CELCIS Blog
Our blog is a hub for perspectives and analysis of issues that matter to the lives of children, young people and their families. You will hear from our staff and guest bloggers on many topical issues where they will be reflecting and sharing their policy, practice and research insights..
Got a burning issue you would like to blog about? Then we would love to hear from you. Contact our communications team.
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The views expressed in the posts on this blog are those of the author/s and may not represent the views or opinions of CELCIS or our funders.
Michelle McCue blogs about the 2015 SIRCC conference and its focus on how residential child care is changing.
Vicki Welch blogs on the good and bad of integrating services.
Attend, encourage and enjoy to learn - a blog by Graham Connelly
Jennifer Davidson blogs about her mission to change the world for the better.
Leaving care too early. Kenny McGhee blogs on the problems facing care leavers in Scotland.
In this blog Liz Brabender discusses how CELCIS tackles drift and delay in permanency.
A blog by Linda O'Neill discussing what children had to say in the recent Rees Centre report
Ainsley Hainey blogs about the success of the Massive Open Online Course on Caring for Vulnerable Children.
Lizzie Morton blogs on how Corporate Parents are taking ownership of their new duties.
Kenny McGhee reflects on the Scottish Care Leavers Covenant, six months after the launch.
Kenny McGhee talks about his research into implementing Staying Put for care leavers.
Linda O'Neill tells the story behind the recent education statistics.
Kenny McGhee responds to the recent STV 'Who Cares' programme by exploring the need for genuine and caring relationships and removing barriers for looked after children and young people.
Why permanence matters for looked after children, and why we must share our passion to improve.
Jennifer Davidson blogs about what 2016 has meant for the children’s sector and what the year ahead will bring.
We are now moving towards a professionalism that is defined by passion and commitment expressed through the transparent and responsible use of relationships.
Norma Brown of Falkirk Council describes their Moneywise project and the difference it's making to the lives of care leavers in the area.
We need access to data at both population and individual levels if we're to be successful in improving the attainment of looked after children.
What does relational based practice look like in reality, for a busy statutory team?
Dr Chrissie Gale, international lead for CELCIS, reflects on research which could help shape the drive for better alternative care for children in countries around the world.
Charlie Gracie tells of a new creative writing comp for looked after children
Course moderator Sarah Hume-Anthony gives a snapshot of the interactions on the CELCIS MOOC.
Dr Graham Connelly discusses the use of acronyms when talking about looked after children and children in care.
Active Implementation - what it is, what it is not, and how it could help bring about lasting change to children's services.
How the Student Support Review Group is trying to ensure care experienced students have a fair standard of living.
Introducing issue 12 of REACH, which explores stigma, language, perception and the representation of care and care experience.
Amanda Lawler explains why CELCIS really cares about training and learning.
Stephanie is a Modern Apprentice at CELCIS, and here she talks about landing her first ‘real’ job at only 16.
The importance for children in residential care to develop the ability to navigate friendships with each other.
The difficult issue of self-harm in residential care, exploring the experiences of young people and the support workers need to help.
Gordon Main talks about how commitment in the care system is not enough.
Jillian Ingram ponders how getting a train from A to B might just offer clues to how to meet children’s needs.
Gordon Main continues the conversation on commitment, discussing the emotional investment of foster carers.
Claire Burns introduces the evidence into practice theme of the new issue of our REACH publication.
This blog post explores the findings of a recent briefing from CELCIS about going to university from care.
Joe Rankin of the Nevis Group talks about whether young people should tell future employers that they're care experienced. With video of James Calder.
Dr Chrissie Gale, CELCIS international lead, argues that we need agencies to unite with one voice if we want to uphold children’s rights internationally.
To mark World Social Work Day, Janine Fraser, a Social Work Team Leader for Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership in North East Glasgow, reflects on her profession and the challenges it faces.
This article was first published by TES on the support teachers can offer unaccompanied and separated children.
Guest Joe Rankin of the Nevis Group discusses the need to stamp out stigma for those with care experience.
