People: Enabling a workforce that can deliver
The issue
Systems do not care for children; people do.
Across Scotland, the workforce is doing the heavy lifting in a system under strain. They are working under sustained pressure, constrained by complex and bureaucratic systems, and expected to deliver high‑quality, relational care without the support, capacity or autonomy required to do so well.
At the same time, recruitment and retention challenges are deepening, placing further pressure on already stretched teams. Yet these same professionals are relied upon to provide relationship‑based, trauma‑informed practice and lifelong support for some of Scotland’s most vulnerable children and young people. This gap between expectation and reality represents a clear and growing risk to delivery.
In recent years, Throughcare and Aftercare workforce responsibilities have expanded significantly. Local teams have absorbed increased duties through the National Transfer Scheme, supporting unaccompanied asylum seeking children with complex needs, often without additional resource or infrastructure. These pressures will intensify further with the forthcoming Aftercare provisions in the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill (March 2026), which rightly strengthen lifelong rights to support, but will only succeed if the workforce tasked with delivery is properly resourced and supported.
Without urgent action to invest in workforce capacity and wellbeing, this fragmentation will continue to fall most sharply on the people trying to hold the system together, and on the young people it exists to serve, at a crucial stage in their lives – as they transition to adulthood.
National direction – workforce matters
Scotland already knows what is needed. Plan 24–30 is explicit: workforce capacity is essential to delivery, relational practice must be actively enabled, and cross‑sector collaboration is critical. These are not new ambitions; they are settled national commitments.
However, the warning is equally clear. Without investment in a supported, skilled workforce and leadership that enables relational practice, these commitments will not be delivered. Despite strong policy direction, workforce capacity remains one of the single greatest risks to keeping the promise. If this is not tackled in the next Parliament, plans will stall, implementation will falter and delivery will fail, regardless of intent.
Why this matters in your constituency
Workforce pressure is already undermining delivery. Reduced capacity is leading to poorer service quality, delays in support, and worse outcomes for children and young people. These impacts are being felt in every constituency, where workforce shortages are destabilising services and placing growing strain on local systems.
Without action, the risks escalate quickly. Burnout will increase, recruitment challenges will deepen, and The Promise will fail at the point that matters most - delivery.
Without a strong workforce, policy cannot be delivered.
The role of Staf - amplifying workforce voice
Staf is unique in bringing together workforce insight, lived experience and system leadership to drive meaningful change. We work at the intersection of policy and practice, ensuring the voices of those delivering care - and those with lived experience of it - are heard, valued and acted upon at a national level. Through practical tools such as The REAL Toolkit (a trauma informed leaving care resource co-designed and co-written by workforce and care leavers), we support professionals to better understand transitions to adulthood, and respond with compassion and confidence in their day‑to‑day practice.
By amplifying workforce voice, supporting practice improvement, and connecting policy ambition with frontline reality, Staf helps ensure that Scotland’s commitments do not remain on paper, but translate into better outcomes on the ground.
What must happen now
The next Parliament must:
Invest in workforce capacity and wellbeing.
Value the voice of frontline practitioners in co-designing national policy, national guidance and implementation of the Moving On and Lifelong Support Route Map.
Deliver a national foster care/supported carers strategy.
Recognise that if we do not hear and support the workforce, we cannot keep the promise.
Final word
The workforce - and in this we include foster, kinship and supported carers - is integral to the lived experience of young people at a crucial time in their personal development, the transition to adulthood. If we do not support the workforce, we cannot keep the promise.
For more information, or to set up a meeting after 7 May, please contact info@staf.scot.
