Independent Review of Scotland's Legislative Framework for Children's Care Workforce Survey

The survey window is now open to all workforces until Monday 11th May. Please continue to read about the survey and decide if you would like to take part.

About the research project

Scotland is reviewing the legislative framework that shapes the children’s care and protection system. Described by the Independent Care Review (2020) as “cluttered, complex and does not provide a clear frame to support children, families, decision makers and service providers”, the aim of this review is to understand what needs to change so that the legislative framework upholds children’s rights, improves experiences for children and families, and better supports those who work with and alongside children and families.

This independent review is being led by Professor Kenneth Norrie, a leading expert on Scottish family law and professor emeritus at the University of Strathclyde, in partnership with CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection. You can find more information about the review here: https://www.celcis.org/clr

Kathleen Doyle is leading CELCIS's work on the Independent Review, and Dr Alex McTier at CELCIS is leading this survey. If you have any questions about this survey or other aspects of the study, you can contact us at:childrenslegislativereview@strath.ac.uk

What we mean by the ‘legislative framework’

When we refer to the legislative framework for children’s care, we mean the laws, regulations, duties and guidance that shape how children, young people and families are supported, protected and cared for in Scotland.

For example, decisions and processes about protection, where a child lives, permanence, Aftercare and Continuing Care, how families or brothers and sisters keep connected, and the duties and responsibilities placed on local authorities, Corporate Parents and other agencies.

How to get involved

Taking part will be simple and flexible, with opportunities to fit around busy roles and tapping into established networks and groups where possible. This will include:

What’s included

This review focuses on the laws, duties, regulations and guidance related to:

  • Adoption, foster and kinship care
  • Residential child care and secure care
  • Children 'looked after' at home
  • Child protection
  • Permanence
  • Aftercare, Continuing Care and Throughcare
  • Children and young people in conflict with the law
  • Upholding children’s rights, and the
  • Duties placed on local authorities in relation to the above.

What’s not included

  • UK legislation that is reserved to decision-making at Westminster, including immigration and asylum.
  • Scottish legislation affecting all children rather than legislation for children’s care and protection, such as legislation relating to education, health and additional support needs.

Your views and experiences matter

People working directly with children and families see first-hand how the legislative framework supports practice and where it makes things more difficult. Your 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 future decisions about changes to children’s care legislation.

Who can take part

Anyone who supports, cares for, or provides legal or advocacy services to children, young people or families in Scotland, including:

  • Social workers
  • Foster and kinship carers
  • Residential child care and secure care staff
  • Youth justice and police workers 
  • Local authority solicitors and legal professionals
  • Health, education and third sector practitioners
  • Managers, leaders, supervisors, and volunteers
  • Policy, data, learning and development, administrative roles.

What will it involve?

This is a short online survey of 10 questions. We encourage you to take your time in completing your answers as we are interested in hearing about your experiences in your own words. At the start, we will ask you questions about:

  • Your area of work
  • Your role
  • How long you’ve worked in Scotland’s children’s services landscape.

This will help us understand how views differ across areas of work and roles.

The main part of the survey asks about:

  • Your experiences of working with Scotland's legislative framework for children’s care
  • Any areas where you have found the legislative framework unclear, contradictory, or out of date
  • How you think it might be improved or made easier to work with.

You do not have to answer every question.

At the end, we're asking if you would like to take part in future workshops to explore the issues in more depth. We recommend completing the survey in one sitting because some devices will not save your answers if you exit your browser window.

What are your rights in taking part?

If you decide to take part, it is important you know: You are free to decide

  • You do not have to take part
  • You can stop at any time
  • You can ask us to remove your responses any time up until the report of the review is being written.

How to withdraw your response

You will not be asked for your name in the survey, instead you will be allocated a randomly generated 'Response ID' number at the beginning of the survey, which can be used to identify a response.

Please keep this number safe somewhere.

If you wish to withdraw your answers:

Please let us know by Monday 1st June if you wish to withdraw your response.

If you do not have your Response ID number, we will not be able to identify your response and we won't be able to withdraw it.

Your involvement will remain confidential

If your choose to take part in a workshop, we will ask you to click on the link at the end of the survey and you will be taken to a new page where you will be able to leave your name and email address. This allows us to keep your name and contact information separate from your survey response which means that we can't link your name with your responses to the survey questions.

Whilst we ask for information about your area of work and job role, we do not ask you for your job title nor do we ask you about what area of Scotland you work in. This will reduce the likelihood that we could identify you from this information, however, if you share information in your responses that makes us think that someone could identify you, we will anonymise this.

To ensure that your responses are kept confidential:

  • We will make sure that no information will appear in any reports or materials that could personally identify you.
  • We may use short quotations from your answers, but only in a way that protects your identity.
  • Only the research team will have access to your original responses.

If you want to take part in a small group workshop

Sharing your insights in a small group workshop could really help us understand your experience in more depth, and allow us to provide concrete and practical evidence of what needs to change. If you are interested in taking part in a workshop:

  • At the end of the survey, you can choose to give your name and email address.
  • These details will be stored separately and securely, and cannot be linked back to your survey answers.
  • Your responses in the survey will not be linked with your name and email address.

How the information will be used

We will only use your answers for research purposes. This includes:

  • Writing reports.
  • Creating presentations, animations or other materials.
  • Publishing academic articles.
  • Sharing findings to improve Scotland’s children’s care legislation.

You have the right to ask what information we hold about you. To do this, email us at childrenslegislativereview@strath.ac.uk. We will then ask you for some information (for example, the date and time you completed the survey or your area of work) to enable us to find your response and provide you with the information we hold about you.

How your information will be handled - Data Protection

  • All responses will be stored securely on University of Strathclyde IT servers
  • The full survey data will be kept for five years and only be available to the CELCIS research team
  • The data with then be fully anonymised and archived securely for 20 years (until 2046) to enable analysis by other researchers.

You can read more in the full privacy notice here. The University of Strathclyde Department of Social Work and Social Policy Ethics Committee has approved this review. If you have any concerns, you can contact: hass-swsp-ethics@strath.ac.uk

Your wellbeing

This survey focuses on your professional experiences of children’s care legislation. If you feel distressed at any point, please speak to:

  • Your line manager,
  • Your agency’s wellbeing or support service, or
  • If you’re a carer, you supervising social worker, The Fostering Network or Kinship Care.

Your wellbeing is important, and you can stop the survey at any time.

Ready to take part?

Are you a carer or a member of Scotland’s children’s care workforce?

As a reminder, we need to hear from you if you are a carer (foster or kinship) or work in social work, health, education, children and family law, youth justice, police, or third sector professional whose role involves working with children, young people and their families in need of support, care and protection.

By selecting the ‘Yes, take me to the survey’ option you agree that you:

  • Have read the information above
  • Understand what the survey is and why it is being done
  • Understand your rights and how the research team is safely protecting your data
  • Agree to take part in the survey.

Yes, take me to the survey