Iain MacRitchie is the founder of MCR Pathways, a school-based mentoring programme which supports young people in or on the edges of the care system to realise their full potential through education.
Ahead of the Global Implementation Conference, Scotland’s National Clinical Director, Professor Jason Leitch CBE shares some thoughts on his implementation journey, Scotland’s increasing use of change methodologies, and why learning from others makes sense
Joanne McMeeking heads up the Improving Care Experiences team at CELCIS. Here she explains why we need to put physical restraint in residential child care under the spotlight.
Laura Steckley explains how people are coming together to consider how to apply what we know about both experience and theory to address the practice of restraint in residential care.
First published by Citizens Theatre, 30 January 2020.
How the Care Experienced Bursary is making a difference in the lives of care experienced young people.
Bairnshoose Policy and Practice Lead Anna O'Reilly reflects on how far we've come towards securing a Scottish Bairnshoose, and what must still be done to give children the rights they deserve.
Elaine Adams, Learning and Development Lead at Children’s Hearings Improvement Partnership, writes about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Children’s Hearings in Scotland and what this might mean for hearings in the future
Jacqui Dunbar is the Project Lead at Our Hearings, Our Voice, an independent board for children and young people who have experience of the Children’s Hearings System in Scotland and want to help improve it. She works directly with 11 children and young people, 9 who are members of the board and 2 who are advisors for Our Hearings, Our Voice.
Elaine Hamilton, Service Manager at Nether Johnstone House describes how lockdown due to the current emergency health crisis has changed the thinking, outlooks, and actions of both the young people and the team that surround them.
Food and other essential items are something that we have always had available for our young people in the Youth Team, Aberdeen but we were aware that when COVID – 19 hit that we would need to be more creative about how we made sure food was available for young people in a safe and structured way.
Claire Burns, Director of CELCIS (Acting), takes a moment to consider how much we have learned that we didn’t know before the COVID-19; how this emergency has thrown a spotlight on so much of what we already knew and what this means as we work to make change happen to realise The Promise.
Jo Cochrane is the Children’s Services Development and Assurance Team Manager at Dumfries and Galloway Council, since retired. Since 2018, CELCIS has been working alongside local public sector partnerships in Dumfries and Galloway, Falkirk, and East and Midlothian, to develop a Minimum Dataset for use across all 30 of Scotland’s Child Protection Committees.
Claire Burns, Director (Acting), CELCIS – Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection discusses how COVID-19 has exacerbated inequalities in society.
Olivia Khan is a Rural Business graduate who worked at the Champions Board in South Ayrshire before moving to Berlin. Olivia stays connected to her care roots with a freelance role and in 2021 launched a creative project with a group of five young people. She makes the case for new tech friendly and tech literate care world.
Blog
Year: 2015
Topic: Foster care, Looked after at home, Residential care
Author: staff and guest bloggers
Topic: Foster care, Looked after at home, Residential care
Author: staff and guest bloggers
Alison Cowper, Service Manager with the Independent Care and Review Team (Children and Families) at Glasgow City Health and…
A Consultants Working Group was instrumental on helping to shape the content, tone and language of Scotland’s new National…
Since founding STAR, and in my time as a foster carer, I’ve seen and heard first-hand the impact of one of the most…
A kinship carer who has looked after her granddaughter for the past decade shares some of the challenges and the rewards this…
Staying Together and Connected: Getting it Right for Sisters and Brothers National Practice Guidance
This National Practice Guidance for Scotland is designed to contribute to the effective implementation of new legislative…
Staying Together and Connected: Getting it right for sisters and brothers National Practice Guidance
Aileen Nicol, Head of Improving Protection and Permanence at Celcis, a member of Stand Up For Siblings, has written a blog about…
As CELCIS, in partnership with Coram Voice, launches the Bright Spots programme pilot in Scotland, this blog post reflects on…
This report was prepared by CELCIS in collaboration with local authorities and stakeholders in Scotland to inform the Scottish…
Book reviews
Who Cares? Scotland consulted with 87 young people to establish their experiences of living in care, their hopes for life after care and the types of support they would need to achieve this.
