Informing how Scotland’s laws could work better for children, young people and families and the people who support them
In January 2026, the Scottish Government announced an independent review of the Scottish legislative framework for children’s care.
The review will run from February 2026 to February 2027 and is taking place at an important moment.
With the new Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Act 2026 now in place and ongoing work to realise The Promise of the Independent Care Review, this review will gather new evidence and insights about what’s needed to declutter and streamline the legislative framework to support the people who care for and protect children every day, with children’s rights and wellbeing at the centre of its approach and recommendations.
What is the legislative framework?
The remit and scope of this review can be found here. The legislative framework for children’s care means the laws, regulations, duties and guidance that shape how children, young people and families are supported, protected and cared for in Scotland. Examples include: decisions and processes about protection, where a child lives, permanence, Aftercare and Continuing Care, how families including brothers and sisters keep connected, and the duties and responsibilities placed on local authorities, corporate parents and other agencies.
Why this Review matters
The Independent Care Review found that Scotland’s system, which relies on legislation developed over decades, is cluttered and confusing for most people, making it difficult to understand and navigate. That conclusion was confirmed by Independent Care Review, further supported by research findings from CELCIS’s Children’s Services Reform Research study and legal analysis by The Promise Scotland, all of which provided evidence and made the case for this legislative review.
The need for change is clear, but what is not clear are the specific details and evidence needed to prioritise how the legislative framework can be improved, why and how it will have a practical impact for children, young people, and families, and the people who support them.
The experiences and insights people share will help the review understand what currently helps, what gets in the way, and what needs to change so that children, young people and families get the right support at the right time.
These insights will shape a range of evidenced-based and practical recommendations that will inform Ministerial decision making for improving and reforming the legislation.
Professor Kenneth Norrie, a legal expert on family law and professor emeritus at the University of Strathclyde, is leading the Review in partnership with CELCIS. You can find information about Professor Norrie’s work here.
Professor Norrie: “The aim of this review is simple: to provide clear, evidence-based proposals for change that make the legal processes around caring for children clearer and easier for everyone in Scotland to understand and navigate, while ensuring that children’s rights are upheld, children are safe, and care and support designed to further their best interests.
“As we work quickly on this over the next year, we are very grateful to everyone who takes the time to share their insights and experiences with us.”
This work is being supported by CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, a leading improvement, innovation and research centre for children and young people’s support, care and protection, based at the University of Strathclyde.
Sharing experiences with the review:
Children, Young People and Families
People with lived experience of the care system told the Independent Care Review about their experience of the processes and rules involved and the conclusions of their experiences are clearly summarised in a report published alongside The Promise.
This valuable insight allows this new review will build on what is already known and not repeat questions that have been already asked.
People with lived experience of the care system and participation practitioners are helping shape how the review will engage with children, young people and families in a meaningful way within the short 12-month period of the review.
Opportunities to engage with this work will be shared on this page over the course of the review.
People who work with and support children, young people and families
We need to fully understand how legislation works as an everyday reality – how the law, guidance and/or processes support practice or create barriers, tensions, delays or unintended consequences for children, young people, and families.
The practitioners and people delivering services who are navigating the law, guidance and processes are well placed to describe how these affect the support they provide and the support that’s needed.
The review is engaging widely to understand these experiences.
Getting involved
Opportunities to take part included:
- A short survey which closed on Monday 25 May 2026
- Small group workshops to understand insights and experiences in more depth which closed on 8 June 2026.
Shared insights and experience are essential in helping to shape clearer and more effective laws and regulations.
The Scottish Government will use the findings from this survey, alongside the review’s practical recommendations, to inform decisions about future children’s care legislation.
Details of new opportunities will be shared on this page over the course of the review.
Update August 2026
How to get in touch with us
If you have questions about the Review, need support to take part, or want to share something that doesn’t fit through the survey or workshops, you can contact us directly. Email You can email us at: childrenslegislativereview@strath.ac.uk We will get back to you as soon as we can.
Find out who is leading the review from CELCIS
The review is being led by CELCIS’s Head of Strategy, Kathleen Doyle. Kathleen is providing strategic leadership and oversight across all strands of the review. She is responsible for engagement with strategic stakeholders and partners, and for ensuring that evidence, insights and contributions from children, young people and families, practitioners, leaders and decision-makers are brought together to inform the review's findings and recommendations. She is Head of Strategy at CELCIS and a member of the strategic management team, where she leads strategic programmes and supports the strategic direction, influence and impact of CELCIS’s work. Kathleen has extensive experience in strategy, policy, research utilisation and knowledge exchange, and has spent her career strengthening the connections between evidence, policy and practice. She is particularly interested in collaborative leadership, systems change and creating the conditions for evidence-informed improvement that leads to better outcomes for children, young people and families.
Dr Robert Porter is leading the desk-based review of existing evidence to support the review and inform future evidence gathering with children, young people and families, and the workforce. He is Research Lead at CELCIS and is an experienced socio-legal academic with degrees in psychology and a PhD in Law. He has led on projects relating to non-compulsory care, the role of solicitors within Scotland’s Children’s Hearings, and worked on legal empowerment and access to justice internationally. Robert led the rapid evidence review for the Scottish Government commissioned Children’s Services Reform Research.
Dr Alex McTier is leading the national workforce survey as part of the call for experiences strand. He is an Evidence and Evaluation Specialist with CELCIS. Alex specialises in understanding children’s statistical data in Scotland and is a strand lead in the Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data Short-Life Working group and a member of the National Public Protection Leadership Group’s Data Sub-Group. Alex previously led the analysis of the children’s services workforce views and experiences survey and the development of the international transformational reform programmes case studies for the Scottish Government-commissioned Children’s Services Reform Research.
Laura Quinn is leading the stakeholder and practitioner engagement work as part of the Children’s Legislative Review, bringing together colleagues from across the sector in collaborative workshops to explore how children’s care and protection law shapes everyday practice and to gather insights that will inform the review's findings and recommendations. She is an Early Help Consultant with CELCIS and a proud and passionate social worker with experience across a range of professional settings. At CELCIS, Laura has supported work to promote early intervention for children and families, strengthen an early years focus, and advance approaches to permanence. She brings extensive practice experience and a strong commitment to creating opportunities for shared learning and meaningful dialogue across the sector.
Craig McCreadie is leading the engagement with children and young people and families work as part of the Children's Legislative Review. He is the Participation Practice Lead with CELCIS and responsible for leading approaches that strengthen meaningful participation and engagement, ensuring that children, young people and families have opportunities to influence decisions that affect their lives and that their rights are upheld in practice. Working alongside partners, he creates spaces for meaningful dialogue and supports the development of participatory approaches that inform policy, practice and system change. Craig has experience of working in complex systems through community work, international development, and in social care contexts where his work has spanned Throughcare, advocacy, national participation programs, and complex change work.
Dr Nadine Fowler is contributing research knowledge and expertise to all strands of work, taking oversight of our ethics approach and research process during our engagement and evidence gathering with children, young people and families, and the workforce. She is a Research Associate at CELCIS and Book Review Editor of the Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care. Nadine’s expertise is in qualitative and mixed-methods research, with a PhD in Sociology and Social Policy. She has made significant contributions to CELCIS’s research and evaluation portfolio, including the Scottish evaluation of Lifelong Links, the Children’s Services Reform Research, and the Modernising Adoption literature review.