The Promise

Our progress

As we progress with our work to Keep The Promise in Midlothian, we will update this page so you know what is happening across the partnership.

• COSLA updates and information

Keeping the Promise in Midlothian is governed by The Midlothian Community Planning Partnership. 

---

2025 

My name is Claire, and I am the Promise and Corporate Parenting lead in Midlothian. It is my absolute pleasure to share a progress update with you all

February

• The beginning of the year saw us launch our work with Who Cares? Scotland.
• We celebrated Care Day on 21 February.

March

• On 17 March we celebrated Kinship Care Week. Everyone enjoyed pizza and fun activities. Kinship Carers groups invited us for coffee and catch ups.

• Our Foundation Apprentice – Mia Brown, shared her work on Keeping Children's Rights
  • Getting ready for UNCRC (PDF)
• We delivered a presentation to the Promise Learning Collaborative
  • The Promise Progress Presentation 2025(PDF)

• We will be relaunching our Corporate Parenting Commitment and Midlothian Champion Board.

• Supporting employees with the Keeping The Promise Award (Education Scotland)
  So far 60 Midlothian employees have completed the “I Promise Award’ demonstrating their commitment to upholding the Promise to young people in their settings.
  The ‘We Promise Award’ is achieved where a whole team have completed the award - well done to Pathways to Success and the Family Wellbeing Service for being the first in Midlothian to achieve this.

June

• We re-launched our Corporate Parenting events on Friday 20 June. The event was a great opportunity for our care community to come together, have fun and learn about what activities are on during summer and beyond.  Wee ones, children & young people and their families were able to enjoy a range of activities including football, art, messy play and face painting.  The event was hosted by our Sport and Leisure service and a range of corporate parents were present from across the council and external partners such as Skills Development Scotland,  Y2K, MYPAS, Artlink and Who Cares? Scotland.  Thanks to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service for cooling us all down, on what was the hottest day of the year so far.  The next event is due to take place in November.

August

• On 19 August Claire attended The Promise – Rights and Justice Celebration event hosted by Cyrenians.  We had been involved in a 18 month project regarding understanding system change and she shared an update of how we are upholding our commitment to the Promise and Corporate Parenting.
  
  This CORRA funded piece of work brought partners together via training and development sessions to share practice examples, which included topics such as communication methods, understanding new trends, self-awareness, emotional regulation and neurodiversity. The group consisted of partner agencies who support children and young people who may come into conflict with the law in Midlothian, this included Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue service, School nursing, Residential Child Care, Children’s services social work and practice teams, Housing Department, Midlothian House Project, Family Wellbeing Service and Community Justice. Together we were able to share experiences and learn from one another.  

October

• Celebrating Care Experience week 25 October – 1 November
  This year the theme of Care Experience week is Children’s Rights. This annual event brings all corporate parents in Midlothian together to remove barriers and stigma and recognise the strengths and achievements of wee ones, children and young people. To mark this Midlothian Council are launching a new initiative to help care-experienced young people feel safer and more connected to the professionals supporting them.
  
  The idea came from the Midlothian Champions Board. They highlighted they often know very little about the social workers and other professionals making decisions about their lives. Having personal details such as likes, dislikes, and hobbies would help build trust and make them feel more comfortable.
  
  In response, Children’s Services staff and associated partners will be encouraged to complete a short biography to share with the children they work with. This simple but powerful step aims to strengthen relationships and ensure young people feel valued and respected and help them get to know a bit more about who we are as people.
  
  Throughout the week, Midlothian Council’s senior officers and corporate parents including Chief Executive Grace Vickers – will share their Promise pledges to care-experienced children, young people, and families.