The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 has the ability to change the disproportionately poor outcomes of this often forgotten group of young people. It provides new rights and opportunities, ensuring the voices of care experienced children and young people are heard in any discussions or planning which affects their lives.
The views presented here are intended to help corporate parents and others involved in the implementation of the Act to get it right for every care experienced child and young person across Scotland.
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.
The Scottish Government has announced (5 February) that £9.5 million will be allocated in 2026-27 to projects across Scotland aimed at supporting the education and wellbeing of care experienced children and young people.
In our 'Sharing the learning from whole family support work' webinar, we explore how services across Scotland are using data and learning to improve support and outcomes for children, young people and their families. Grounded in the Scottish Government’s Routemap and National Principles of Holistic Whole Family Support, the session focuses on understanding needs, access, whole-system working and workforce culture. Bringing together learning from collaborative partnerships in East Lothian and Glasgow, the webinar shares how data has been used to understand local systems, work with communities, build learning systems, and inform practical action to better support children and families.
To begin this new Emerging Insight Series of free, online webinars, we set the scene and considered what AI might mean for children’s social care in particular, by
- exploring some of the fundamental questions and potential opportunities and challenges of how AI is being used in practice,
and, in responding to the care and protection needs of children and young people, and supporting their families,
- looking at what is beginning to be understood about the influences and impacts of AI in children’s and young people’s lives.
This CPD accredited session with SCALE and SCIE provided an opportunity to think through some of the ethical and practice considerations involved including what does this mean for relationship-based practice, how the human inputs into AI affect the outputs, and how AI could complement practice.
In this webinar, we explore what the use of AI means for ethically grounded, relationship-based social care practice. We’ll consider how AI can sit alongside critical thinking, and examine the implications, challenges and opportunities for social work practice and supervision.
In our February Forum event, we explore why care experienced children can face challenges in learning mathematics, and what helps. Drawing on lived experience and case study research with primary-aged learners, the session examines the factors shaping numeracy outcomes and the role of teachers, carers and trusted adults in rebuilding confidence, closing learning gaps and supporting positive re-engagement with learning.
In this blog post, Dr Alex McTier, Evidence and Evaluation Specialist at CELCIS, reflects on his visit to a Family Centre in Sweden, on what he believes are key ingredients for successful holistic family support, and how he hopes co-located family support services will be introduced into more local communities.
The Scottish Government has announced (13 January) an independent review of children’s care legislation in Scotland, which will be led by Professor Kenneth Norrie, a leading authority on family law in Scotland and CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection.
The Scottish Government has launched a new consultation on the future of Scotland’s secure accommodation and secure care transport standards (8 January).
Plans designed to reverse the decline in foster carer households in England have been announced (30 December) by the UK Government following figures, published by regulator Ofsted, that showed a 10% decline from 2021 to 2025.
A consultation on potential reform to various aspects of family law has been announced by the Scottish Government (29 December), including whether legislation should be introduced to raise the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership from 16 to 18.
A new package of measures to improve support for care experienced children and young people, including free access to paid-for healthcare services, has been announced (23 December) by the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
A working draft of a vision for kinship care in Scotland has been published (22 December) by the Scottish Government and is now open for public consultation.
The Promise Scotland has (19 December) published updates to ‘Plan 24-30 route maps’ which outline how Scotland intends to keep The Promise of the Independent Care Review by 2030.
This report presents the findings of a pioneering project led by CELCIS, in partnership with Scotland’s National Joint Investigative Interviewing Project Team, to develop a more effective and rights-based approach to identifying and recording disability in children.
A pioneering project led by CELCIS, in partnership with Scotland’s National Joint Investigative Interviewing Project Team, has developed a new and more effective way of identifying and recording disability in children across Scotland.
We've chosen our winner for 2025!
