The Promise
Independent Care Review
The Independent Care Review was set up to identify and deliver lasting change in Scotland’s care system. The first review of its type anywhere in the world, it promised to put care-experienced young people at the heart of its recommendations, leaving a legacy that will transform lives for the better.
In three years, the Care Review heard from over 5,500 people – including 2,500 care-experienced children and teenagers. At the outset, we held virtual design workshops with these young people which informed the development of a distinctive brand identity system. This had simple language, icons and visual elements at its heart. The identity had to be capable of evolving throughout this dynamic process, to help build awareness, ownership and momentum.
Our visual identity used a flexible set of shapes and optimistic colours to represent ‘a care system built by children’ and put those who had first-hand experience of the subject at the core of the process.
In their own words, they told us that, above all else, they wanted to grow up loved, safe and respected. We’d heard Scotland’s First Minister say that “My view is simple: every young person deserves to be loved.” It was ground-breaking for love to be mentioned so much in such a sensitive and official review. So, we knew it was crucial for us to embrace that. We had to build an inspiring and positive identity with love at its heart.
We delivered ‘The Promise’, the review’s conclusion, in the form of six reports detailing specific problems that could be fixed, the human and financial costs, explaining how legislation and the system must change and outlining next steps, along with ‘The Pinkie Promise’, a child-friendly version of those recommendations.
Just hours after the review was made public, the First Minister announced her commitment to actioning its recommendations, a sentiment met with cross-party support in Parliament. The Promise is now being implemented across a 10-year plan to deliver lasting change to a new system of care for Scotland’s infants, children and young people.
