Developing practice, where young people’s needs are at the centre and the responsibility for growth and development is owned by the professionals around the child, is the culture that Care Visions was developed on and that we will continue to strengthen.   

Care Visions was established with the aim of ensuring the young person and good practice remained at the centre of all we do.  Much of this culture has been maintained, but over the years within Social Care in Scotland, in the context of keeping young people safe and avoiding risk; managerial processes have been adopted and priorities have been established, based on external outcomes and measures, which can detract from the time spent with young people and allow workers to focus on processes other than children.   

Regulatory and managerial reward has been given for evidence portfolio’s and recording systems, more than simply the positive experiences and opportunities for growth given to young people.  The impact of our actions on a young person will be the same whether they are recorded or not, however, in the efforts to improve practice, the focus has on occasion been more on the recording than the actions.  Measures are in place which evidences the efficiency and effectiveness of organisations, much easier than to measure than the impact on an individual young people.   

Through The Promise, we have the opportunity to reflect and recognise where this has happened and ensure the system of the future is reconfigured to measure what truly matters to young people and families.