First parts of Scotland's new foster care law come into force

The first provisions of the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Act 2026 came into force on 30 September 2026 under commencement regulations made by Scottish Ministers. Among them is section 36, which gives ministers the power to require councils, through regulations, to publish what they pay foster carers, broken down into allowances, fees and other payments.

The Act, passed on 19 March and given Royal Assent on 15 May 2026, is the main legislation for keeping the Promise. For fostering it allows ministers to set up a register of foster carers, starting with a pilot; requires fostering services to be charities; extends continuing care to a young person's 26th birthday; and lets eligible young people return to continuing care with their carer's agreement. Section 37 ties fostering and kinship allowance rates to the annual uprating mechanism in Scottish social security law.

Most of those provisions, including the register, the charity requirement and the uprating duty, were not switched on in September and need further regulations. The Fostering Network, which pressed for allowance and fee rates to be published separately, called the amendments a landmark step; its director for Scotland, Paul Sullivan, described them as life-changing for young people in foster care.

Implementation falls to a new minister. Siobhian Brown, Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, recently met foster carers at a Fostering Network event in Edinburgh, where carers raised recognition, financial security and council support, and committed to seeing the Act's changes through.

What this means for you: nothing changes to payments yet. Once regulations are made under section 36, carers should be able to see their council's allowance and fee rates published separately and compare them. The Scottish Recommended Allowance rose by 3.8 per cent from April 2026, to £177.68 a week for under-fives, £206.71 for ages five to 15 and £283.35 for 16 and 17 year olds.