The Promise
Advocacy 2026
We work with Who Cares Scotland who provide advocacy and support to all of our care experienced wee ones, children and young people.
January
They supported 18 young people from Midlothian through advocacy. They met up to talk about 'your rights, your views, and the things that matter to you, making sure your voice is heard and respected'. They met in schools, at home, and enjoyed a few trips out to McDonald's and Costa Coffee for a relaxed chat.
Midlothian Champions Board
They met and there was a lot to catch up on after the festive break! The group took time to reflect on the work they did last year. They were excited to connect with more Corporate Parents this year.
School's Groups
As a lot of the young people hadn't met properly before, they spent time playing games and getting to know each other a bit better to make everyone feel safe and respected.
February
Midlothian Champs Group
Since their last Champs, they have sadly said goodbye to one of the core members, who has moved away from the Midlothian area. They had a 'good luck' dinner with sausage rolls and homemade cake to make sure they had a good send off, as well as giving them the space to share any exciting things they were looking forward to about the move, or any potential worries.
The Champs decided that they want to see more about how the emergency services work in the Midlothian area so they started to make connections with the police and NHS Lothian and will soon be meeting with the Fire Service.
School's Groups
February was a busy month for the schools groups! They started the month by cementing the group values: what they want the groups to be guided by, how to get there, and the promises they are making to each other.
Their main priorities are to recruit more care-experienced young people so that they can also have their voices heard, and raise awareness and understanding around things people in the care-experienced community might experience. One group will be presenting to the Head Teacher and Senior Leadership Team of their school in March to highlight the importance of all staff and students receiving training about care experience, as well as asking for this training to be incorporated into future in-service days. It takes a lot of courage to stand up and present to people especially about things that may be personal.
March
Midlothian Champions Board
Our Midlothian Champs met for pizzas and patter with Liam Arbuthnott from Police Scotland. Liam spoke about how he got into the police, and the Champs got some great insight into some of the different roles you can hold in the police force, and what it can look like. We may have some volunteers on our hands before long!
School's groups
Lasswade High School will be incorporating training for the 'We Promise Award' into their in-service days for staff. The group are extremely pleased that a commitment has been made to raising awareness of the issues care experienced young people face in school, so we can work towards a more understanding and kinder culture.
April
Midlothian Champions Board
April was a quiet month, where it was nice just to hear from the group about what they have enjoyed at Champs in the past and how we can do these things again in the future. As the weather improves and we move into summer, thoughts are turning to getting out, being active and having some FUN. The group would like to have the opportunity to continue building connections with each other through a local trip somewhere, so the planning starts now…
School's groups
After a long break due to the Easter holidays, the groups were happy to meet up again and catch up about everything they had been up to in the holidays. We completed some questionnaires for NHS Lothian who are making an animation about how they are working to uphold young people's rights which is being shaped by respecting the views of our young people. The questionnaires inspired interesting discussions around young people's rights, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which we agreed to explore in more detail.