Care experienced children deserve consistency, dignity and lifelong support. However, responsibilities are currently split, services are stretched and progress toward The Promise is uneven. The Scottish Government's new Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill aims to address this. So what is in the Bill, will it work, who will it impact and when will it happen?

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.

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.

Antisocial behaviour in Scotland features regularly in news reporting in a variety of different contexts. That it is taking place and is causing significant damage to the quality of life for both individuals and communities is not in dispute. The question is, who has the responsibility to tackle it, when should they be addressing it and how can this be given priority for both cure and prevention?

This conference takes place online.

Scotland is at a pivotal moment in the reform of its mental health and capacity laws. The Scottish Government is responding to calls for change, driven by the findings of the Scottish Mental Health Law Review (SMHLR). This includes an urgent need to address the complexities of Adults with Incapacity (AWI) legislation, ensure mental health practices are aligned with human rights, and improve accountability and support mechanisms across the care and treatment landscape.

This conference will take place online.

Conference supported by Together (Scottish Alliance for Children's Rights)

This conference will take place online. 

Scotland's population is ageing, with 25% of all Scots now sixty or older, and that trend is only set to continue. However, care services for our older people face acute resource constraints at the same time as demand is rising sharply. Is it still possible to have quality, quantity and stability in our care services?

This conference will take place online. 

The 2016 Programme for Government pledged to substantially eliminate the poverty and attainment gap within a decade.  A tough enough challenge to achieve.  Since then, COVID has impacted massively on education, childhood development, the economy, incomes, benefits and curriculum delivery.  So where do we now stand in attempting to eradicate by 2026 what may be the biggest driver of long term inequality in Scotland?

This conference will take place online.

The Scottish National Care Service was supposed to 'go live' in 2025-26.  However, serious concerns on governance, staffing and funding led to a rethink, renegotiation and reshaping of the proposal.  It now faces a new target date of 2028-29.  No staff transfers are now proposed, and a new National Care Service Board is to oversee reformed local integration authorities and the co-design of all aspects of structure and services delivery.  So, what is the proposal as it now stands and what will it mean for care providers and consumers?

The conference takes place online.

This conference – the 10th annual care of older people in Scotland conference – focuses on the core challenges facing us now in care delivery for older people.  We want everyone to have the best health and care possible in older age.  However, we are getting older and living longer in larger numbers – so the costs of care are rising remorselessly.  At the same time the economic outlook is weak and public finances are under severe pressure. In this context how do we fund care excellence?  How do we best structure services and scrutiny?  What are the core elements of best practice that we should be trying to achieve in contemporary care of older people?

This conference will take place online.