We have selected a winning image for our annual Christmas Card Competition for 2025. Our panel of were staff dazzled by the quality of the entries. The variety was outstanding!
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) today (9 December) has warned that people trying to access their care records are being let down and launched a campaign to support both people with care experience and the organisations handling their records.
The Scottish Government has announced (3 December) that a national review of responses to group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation is to be undertaken in Scotland in 2026.
This Action Plan sets out the actions, milestones and timeframes for activity to implement Rights Respect and Recovery – Scotland’s Strategy to Improve Health by Preventing and Reducing Alcohol and Drug Use, Harms and Related Deaths. It will be refreshed on an on-going basis as new activity is scoped and new challenges emerge. It currently covers the time period up to 31 March 2021.
This document sets out the partnership arrangements needed to reduce the use
of and harms from alcohol and drugs. It aims to ensure that all bodies involved
are clear about the accountability arrangements and their responsibilities when
working together in the identification, pursuit and achievement of agreed, shared
outcomes.
An explanation of Child Criminal Exploitation, with information on its impact and how to recognise it, prevent it and respond to it.
A report on Child Criminal Exploitation across the UK.
This scoping review seeks to establish a baseline understanding of the nature, scale and extent of Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) in Scotland.
This framework aims to consolidate core elements relevant to different stages of a young person’s journey through exploitation offering direction and guidance to practitioners who might work with children at various points in this journey.
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.
The Scottish Government has announced (5 February) that £9.5 million will be allocated in 2026-27 to projects across Scotland aimed at supporting the education and wellbeing of care experienced children and young people.
In our 'Sharing the learning from whole family support work' webinar, we explore how services across Scotland are using data and learning to improve support and outcomes for children, young people and their families. Grounded in the Scottish Government’s Routemap and National Principles of Holistic Whole Family Support, the session focuses on understanding needs, access, whole-system working and workforce culture. Bringing together learning from collaborative partnerships in East Lothian and Glasgow, the webinar shares how data has been used to understand local systems, work with communities, build learning systems, and inform practical action to better support children and families.
To begin this new Emerging Insight Series of free, online webinars, we set the scene and considered what AI might mean for children’s social care in particular, by
- exploring some of the fundamental questions and potential opportunities and challenges of how AI is being used in practice,
and, in responding to the care and protection needs of children and young people, and supporting their families,
- looking at what is beginning to be understood about the influences and impacts of AI in children’s and young people’s lives.
This CPD accredited session with SCALE and SCIE provided an opportunity to think through some of the ethical and practice considerations involved including what does this mean for relationship-based practice, how the human inputs into AI affect the outputs, and how AI could complement practice.
In this webinar, we explore what the use of AI means for ethically grounded, relationship-based social care practice. We’ll consider how AI can sit alongside critical thinking, and examine the implications, challenges and opportunities for social work practice and supervision.
In our February Forum event, we explore why care experienced children can face challenges in learning mathematics, and what helps. Drawing on lived experience and case study research with primary-aged learners, the session examines the factors shaping numeracy outcomes and the role of teachers, carers and trusted adults in rebuilding confidence, closing learning gaps and supporting positive re-engagement with learning.
In this blog post, Dr Alex McTier, Evidence and Evaluation Specialist at CELCIS, reflects on his visit to a Family Centre in Sweden, on what he believes are key ingredients for successful holistic family support, and how he hopes co-located family support services will be introduced into more local communities.
The Scottish Government has announced (13 January) an independent review of children’s care legislation in Scotland, which will be led by Professor Kenneth Norrie, a leading authority on family law in Scotland and CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection.
The Scottish Government has launched a new consultation on the future of Scotland’s secure accommodation and secure care transport standards (8 January).
Plans designed to reverse the decline in foster carer households in England have been announced (30 December) by the UK Government following figures, published by regulator Ofsted, that showed a 10% decline from 2021 to 2025.
A consultation on potential reform to various aspects of family law has been announced by the Scottish Government (29 December), including whether legislation should be introduced to raise the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership from 16 to 18.
