Foster care is at the heart of Scotland’s commitment to care-experienced children. Yet fostering services face increasing strain amid rising demand, placement instability, and a shortage of carers. The challenge now is how to reform and strengthen fostering to deliver on the ambitions of The Promise while responding to urgent pressures in practice.

This conference takes place online.

Poverty is the single greatest barrier to a child’s attainment in Scotland today. While there is growing consensus on this truth, the gap between political ambition and practical delivery remains. Policy alone cannot close the attainment gap without structural change in how services support families, schools, and communities. Tackling poverty and boosting attainment must therefore be a coordinated national mission that brings together education, health, housing, and local government in practical partnership.

This conference takes place online.

Scotland is ageing – and fast. While longer lives are a testament to progress, they also reveal growing cracks in care services, workforce sustainability and rights-based support for older people. Gaps in provision, pressures on unpaid carers and fractured funding arrangements pose urgent questions about quality, fairness and continuity of care. Therefore, we must reconsider how we deliver, fund and reform care for older people across Scotland’s public, private and third sectors.

This conference takes place online.