South Ayrshire Leaders make their Parenting Promise

[02 March 2022]

This week the South Ayrshire Leadership Panel made a commitment to the new South Ayrshire Parenting Promise, an ambitious new multi-agency approach to corporate parenting.

Inspired by the work being done nationally by The Promise Scotland to drive change highlighted by the Independent Care Review, we have developed a new corporate parenting strategy called the South Ayrshire Parenting Promise to help implement change locally. This is a collaborative strategy between the South Ayrshire Health & Social Care Partnership (HSCP) and a number of different corporate parents from across South Ayrshire including; South Ayrshire Council; Police Scotland; NHS Ayrshire & Arran; Scotland Fire & Rescue and the third sector.

South Ayrshire's Parenting Promise is a plan written for those who are care experienced and details what you can expect of us as your corporate parents. We have brought together different corporate parents from across South Ayrshire to write the plan. We were also joined by some of our Champions Board representatives who have used their lived experience of care to help us understand what's working well in South Ayrshire and what we need to change.

We want to make South Ayrshire the best place it can be for children, young people and their families and it matters to us that all young people get the chance to grow up loved, safe and respected to be the very best they can be. All of those involved in developing this plan have committed to listening, collaborating and taking action. Collectively we have a critical role to play in achieving the changes we need to make across our community.

Mark Inglis, Head of Children's Health, Care and Justice Services said, "The South Ayrshire Health & Social Care Partnership have always been committed to improving outcomes for care experienced young people. It is only by working together that we can achieve real change and that is why we decided to approach our fellow corporate parents from around South Ayrshire. It has been a wonderful experience to see organisations getting involved and work directly with those with experience of care to develop this strategy together."

"The actions reflected in this new strategy are not the responsibility of an individual or service and should be delivered jointly. We are delighted that our Community Planning Partnership will help coordinate the implementation of the South Ayrshire Parenting Promise and ensure this is embedded into the way we all work together.

Councillor Peter Henderson, Leader of South Ayrshire Council added, "The South Ayrshire Parenting Promise is a fantastic piece of work and was well received at today's Leadership Panel. It is important to us that South Ayrshire's Parenting Promise shows how committed we are in South Ayrshire to working together to keep the promise to all the children and families that we work with and for."

"Care experience is a protected characteristic which can affect outcomes for young people in our community. It is amazing to see the work which is being taken in South Ayrshire to ensure that we do everything in our power to help all young people to achieve their best life."

To find out more and to view our new South Ayrshire Parenting Promise please visit: https://hscp.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/ParentingPromise