions.

Continuous improvement actions embedded in all Child Protection Committee improvement plans and workforce training.

Local reviews of consistency in how workforce intelligence and professional judgement inform decision-making and case outcomes.

There are no milestones identified for this year yet. Once progress is made in earlier years, the work required in this year will be clearer and milestones will be added here.

Who needs to work on this:

Scottish Government, Social Work Scotland, COSLA, CELCIS, Local Authorities, The Promise Scotland, Improvement Service, Scottish Prevention Hub

Other route maps this links to:

Workforce support

Recruitment and retention

Rules, processes and culture

Leadership

Decision making

Documenting decisions

Governance

Rights and restraint

View calls to action from the promise under this outcome

What matters to children, families, and care experienced adults

People who make decisions that impact my life are making sure that they use the best possible information to do so.

People who support me are making sure they know what information they have, and they are using it to make my experiences better.

People who support me are making sure that information is shared at the right time, with the right people so it can really help and make a difference to me.

The information that is used to make decisions that impact me, my family and the support we receive, is information about things that actually matter to us.

I have ownership of my information, I can access and shape my records easily and I can decide who I want to share it with or not.

My views and experiences, and the views and experiences of people who are important in my life are recorded, included and acted on in a meaningful way.

Find out more about what matters here