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.

Changing Landscape of Kinship Care in Scotland

Traditionally, kinship care has been viewed as a cheaper option secondary to fostering and adoption in terms of allowances, support and a lack of standardised practice across the country in how carers are assessed via an assessment framework, rigour and approval process.

Finding the ‘invisible’ adopters

Pride month 2020 was a bit different from previous years. The restrictions in place in various ways around the world to address the ongoing coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic meant that many of the usual parties, parades, and protests were cancelled, postponed, or moved online. One constant however was the opportunity to reflect on how far the LGBT+ community has come – and importantly, how far there is still to go.