New pilot project launched to help local authorities better understand children and young people’s experience of care in Scotland
CELCIS has today (29 June) announced a new partnership with Coram Voice to bring two established surveys of young people’s experience of care to Scotland to be used by local authorities.
Known as the ‘Bright Spots’ programme, the initiative uses two online surveys, ‘Your Life, Your Care’, and ‘Your Life Beyond Care’, which have been developed to provide an opportunity for children and young people to share their experiences of care and how they feel about their lives, based on what they say is important to them.
Piloting this approach in Scotland will help local authorities to listen to the voices of their care experienced children and young people in a new way and offer another opportunity to uphold children's rights and Keep The Promise of the Independent Care Review. The findings of the surveys will enable local authorities to improve how local services are provided and focus changes where children and young people feel these are most needed.
The surveys’ approach provides a measure of wellbeing, quality of care and of the experience of leaving care. Informed by research and developed by Coram Voice, working with Professor Julie Selwyn from the University of Oxford, these are designed to explore, collect and understand through the use of age-appropriate questionnaires, the experiences of children from age four up to the age of 25. Children and young people helped to design the surveys, and children in care and care leavers shared their thoughts with researchers about what was important to them.
Now CELCIS is asking local authorities in Scotland to step forward to express their interest in participating in the piloting of this project, starting later this year. Three local authorities will be selected based on the extent to which they are able to meet key criteria and those selected will form a partnership with CELCIS and Coram Voice to support the delivery the surveys and dissemination of the findings and learning.
Following the pilot phase, all local authorities in Scotland will be offered the opportunity to carry out the surveys.
In England and Wales to date, the two online surveys have been used by over 50 local authorities and received almost 15,000 responses.
Read more about the Bright Spots Programme in England and Wales