Securing the future of foster care in Scotland

Tuesday 30th September 2025

Foster care is at the heart of Scotland’s commitment to care-experienced children. Yet fostering services face increasing strain amid rising demand, placement instability, and a shortage of carers. The challenge now is how to reform and strengthen fostering to deliver on the ambitions of The Promise while responding to urgent pressures in practice.

Scotland has committed to transformational change across the care system through The Promise, aiming to create a landscape where children grow up safe, loved and respected. In fostering, this demands not only structural reform, but a cultural shift in how we understand, value and support care relationships. Translating this into practice requires alignment between national policy, local delivery, and lived experience.

The sector is also contending with practical pressures – a shrinking pool of foster carers, growing complexity of needs among children, and variability in support and outcomes across the country. While there is innovation and dedication at every level, there remains an urgent need to confront inconsistency and inequity in fostering services.

At the same time, there are new opportunities through trauma-informed models of care, increased understanding of children’s rights, and a growing emphasis on multi-agency collaboration across health, education and social work. Ensuring the sustainability of fostering must now involve deeper support for carers, better placement matching, and stronger infrastructure for participation and advocacy.

With key developments in national care service planning, inspection frameworks, and workforce strategy underway, the future of fostering in Scotland is entering a pivotal phase – one where clarity of vision, shared responsibility, and practical action must come together.

This conference examines the future of foster care in Scotland, focusing on three themes:

• Delivering The Promise – policy, strategy and reform
• Supporting foster carers – recruitment, retention and practice
• The child’s experience – rights, voices and outcomes

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Topics to be discussed

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• Delivering The Promise – policy, strategy and reform
• Implementing The Promise in fostering – progress and what’s next
• Regulating for better outcomes – the role of oversight in fostering
• Supporting foster carers – recruitment, retention and practice
• Recruitment and retention of foster carers – turning the tide
• Healing homes – embedding trauma-informed approaches
• Resilience, recognition and support for foster carers
• The child’s experience – rights, voices and outcomes
• Power in practice – putting the child at the centre
• Education and health in foster care – building better pathways
• Placement stability and the journey through foster care

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Who should attend

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This conference is intended for all those working in the provision and support of foster care in Scotland and is suitable for both organisations and individuals. It is relevant to everyone directly and indirectly involved in fostering and fostering-related supporting activities. This includes but is not limited to:

• Senior managers and team leaders in local authority fostering services
• Independent and not-for-profit fostering agencies
• Foster carers and fostering panel members
• Children’s social work professionals
• Policy and commissioning officers in children’s services
• Education professionals and virtual school headteachers
• Child and adolescent mental health professionals (CAMHS)
• Youth advocacy and children’s rights organisations
• Legal professionals and regulatory bodies
• Academics and researchers in child welfare and social work
• Voluntary sector organisations supporting children and families
• Scottish Government officials and national agencies

Speakers