As newly published research shows what matters to children in care and care leavers’ wellbeing in Scotland, and how best to support them, Scott Watson, Quality Improvement Manager, at Scottish Borders Council explains how taking part in the Bright Spots programme has shaped four new elements of the council’s approach

Every child needs caring relationships, a sense of belonging and opportunities to thrive, now and in the future. Here in the Scottish Borders, we share responsibility for making that possible for care experienced children and young people. Bright Spots has helped us understand their lives through their own eyes: what makes life good, and where things need to change.

Listening matters. What we do next matters just as much. We are taking that learning into our Champions Board priorities, corporate parenting commitments and schools.

Starting with what young people told us

Safety, trusted adults and friendships help children and young people thrive. Bright Spots showed us where support and environments need to improve.

The findings from Bright Spots showed that some participating children expressed concerns around attending school or college because of bullying. They also highlighted gaps in trusted adult relationships and friendships compared with the general population in Scotland.

These findings do not describe every child’s experience. But they ask us to look beyond support on paper. Does a young person feel safe? Is there someone they can turn to? Do they feel they belong? Those questions give us a starting point for action.

Shaping our Champions Board priorities

Our Champions Board, known as “Champs”, gives care experienced young people space to meet with one another and to work with key decision- makes. They have explored the Bright Spots findings and considered these alongside their own experiences. They identified Wellbeing, Public Transport, Community Spaces, Housing and Participation as priorities, raising concerns about feeling overwhelmed, reduced bus services, access to community facilities and feeling safe where they live.

Our communities are stronger when every child can take part and belong. Friendships, accessible activities and secure homes matter to wellbeing. Bright Spots helps us look at individual support alongside the conditions services and communities can create.

Participation starts with relationships. Champs is voluntary, and we take time to build trust before asking young people to contribute to improvement work. Their role is not to validate an adult agenda, but to help shape it.

Turning findings into practical Role Guides

Young people told us they wanted better relationships with workers and clearer information about what different corporate parents could do to help. Our new Role Guides are one practical response to those Bright Spots findings.

Our Champs helped design individual guides of each different type of worker from start to finish. They developed questions and interviewed a school nurse, a children and families social worker and a transitions worker, shaping young person-friendly information about each role and the support available. They launched the guides at an information session for partners and key corporate parents. 

We plan to create more practical Role Guides, building on young people’s involvement to make information about support clearer and more accessible.

Influencing our Corporate Parenting Strategy

Our Corporate Parenting Strategy 2025–2028 puts young people’s involvement at the heart of shaping what happens next. It is shaped by children and young people’s participation and built around promises from corporate parents, moving away from more traditional, formulaic policy documents with limited consultation.

Our Champs brought young people’s views into that process. Now we need to ask whether those promises are recognisable in their lives, and what needs to change.

Taking learning into schools

That connection between listening and action matters in schools too. Our new professional learning programme 'Together for the Promise' gives school staff space to reflect on their practice. The programme draws on Bright Spots and local lived experience, using two workshops and a reflective task tailored to participating schools and settings. After piloting this, we now have a new, refreshed model to ensure a sustainable learning offer.

The Bright Spots findings and our knowledge of working with young people has informed case studies which are helping colleagues to explore what they can do differently, without asking children to repeatedly share personal experiences.

Bringing opportunities closer through school hubs

Scottish Borders is mostly a rural area, so some of our Champs members travel for over an hour and a half to attend Champions Board activities. Alongside staff learning, hubs in our secondary schools bring opportunities to take part closer to where young people are. Covering transport costs also helps reduce potential financial barriers to being included.

The next step here in building an approach that lasts aims to ensure we have hubs shaped by each school’s setting and pupils’ views, supported by guidance and regular staff network meetings.

Bright Spots is not the finish line. Role Guides, corporate parenting commitments, staff learning and school hubs show some very practical ways to turn listening into action. Our shared responsibility is to keep listening, responding and checking back: the feedback loop is so important. Are these steps making a difference that children and young people can actually feel? That is what matters, and what keeps us focused on helping every child thrive.

Access the Brights Spots Scotland reports

The views expressed in this blog post are those of the author/s and may not represent the views or opinions of CELCIS or our funders.

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