A new package of measures to improve support for care experienced children and young people, including free access to paid-for healthcare services, has been announced (23 December) by the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
A working draft of a vision for kinship care in Scotland has been published (22 December) by the Scottish Government and is now open for public consultation.
The Promise Scotland has (19 December) published updates to ‘Plan 24-30 route maps’ which outline how Scotland intends to keep The Promise of the Independent Care Review by 2030.
This report presents the findings of a pioneering project led by CELCIS, in partnership with Scotland’s National Joint Investigative Interviewing Project Team, to develop a more effective and rights-based approach to identifying and recording disability in children.
A pioneering project led by CELCIS, in partnership with Scotland’s National Joint Investigative Interviewing Project Team, has developed a new and more effective way of identifying and recording disability in children across Scotland.
We've chosen our winner for 2025!
We have selected a winning image for our annual Christmas Card Competition for 2025. Our panel of were staff dazzled by the quality of the entries. The variety was outstanding!
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) today (9 December) has warned that people trying to access their care records are being let down and launched a campaign to support both people with care experience and the organisations handling their records.
The Scottish Government has announced (3 December) that a national review of responses to group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation is to be undertaken in Scotland in 2026.
This Action Plan sets out the actions, milestones and timeframes for activity to implement Rights Respect and Recovery – Scotland’s Strategy to Improve Health by Preventing and Reducing Alcohol and Drug Use, Harms and Related Deaths. It will be refreshed on an on-going basis as new activity is scoped and new challenges emerge. It currently covers the time period up to 31 March 2021.
This document sets out the partnership arrangements needed to reduce the use
of and harms from alcohol and drugs. It aims to ensure that all bodies involved
are clear about the accountability arrangements and their responsibilities when
working together in the identification, pursuit and achievement of agreed, shared
outcomes.
An explanation of Child Criminal Exploitation, with information on its impact and how to recognise it, prevent it and respond to it.
A report on Child Criminal Exploitation across the UK.
This scoping review seeks to establish a baseline understanding of the nature, scale and extent of Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) in Scotland.
This framework aims to consolidate core elements relevant to different stages of a young person’s journey through exploitation offering direction and guidance to practitioners who might work with children at various points in this journey.
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.
The Scottish Government has announced (5 February) that £9.5 million will be allocated in 2026-27 to projects across Scotland aimed at supporting the education and wellbeing of care experienced children and young people.
In our 'Sharing the learning from whole family support work' webinar, we explore how services across Scotland are using data and learning to improve support and outcomes for children, young people and their families. Grounded in the Scottish Government’s Routemap and National Principles of Holistic Whole Family Support, the session focuses on understanding needs, access, whole-system working and workforce culture. Bringing together learning from collaborative partnerships in East Lothian and Glasgow, the webinar shares how data has been used to understand local systems, work with communities, build learning systems, and inform practical action to better support children and families.
To begin this new Emerging Insight Series of free, online webinars, we set the scene and considered what AI might mean for children’s social care in particular, by
- exploring some of the fundamental questions and potential opportunities and challenges of how AI is being used in practice,
and, in responding to the care and protection needs of children and young people, and supporting their families,
- looking at what is beginning to be understood about the influences and impacts of AI in children’s and young people’s lives.
This CPD accredited session with SCALE and SCIE provided an opportunity to think through some of the ethical and practice considerations involved including what does this mean for relationship-based practice, how the human inputs into AI affect the outputs, and how AI could complement practice.
In this webinar, we explore what the use of AI means for ethically grounded, relationship-based social care practice. We’ll consider how AI can sit alongside critical thinking, and examine the implications, challenges and opportunities for social work practice and supervision.
In our February Forum event, we explore why care experienced children can face challenges in learning mathematics, and what helps. Drawing on lived experience and case study research with primary-aged learners, the session examines the factors shaping numeracy outcomes and the role of teachers, carers and trusted adults in rebuilding confidence, closing learning gaps and supporting positive re-engagement with learning.
