How the Scottish Child Interview Model is improving experiences for children and young people

The Scottish Child Interview Model is a new model of practice for interviewing children who are victims or witnesses of crime, abuse, neglect or exploitation and is intended to bring about real improvements in children’s experiences that go beyond the interview itself. In this blog post, Jennifer Morrison, Social Work Project Lead on Scotland’s National Joint Investigative Interviewing Team, discusses how social workers have enhanced their knowledge and skills to use this new model in practice.

My port in a storm – the relationship that helped to shape who I am today

In this blog post for Care Day 2025, Beth-Anne McDowall, a CELCIS Consultant with lived experience, discusses the power of long-lasting relationships and the feeling of safety these bring.

Whose experiences are we relying on to explain what the reality of adoption feels like for adoptees?

In this blog post, Dr Polly Cowan, a Practice Manager at Scottish Adoption and Fostering, explains how the organisation’s Young Ambassadors developed a new podcast – We Talk Adoption and Fostering – to highlight the experiences of their generation.

Challenging the narrative: How a new media toolkit is helping tell the stories of care

Sophia Alexandra Hall is deputy digital editor at the Big Issue and the author of the Media Toolkit for Journalists and Care Experienced People, which shares advice with journalists on how they can positively empower and engage care experienced interviewees in the UK. It also includes advice for care experienced people, on how to protect themselves and their life stories when working with the media. In this blog post during Care Experienced Week, Sophia shares the story of how this toolkit came to be, and why she feels she was the right person to write it.

From isolation to belonging - from surviving to thriving, through connection and community

In this blog post for Care Experience Week 2024, Melody*, a consultant with lived experience at CELCIS offers her thoughts on this year’s theme of ‘Belonging and Connection’. She shares her journey of finding belonging through connection, the importance of community, and her hope that through collaborative working we can all play our part in creating a fairer society for all.

“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.

How lived experience of care is helping drive Scotland’s progress towards keeping The Promise

David Anderson is the Co-Chair of the Oversight Board, an independent group set up to report on the progress and pace in Scotland as it journeys towards keeping The Promise it made to the care community following the findings of Scotland’s Independent Care Review in 2020. In this blog post for Care Experienced Week, David discusses the Board’s role and remit, the importance of lived experience, and invites applications from potential new members.

A Face on a Wall: How embracing ‘Artivism’ can help young people find their voice

In this blog post for Care Experienced Week, Michael Archibald, a student, artist and activist, discusses being involved in – and being the face of – one of five new murals across Scotland that celebrate, raise awareness, and share the voices of care experienced youth.

Exploring leadership opportunities for the care experienced community

For this Care Experienced Week we took some time with Barry Black, member of the National Leadership Network (NLN) steering group, and Gary Brown, NLN Development Co-ordinator to find out more about the NLN and how participation at the core of how the Network works in Scotland, and with Sarah Rogers, Participation Associate at CELCIS, who tells us more about a partnership project between the NLN and CELCIS.

“Despite the cold weather, the Scottish people have given me one of the warmest welcomes in my life”: how supportive relationships help young refugees rebuild their lives in new places

During this Refugee Week and Refugee Festival Scotland 2023, Mohamad, a young person who arrived in Scotland from Syria in 2016 as a child reflects on why supportive relationships are essential to feeling safe and settled in a new place, and the ways in which refugees make a positive impact in their new countries.