Corporate Parenting Plan 2026 - 2029

Introduction

Under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, we are designated as a Corporate Parent and are required to publish a report every three years to explain how we fulfil the duties this legislation places on us.

We have a number of duties and obligations towards children and young people who are Care Experienced. However, we don’t just want to meet our duties, we want to play our part to ensure that they have everything they need to grow up in a healthy and thriving environment. We know the experience of care can have a lifelong impact and so where possible we go beyond our duties towards Care Experienced young people and extend this to anyone who has experience of care, regardless of age.

This document sets out details of the work we have done and will undertake as a proud Corporate Parent. 

Who we are

We are the independent regulator of social landlords in Scotland. Social landlords are Registered Social Landlords (RSLs), housing associations and co-operatives, and local authorities that provide housing and homelessness services. 

Our role

The Scottish Parliament has set us one statutory objective:

“To safeguard and promote the interests of current and future tenants of social landlords, people who are or may become homeless, and people who use housing services provided by registered social landlords (RSLs) and local authorities.”

It also gave us statutory functions to achieve our objective. These are the things we must do:

• monitor, assess and report regularly on the performance of social landlords and the governance and financial health of RSLs;
• make regulatory interventions where appropriate; and
• maintain a register of social landlords.

More information about how we work and our current strategic priorities can be found in our Strategy. Our Regulatory Framework explains in detail how we regulate social landlords. We have also developed a range of information for tenants.  

How we regulate

We expect landlords to meet regulatory requirements. This means that organisations need to be well-run, financially healthy and deliver good quality homes and services for their tenants and service users.

We do our work in four main ways. We:

• Gather and publish information in ways that tenants and others can use - this means we let tenants know how their landlords are doing so that they can speak with their landlords about performance and hold them to account. 
• Get assurance from landlords – this means getting landlords to tell us whether they meet the standards and what they will do to fix this if they don’t.
• Take action where we need to – this means we will use our legal powers to act, if we need to, to protect tenant’s and other service user’s interests.
• Carry out thematic work to look at specific areas of work – this means we may look into how a landlord is doing in one area that matters to tenants such as how it delivers its repairs service.  

Corporate Parenting

Who Cares? Scotland describe the Scaffold of Support that everyone needs:

“Every child, young person, and adult needs a strong scaffold of love, care, and support to help them flourish and step confidently into adulthood and beyond. For many, that scaffold is built from the people closest to them - parents, brothers and sisters, pets, wider family like grandparents, aunties and uncles, and strengthened by their communities of neighbours, school friends and trusted adults. These connections hold us steady, particularly during life’s challenges. When a child or young person goes into care, it can feel like essential pieces of their scaffolding are removed. This can happen suddenly, and almost always outside of the young person’s control. Many new people do step in to rebuild and form a new scaffold… Corporate Parents play an important part in that scaffold of support.”

 We are listed as a Corporate Parent under Schedule 4 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 Act. We know that building a strong scaffold of support cannot fall to one person, or even a few. It is the shared responsibility of all Corporate Parents, and of all of us across Scotland, to make sure Care Experienced people always have the support they need, for as long as they need it.

What are the duties? 

Part 9 of the Act sets out six statutory duties which all Corporate Parents must carry out in support of Care Experienced young people. These are summarised as follows: 

• to be alert to matters which, or which might, adversely affect the wellbeing of people with experience of care;
• to assess the needs of people with experience of care for any services or support provided;
• to promote the interests of people with experience of care;
• to seek to provide people with experience of care with opportunities to promote their wellbeing;
• to take such actions as we consider appropriate to help people with experience of care to:
  • access opportunities provided to promote their wellbeing
  • make use of services and access support provided.
• to take other appropriate action for the purposes of improving the way in which we exercise our functions in relation to people with experience of care.

Under the Act we are also required to:

• Prepare and publish a plan for how we propose to fulfil our Corporate Parenting responsibilities and keep the plan under review; and
• Collaborate with other Corporate Parents when exercising our Corporate Parenting responsibilities and where this would safeguard or promote the wellbeing of people with experience of care.

Defining ‘Care Experience’

Who Cares? Scotland advises that the term “Care Experienced” refers to anyone who is currently in care or has been for any length of time regardless of their age.  This care may have been provided in many different settings including:

• Kinship Care
• Looked After at Home
• Residential Care
• Foster Care
• Secure Care
• Adoption

We recognise that we have a statutory responsibility to report formally within the limits of the legally defined terms, and in general this means that our duties are in relation to those aged 26 and under.  However, we will uphold our responsibilities as a Corporate Parent to the wider group of all Care Experienced people regardless of age where it is possible to do so, rather than limit it to those who meet the legal definition of ‘looked after’ or ‘care leaver’. 

