THE care system in the Wee County is to go through a magnitude of changes over the next decade, councillors heard last week.

Elected members of the People Committee were last Thursday updated on a report called The Promise, arising from the Independent Care Review which commenced following a commitment by the first minister in 2016.

Officers told the virtual Kilncraigs chamber of the next steps to take forward "ground-breaking" plans to transform the care system.

The chamber heard the review "covers everything" and an officer added: "I think in my professional career, this is perhaps one of the biggest changes that we will all have to face because it's right across the board.

"It's really about making sure children are at the heart of this system, that they are listened to, that they are safe, that we are working with them and it's not that services and systems are put in place first and children are worked around that, it's the other way around.

"Let's keep the child at the heart and let's do what we possibly can to improve their lives because there was a recognition that a lot of these children and young people – the lives of some were destroyed."

Speaking in the chamber, Cllr Kathleen Martin said: "The success of this depends on the realities behind our social work departments across Scotland.

"We really have to be looking at them.

"In my view, since 2008, I would say a big-big problem is the lack of continuity and a lot of time, that's not something we can do a lot about."

She added: "Stability is the foundation stone for children in care, it's the one constant they can hold onto."

As part of the early steps, organisations across Scotland will be creating structures that can facilitate re-design of whole system approaches to care and support.

Many elected representatives were keen to see The Promise come to the chamber, Cllr Les Sharp calling it an "excellent way forward".

However, former social worker Cllr Dave Clark said after a long debate: "Social work needs to stand up and be counted and start achieving outcomes, rather than, as [a council officer] says, making assessments.

"This is where that whole-system approach becomes quite important, because it will look at outcomes and then social work will need to do its part to achieve the outcome.

"Most of the paper is excellent, the sentiment of the paper is good, the debate has been a great debate in my view, the contributions have all been true and good.

"But there is that gap for me and that is the churning social work, the ability of social work to achieve outcomes and I am not convinced of either."