Recognising the strength of family – and the work still to do

In this blog post for Kinship Care Week 2026, Melanie Bridges, Improving Care Experiences Consultant at CELCIS, reflects on the devoted care of kinship families and the need to ensure these families have the right support at the right times to meet their needs.

Connected By Care: The joy of taking part

In this blog post for Care Day 2026, Craig McCreadie, Participation Practice Lead at CELCIS, reflects on his passion for supporting people with care experience and creating spaces for people to take part and have important conversations.

Is the picture getting any clearer?

CELCIS’s Data Lead, Micky Anderson, considers the latest children’s social work statistics in Scotland, looking at newly available data, and why additional context is needed to understand what the data can tell us if we’re to look for progress against particular indicators.

Family pictures on the wall and a strong sense of self – growing up in kinship care

In this blog post for Kinship Care Week 2025, CH, a CELCIS Consultant with lived experience discusses the importance of maintaining links to family and the important role kinship carers have in keeping families together.

When data tells us the what but not the why

CELCIS’s Data Lead, Micky Anderson, takes a look at the latest social work statistics in Scotland for clues about what is happening in the support for children in need of care and protection and their families.

“It’s about…believing our own words”: Bringing together the voices of care experienced people

Rebekah Pierre is a care experienced writer, author, social worker, and editor of a new anthology, ‘Free Loaves on Fridays: The Care System As Told By People Who Actually Get It’, which brings together stories, essays, poems and letters by 100 care experienced children and adults. In this conversation with CELCIS, she discusses the process of developing this anthology and how she hopes the book will help shift the narrative of care experience.

Understanding the experiences of children growing up in kinship care in Scotland

In this blog post to mark Kinship Care Week 2024, Dr Joanna Soraghan, Data Analyst at CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, shares some initial findings from CELCIS’s analysis into the experiences of children living in ‘formal’ kinship care within Scotland.

Caring for brothers and sisters: the invisible kinship families

As part of Kinship Care Week 2022 Lorna Stabler, a Researcher and PhD student at Cardiff University, writes about being a sibling carer and the research she is undertaking into kinship carers who care for their brothers and sisters.

Walking in Fred’s shoes

Alison Cowper, Service Manager with the Independent Care and Review Team (Children and Families) at Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership talks about how ‘what does this mean for Fred?’ influenced their work with CELCIS when process mapping their current system.

What I wished I’d known about kinship care

A kinship carer who has looked after her granddaughter for the past decade shares some of the challenges and the rewards this brings.