The Promise

We recognise that we have a role to play in upholding ‘The Promise’ that was made on 5^th February 2020 to ensure that Scotland’s children grow up loved, safe and respected. The Plan 24-30 was published by the organisation The Promise Scotland in June 2024 and sets out who needs to do what, by when to keep the Promise by 2030. It is organised around the five foundations of the Promise: voice, family, care, people, and scaffolding. Route Maps have been developed for each of the foundations and were updated in December 2025 to show:

• What must be delivered for the promise to be kept
• Who is responsible for doing it
• When it must be done and
• How route maps depend on each other for progress

We don’t provide a direct service, and our engagement is mainly with organisations that we regulate.  The actions that we take are a combination of targeted regulatory activities, awareness raising, information sharing and providing advice. Although we are not named in the Promise Route Maps, we will collaborate with other organisations in this work wherever possible. This is the approach that we will continue with to ensure that we can play our part in upholding The Promise.

Our approach to engagement on Corporate Parenting

We reviewed a number of consultation documents carried out by other organisations as found on the Children & Young People’s Evidence Bank, collated by the organisation Children in Scotland. We also discussed approaches to consultation and engagement via some of the networks that we are involved in including the Collaborative Corporate Parenting Network.

We also decided to carry out our own engagement to help develop this plan and asked the organisation Who Cares? Scotland to support us with this work. Who Cares? Scotland facilitated inclusive, trauma-informed consultations with 13 Care Experienced young people aged 12–24 in early 2026. Participants took part in supported group discussions designed to be safe, accessible, and voluntary.  Participants provided comments on a draft version of a joint Corporate Parenting Plan and Children’s Rights Report, as our original intention had been to publish a joint publication. 

The workshops explored the following key areas:

• An overview of the work of the SHR.
• Whether participants would like more detail on the actions listed within the ‘progress to date’ sections of the Corporate Parenting Plan.
• Whether participants felt the SHR needed to provide further explanation of the categories used within the action plan. 
• Whether participants felt the format of the action plan was clear.
• Whether there were any additional actions participants would like to see included in the SHR’s planned work on Corporate Parenting and Children’s Rights.
• Preferences for future engagement mechanisms with those with Care Experience.
• The publication of a ‘Child Friendly Version’ of the document.
• The key UNCRC articles relevant to the work of SHR.
• Any other relevant or emerging issues.

Wherever possible we have incorporated the feedback from the workshop participants.  This includes the following:

• We decided to publish a separate Corporate Parenting Plan and a Children’s Rights Report to provide greater clarity around these distinct areas of work.
• We have called our ‘Child Friendly’ version of this report a ‘Summary Version’ to be more inclusive.
• We have included more information in this plan on what we do in our role as a Corporate Parent.
• We have simplified the format of our action plan to make it more engaging.
• We have simplified the language in this document to make it more accessible and more aligned to the language and references that Care Experienced people are used to, e.g. ‘Scaffold of Support’.
• We continue to extend our commitment to all Care Experienced people, not just young people. This is also reflected in our previous decision to treat Care Experience as a protected characteristic.
• We have provided more information on our work around homelessness.
• We will share information on our work with organisations that Care Experienced People trust, such as Who Cares? Scotland.
• We will engage with our colleagues in Scottish Government to signpost any employment or work experience opportunities ringfenced for people with Care Experience.

We offer our thanks to all the participants of the workshops and to Who Cares? Scotland for facilitating the discussions.

Progress to date

Homelessness and Access to Housing

Access to social housing and homelessness services are important issues for many Care Experienced people.  We know that homelessness was one of the largest areas for which Care Experienced people sought advocacy support from Who Cares? Scotland.  Their recent ‘Lifelong Rights Campaign – Housing Issue Paper’ highlighted that a lack of support and opportunity has resulted in Care Experienced people being at a greater risk of falling into repeat homelessness.

Through our regulatory work we focus on homelessness to give us assurance that local authorities are meeting demand and providing help, advice and accommodation to vulnerable people who are or who may become homeless. 

Our work to monitor service quality, alongside our targeted thematic work in areas such as homelessness, shines a light on homeless and tenancy services that are important to people who are Care Experienced.

In early 2023 we published a Thematic Review of our work on the services provided by councils to help people experiencing homelessness. Over the preceding two years we had engaged with every council about their homelessness services.  We did this principally to allow us to focus on their response to the challenges in delivering these services during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Our review found that councils have been making considerable efforts in very challenging circumstances to deliver effective services for people who are or have experienced homelessness, and a number have had success in moving toward an approach with rapid rehousing at its centre. They face three major strategic challenges in providing homelessness services:

• dealing with the significant numbers of people currently in temporary accommodation;
• maintaining a sufficient supply of appropriate temporary accommodation; and
• ensuring access to the number of permanent homes that are needed.

Some councils are finding it increasingly difficult to meet these challenges, and so to fully meet their statutory duties.  There is evidence of increasing, and more widespread, breaches of statutory duties around the provision of temporary accommodation, and that some households with particular equality characteristics do not always receive a service that meets their specific needs.