In this blog post, Dr Alex McTier, Evidence and Evaluation Specialist at CELCIS, reflects on his visit to a Family Centre in Sweden, on what he believes are key ingredients for successful holistic family support, and how he hopes co-located family support services will be introduced into more local communities.
The Scottish Government has announced (13 January) an independent review of children’s care legislation in Scotland, which will be led by Professor Kenneth Norrie, a leading authority on family law in Scotland and CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection.
The Scottish Government has launched a new consultation on the future of Scotland’s secure accommodation and secure care transport standards (8 January).
Plans designed to reverse the decline in foster carer households in England have been announced (30 December) by the UK Government following figures, published by regulator Ofsted, that showed a 10% decline from 2021 to 2025.
A consultation on potential reform to various aspects of family law has been announced by the Scottish Government (29 December), including whether legislation should be introduced to raise the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership from 16 to 18.
A new package of measures to improve support for care experienced children and young people, including free access to paid-for healthcare services, has been announced (23 December) by the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
A working draft of a vision for kinship care in Scotland has been published (22 December) by the Scottish Government and is now open for public consultation.
The Promise Scotland has (19 December) published updates to ‘Plan 24-30 route maps’ which outline how Scotland intends to keep The Promise of the Independent Care Review by 2030.
This report presents the findings of a pioneering project led by CELCIS, in partnership with Scotland’s National Joint Investigative Interviewing Project Team, to develop a more effective and rights-based approach to identifying and recording disability in children.
A pioneering project led by CELCIS, in partnership with Scotland’s National Joint Investigative Interviewing Project Team, has developed a new and more effective way of identifying and recording disability in children across Scotland.
We've chosen our winner for 2025!
We have selected a winning image for our annual Christmas Card Competition for 2025. Our panel of were staff dazzled by the quality of the entries. The variety was outstanding!
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) today (9 December) has warned that people trying to access their care records are being let down and launched a campaign to support both people with care experience and the organisations handling their records.
The Scottish Government has announced (3 December) that a national review of responses to group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation is to be undertaken in Scotland in 2026.
This Action Plan sets out the actions, milestones and timeframes for activity to implement Rights Respect and Recovery – Scotland’s Strategy to Improve Health by Preventing and Reducing Alcohol and Drug Use, Harms and Related Deaths. It will be refreshed on an on-going basis as new activity is scoped and new challenges emerge. It currently covers the time period up to 31 March 2021.
This document sets out the partnership arrangements needed to reduce the use
of and harms from alcohol and drugs. It aims to ensure that all bodies involved
are clear about the accountability arrangements and their responsibilities when
working together in the identification, pursuit and achievement of agreed, shared
outcomes.
An explanation of Child Criminal Exploitation, with information on its impact and how to recognise it, prevent it and respond to it.
A report on Child Criminal Exploitation across the UK.
This scoping review seeks to establish a baseline understanding of the nature, scale and extent of Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) in Scotland.
This framework aims to consolidate core elements relevant to different stages of a young person’s journey through exploitation offering direction and guidance to practitioners who might work with children at various points in this journey.
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.
The Scottish Government has announced (5 February) that £9.5 million will be allocated in 2026-27 to projects across Scotland aimed at supporting the education and wellbeing of care experienced children and young people.
In our 'Sharing the learning from whole family support work' webinar, we explore how services across Scotland are using data and learning to improve support and outcomes for children, young people and their families. Grounded in the Scottish Government’s Routemap and National Principles of Holistic Whole Family Support, the session focuses on understanding needs, access, whole-system working and workforce culture. Bringing together learning from collaborative partnerships in East Lothian and Glasgow, the webinar shares how data has been used to understand local systems, work with communities, build learning systems, and inform practical action to better support children and families.
To begin this new Emerging Insight Series of free, online webinars, we set the scene and considered what AI might mean for children’s social care in particular, by
- exploring some of the fundamental questions and potential opportunities and challenges of how AI is being used in practice,
and, in responding to the care and protection needs of children and young people, and supporting their families,
- looking at what is beginning to be understood about the influences and impacts of AI in children’s and young people’s lives.
