A taxpayer-funded firm set up by Nicola Sturgeon to help children in care splurged £100,000 on SNP-linked lobbyists.
The Promise Scotland is facing claims it has failed to make “any tangible difference” for disadvantaged youngsters despite handing the huge sum to controversial PR consultants Charlotte Street Partners. The Promise was set up by ministers with a budget of over £1million in 2021 after an official review concluded children in care were being failed.
But its 18-strong staff, headed by £100,000-a-year chief executive Fraser McKinlay, admit they have “no regulatory powers or service delivery function”. Much of their work to date appears to have been setting up a website which boasts a mission to ensure “care experienced children and young people grow up loved, safe, and respected”.
Labour MSP Monica Lennon said: “There are legitimate concerns this is nothing more than an expensive talking shop. Meanwhile, frontline services are in crisis thanks to Scottish Government cuts.
“Almost two years after the launch of The Promise, there are big questions about what’s being done to improve the life chances of care-experienced people. Hiring consultants and highly paid executives is all very well if it’s making any tangible difference but there is a lack of progress and evidence to prove that everything that can be done is being pursued.”
Sturgeon announced The Promise following a damning report that highlighted the “separation, trauma, stigma and pain” in the care system that had let young people down. Edinburgh-based Charlotte Street Partners was paid almost £100,000 despite close links to the SNP and having been embroiled in a conflict-of-interests scandal after employing Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords Ian Duncan.
Andrew Wilson – a former SNP MSP who wrote Sturgeon’s economic pros-pectus for independence – founded the communications agency in 2014. He left in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, senior partner Kevin Pringle is a former SNP communications chief. The Promise also paid Fraser McKinlay Consulting Ltd to do financial consultancy work before appointing McKinlay as boss.
Accounts show a firm called Greater Good Communication was paid for “communications support” despite being owned by Mairi Clare Rodgers, who was previously head of external affairs. Fi McFarlane, head of public affairs at The Promise, said: “The set-up of a new organisation required external communications and strategy support and, following a tender process, Charlotte Street Partners were appointed. At no point did they lobby on behalf of The Promise Scotland.
“After an open and competitive recruitment process, with multiple candidates interviewed by a panel with external representatives, Fraser McKinlay was appointed as chief executive from September 2022. Mairi Clare Rodgers was head of communications until February 2022. She carried out a few days’ work on transition projects for the organisation immediately after she left. At no point was she paid as a consultant as well as her salary.
“The Promise Scotland has an important part to play in supporting the change needed to implement the conclusions of the independent care review but it is not directly responsible for the delivery of these actions. There are clear signs of tangible progress like the introduction of the Children’s Care and Justice Bill, the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund and the imminent report of the Hearings System Working Group.”
The Scottish Government said: “We are determined to lead from the front to Keep The Promise by 2030.”
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