Scotland’s New Children’s Care Act in Practice: Guidance, Care Duties and How to Deliver Them

The Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Act 2026 is now law, but the real test will be delivery. It changes the law around children’s care, care experience, children’s services planning, aftercare, advocacy, kinship care, foster care, residential care, continuing care and the Children’s Hearings System. It is explicitly part of Scotland’s attempt to keep The Promise after the Independent Care Review.

Councils, health boards, children’s services, corporate parents, care providers, hearings partners and third sector organisations now need to understand what must change in practice.

This conference will examine what public bodies and partners should prepare for as guidance, commencement and secondary legislation develop. It will consider care experience, corporate parenting, aftercare, advocacy, kinship care, foster care, residential care, Children’s Hearings reform, services planning and accountability.

Implementation will reach well beyond children’s social work. The conference will help delegates think through what the Act means for all relevant services and policy areas. These include education, health, housing, employability, corporate parenting, scrutiny, provider regulation and the wider network of services that shape the lives of care-experienced children, young people and adults.

Bringing together government, councils, social work, children’s rights bodies, care-experienced voices, providers, hearings organisations, education, health, housing, scrutiny bodies and legal specialists, the conference will help delegates understand what is coming next and what they should do now to keep The Promise in practice.

This online conference will focus on three themes:

• The Act, the guidance and the implementation challenge.
• Corporate parenting, aftercare and support.
• Hearings, residential care and accountability.