This CPD accredited session with SCALE and SCIE provided an opportunity to think through some of the ethical and practice considerations involved including what does this mean for relationship-based practice, how the human inputs into AI affect the outputs, and how AI could complement practice.
In this webinar, we explore what the use of AI means for ethically grounded, relationship-based social care practice. We’ll consider how AI can sit alongside critical thinking, and examine the implications, challenges and opportunities for social work practice and supervision.
In our February Forum event, we explore why care experienced children can face challenges in learning mathematics, and what helps. Drawing on lived experience and case study research with primary-aged learners, the session examines the factors shaping numeracy outcomes and the role of teachers, carers and trusted adults in rebuilding confidence, closing learning gaps and supporting positive re-engagement with learning.
In this blog post, Dr Alex McTier, Evidence and Evaluation Specialist at CELCIS, reflects on his visit to a Family Centre in Sweden, on what he believes are key ingredients for successful holistic family support, and how he hopes co-located family support services will be introduced into more local communities.
The Scottish Government has announced (13 January) an independent review of children’s care legislation in Scotland, which will be led by Professor Kenneth Norrie, a leading authority on family law in Scotland and CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection.
The Scottish Government has launched a new consultation on the future of Scotland’s secure accommodation and secure care transport standards (8 January).
Plans designed to reverse the decline in foster carer households in England have been announced (30 December) by the UK Government following figures, published by regulator Ofsted, that showed a 10% decline from 2021 to 2025.
A consultation on potential reform to various aspects of family law has been announced by the Scottish Government (29 December), including whether legislation should be introduced to raise the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership from 16 to 18.
A new package of measures to improve support for care experienced children and young people, including free access to paid-for healthcare services, has been announced (23 December) by the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
A working draft of a vision for kinship care in Scotland has been published (22 December) by the Scottish Government and is now open for public consultation.
The Promise Scotland has (19 December) published updates to ‘Plan 24-30 route maps’ which outline how Scotland intends to keep The Promise of the Independent Care Review by 2030.
This report presents the findings of a pioneering project led by CELCIS, in partnership with Scotland’s National Joint Investigative Interviewing Project Team, to develop a more effective and rights-based approach to identifying and recording disability in children.
A pioneering project led by CELCIS, in partnership with Scotland’s National Joint Investigative Interviewing Project Team, has developed a new and more effective way of identifying and recording disability in children across Scotland.
We've chosen our winner for 2025!
We have selected a winning image for our annual Christmas Card Competition for 2025. Our panel of were staff dazzled by the quality of the entries. The variety was outstanding!
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) today (9 December) has warned that people trying to access their care records are being let down and launched a campaign to support both people with care experience and the organisations handling their records.
The Scottish Government has announced (3 December) that a national review of responses to group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation is to be undertaken in Scotland in 2026.
This Action Plan sets out the actions, milestones and timeframes for activity to implement Rights Respect and Recovery – Scotland’s Strategy to Improve Health by Preventing and Reducing Alcohol and Drug Use, Harms and Related Deaths. It will be refreshed on an on-going basis as new activity is scoped and new challenges emerge. It currently covers the time period up to 31 March 2021.
This document sets out the partnership arrangements needed to reduce the use
of and harms from alcohol and drugs. It aims to ensure that all bodies involved
are clear about the accountability arrangements and their responsibilities when
working together in the identification, pursuit and achievement of agreed, shared
outcomes.
An explanation of Child Criminal Exploitation, with information on its impact and how to recognise it, prevent it and respond to it.
A report on Child Criminal Exploitation across the UK.
This scoping review seeks to establish a baseline understanding of the nature, scale and extent of Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) in Scotland.
This framework aims to consolidate core elements relevant to different stages of a young person’s journey through exploitation offering direction and guidance to practitioners who might work with children at various points in this journey.