Renfrewshire Council

In 2020, Scotland made a promise to Care Experienced children and young people that they "will grow up loved, safe and respected."

Keeping this promise means implementing the conclusions of Scotland's three-year Independent Care Review where more than 5,500 Care Experienced children and adults voiced their experiences.

On February 5 of that year, the then Scottish Government committed to keeping this promise by 2030 at the latest. This was agreed by all parties within the Scottish Parliament.

Now, in 2025, we're at the halfway point to keeping that promise. 

To mark this milestone, we caught up with Promise Ambassador Sam Macrae for an insight into the progress here in Renfrewshire.

Meet our Promise Ambassador, Sam Macrae

Sam was one of our first colleagues to start implementing The Promise when she joined the Council back in 2021.

Alongside Promise Manager Maurice Gilligan, Sam works closely with teams across the council, and our partners, to guide and help them make practical changes which have enabled their services to become more accessible and inclusive for Care Experienced people.

Reflecting on her Promise journey in Renfrewshire so far, Sam said,

"There have been a lot of changes over the past five years, building on some fantastic work that was already underway to support the Care Experienced community in Renfrewshire.

"The first major shift has been a huge increase in general awareness and consideration for Care Experienced people's needs.

"We've built a great team—over 300 strong—of dedicated Promise Keepers across the council and within partner organisations, who work tirelessly to promote The Promise in their services.

"From our schools to OneRen's public libraries, The Promise is visible all around and I hope this sends a message to our Care Experienced community that those services are safe spaces for them. Changes like simplifying the library sign-up process so it is more inclusive, and training the entire team at Glenburn ELCC as Promise Keepers, are making a positive difference every day.

"As well adapting services and raising general awareness, we've also been addressing the ways in which we speak to and about Care Experienced people. This includes our Language Policy which is an evolving set of guidelines to help everyone understand what positive inclusive language sounds and looks like. 

"It's helping us move away from acronyms such as 'LAC and LAAC' for 'looked after child' or 'looked after and accommodated child', which could imply the person is 'lacking' in something. Another example is 'challenging behaviour', which makes it sound like the person is just being difficult. The idea is to make language more accessible by writing out acronyms in full and replacing negative sounding phrases with more empathetic descriptions like 'Care Experienced', or 'distressed behaviour'.

"It's not something that can be set in stone and so we'll continue to work with Care Experienced people in our communities to develop our language guidance, so it always reflects their needs.

"Over the next five years, I'm looking forward to helping the Council become a more inclusive employer where colleagues with Care Experience are listened to. We'll also be promoting more work experience and job opportunities to the local Care Experienced community.

To help achieve these goals and #KeepThe Promise by 2030, we are sharing Sam's appeal to colleagues across the council:

"I think it's important to acknowledge the progress we have made, but we also need to recognise that we still have a long way to go to ensure that we #KeepThePromise.

"I'd like to encourage more colleagues across the council to get involved because it's not just relevant to people who work with children. Regardless of your role, you can meet someone who is Care Experienced. They might be a service user, a carer, or even a colleague. No matter who it is, it's essential that we understand their needs and the barriers they might face. Only through learning and collaboration can we build a better future for Care Experienced people."

Learn more about The Promise

If you are interested in becoming a Promise Keeper, or would like more information, please email Sam at samantha.macrae@renfrewshire.gov.uk.

Our e-learning course on iLearn offers a valuable guide to The Promise and our Promise Keepers network at Renfrewshire Council. 

Find out more about The Promise in Renfrewshire (iLearn portal).

You can get more background and information on the wider strategy and The Promise frameworks, on The Promise Scotland's website.

Read about The Promise Scotland (The Promise Scotland website).

Published Wednesday 05 February 2025