Keeping The Promise in Highland
A report on the work over the past 2 years related to ‘Keeping The Promise’ in Highland has been warmly received by Members of The Highland Council’s Health Social Care and Wellbeing Committee.
The promise is that Scotland's children and young people will grow up loved, safe and respected. #KeepThePromise is a Scottish Government commitment that received support of all political parties in 2020. Organisations, institutions, bodies, communities, and groups across Scotland pledged to #KeepThePromise, including The Highland Council.
The report scrutinised by Councillors highlighted the Council’s work to #KeepThePromise from January 2022 - when a Programme Manager (The Promise) was appointed - to January 2024.
Councillor David Fraser, Chair of the Health Social Care and Wellbeing Committee said:
“I commend the debate and information brought to Councillors in this report it has been hugely beneficial, and the scale of the work undertaken by the teams has been amazing on this journey that The Highland Council is on to KeepThePromise.”
He added: “It’s important to note that Keeping the Promise in Highland recognises the geography of Highland. The report states: ‘Keeping the Promise in Caithness may not look the same as Keeping the Promise in Lochaber; what Easter Ross might need to support families may not look the same for families in Skye.’ Therefore, I am pleased to note the recruitment of 20 Promise Ambassadors who act as a feedback loop from and into our local areas.”
The report highlights how the Council is engaging with its staff, and children and families across the region by respecting and protecting children’s rights, meaningfully listening to the voices of children and families and taking cognisance that the language used is important and does not stigmatise children and families.
A Promise newsletter, and training and induction package have been created to create Promise-informed employees and stakeholders. The report reflects the national learning on the Trauma agenda, reflecting that the workforce cannot be Trauma Informed if it sits under systems that are not. The Council’s ambition to be a ‘Trauma Informed’ organisation underpins the Promise with the creation of trauma informed leadership and systems across the organisation. To support this the first Highland Trauma Summit took place on 3 September 2024 in Strathpeffer with a keynote address from MSP Maree Todd, Chair of the National Trauma Steering Group Senior leaders across Highland met to learn more about this work and how they can influence system change.
The ‘Keeping the Promise’ report shines a light on the work being undertaken across the Council to provide “An environment and culture where finding and maintaining safe, loving, respectful relationships is the norm. That will involve fundamentally shifting the primary purpose of the whole of Scotland’s care system from protecting against harm to protecting all safe, loving respectful relationships.”
The committee recognised the positive progress being made towards building the foundations of the Promise, but it was also highlighted that given the scale of transformational change, required to achieve the Promise by 2030, there is still much work to do in Highland across the partnership to #KeepthePromise.
The important work being done to look at establishing effective and locally responsive residential and respite care provision, involving extensive local stakeholder engagement across Highland, is reflected in the report. Further information on emerging findings will be provided soon and stakeholders will be involved in developing next steps.
One example of how keeping the promise is making a difference has been the production of an online ‘Language Guide’ developed through engagement with children and the workforce which will help professionals to remove the use of stigmatising language when speaking with children and their families.
Cllr Fraser added: “This is an ongoing process and while we are showing good progress, there remains much to be done and our thanks go to the staff, Third Sector and families for their support as we deliver the Promise across Highland.”
The report can be viewed on the Council’s website at this link.