Our review found considerable pressure on councils in the provision of homelessness services, and there are actions councils should and can take to respond to these challenges and to meet their statutory obligations; however, for some there is an emerging risk of systemic failure. Our review concluded it is in this context that the Scottish Government may need to consider what further urgent measures it can take to support councils to respond to the immediate challenges they face in delivering services for people who are homeless.

In December 2023, we published a Statement which updated our thematic review. In this statement, we concluded that the risk we had identified had materialised in some councils and there is now systemic failure in the delivery of homelessness services in some areas of Scotland. We said that in in our judgement, the demands on some councils now exceed their capacity to respond and in others it soon will. We will continue to engage with the councils we believe are experiencing systemic failure. We are also continuing to engage with local authorities where we have identified the need for improvement in the delivery of homelessness services.  Information on this engagement is set out in published Engagement Plans for each local authority.

Through our National Panel of Tenants and Service Users 2024 to 2025, we asked the views of some people with Care Experience about their experience of accessing homelessness services.  We worked with Who Cares? Scotland to identify participants with Care Experience and include their views in this study.

We have also had early conversations with the organisation The Rock Trust, with a view to becoming involved in the ‘Pathways from Care’ project, which will look at routes for Care Experienced young people to avoid becoming homeless.

Summary of actions taken 

As well as the work outlined above, the actions we have taken over the past three years in our role as a Corporate Parent include:

• In 2024 we developed and published a new action plan to support our work in relation to Corporate Parenting and The Promise. This was refreshed in March 2025.
• As part of the programme of research of our National Panel of Tenants and Service Users, we have explored the experiences and priorities of people who have used local authorities’ homelessness services. We published reports with service users’ feedback in 2023, 2024 and 2025. You can read these reports on the National Panel section of our website.
• We have raised awareness of our Corporate Parenting duties with staff, highlighting events such as Care Day and Care Experienced Week, which helps equip us to identify any issues that are particularly relevant to Care Experienced people in our ongoing regulatory activities.
• We have worked with Who Cares? Scotland to deliver bespoke training to our staff on our role as a Corporate Parent. This had a particular focus on housing issues for those with Care Experience and took place in September 2024 and January 2025.
• We have developed a page on our intranet where we post useful information and articles in relation to our role as a Corporate Parent.  Information includes links to guidance and research papers. This is updated regularly with resources for staff to help keep them informed and updated on key issues related to our Corporate Parenting role.
• We linked with Social Security Scotland who have set up an online ‘Care Experienced People Peer Support Community’ to offer this to SHR staff who are Care Experienced.
• In 2024 we revised our Equality Impact Assessment Guidance and processes to include Care Experience as a protected characteristic.
• We are a member of the Collaborative Corporate Parenting Network organised by Who Cares? Scotland.  Meetings take place on a quarterly basis involving more than 30 Corporate Parents. The network provides a space for Corporate Parents to connect, share practice and collaborate.  Our involvement in this network has led to collaboration in other projects including the Community of Practice for Siblings, which is looking at ways of keeping siblings together in care settings.
• We worked with the Community of Practice for Siblings to identify routes to the housing sector for a ‘New Horizons’ test of change on the theme of housing adaptation/extension/support and kinship care. Our role so far has been in connecting organisations in the housing sector to this work.
• We collaborated with the Care Inspectorate to provide advice and input into the 2024 Care Inspectorate-led thematic review of services to care-experienced young people. Our contribution included advising on the focus of housing-related questions and discussion topics.
• Since 2024, we have asked local authorities to provide information on homeless services provided to Care Experienced people via our annual homelessness conversations and engagement. This helps to highlight the importance of providing effective services to people who are Care Experienced.
• We have continued to ensure that reference is made to Corporate Parenting in the SHR Strategy and Operating Plan, signalling the importance of our work in this area.
• We reviewed ‘The Promise’ requirements for SHR following publication of Plan 24-30. and the publication of the updated ‘Route-Maps’ in December 2025.

Actions we will take over the next three years

We have mapped our activities against each of our Corporate Parenting responsibilities. However, as these responsibilities are interrelated, we recognise that our activities may deliver across more than one responsibility. 

Governance and Reporting

Many of the actions we take in our role as a Corporate Parent are ongoing without a clear end date. We monitor the implementation of this plan on a regular basis and report progress via our internal governance structures including to our Management Team. We also provide updates to our Board to provide them with assurance on our approach to meeting our duties. We will publish a report on progress on our website on an annual basis.

Further Information

Further information on our approach to Corporate Parenting and can be obtained by contacting us in the following ways:

Call us:  0141 242 5642

Email us: shr@shr.gov.scot

Mail us:

Scottish Housing Regulator

5^th Floor

220 High Street

Glasgow

G4 0QW    

Summary Version

Read a Summary Version of this plan.