This page is for children and young people to learn more about how to get involved in CELCIS's research on voluntary care arrangements in Scotland. Thank you for your interest!
About this research
We'd like to find out about children and young people's views and experiences of voluntary care arrangements, which are sometimes called 'Section 25' arrangements.
Voluntary care arrangements are when parents agree with social workers that their child should live with somebody else who will take care of them. This could be a close family member, a family friend, or a foster carer.
We’re interested in how social workers talk to children and young people about voluntary care arrangements and how they are involved in making decisions about their care. We’re also interested the support that children and young people felt they needed and may have got at the time.
If you have had this experience of a voluntary care arrangement, we'd like to know what you think
Are you aged 8-15? We’re planning some time for children and young people to come together in-person to speak with us. There will be activities to help you think about and share your thoughts with us in a safe space. Please speak to your carer or social worker if you're interested taking part – and we can speak with you or them before this too.
If you would like to share your thoughts but cannot or do not want to take part in the workshop, we can arrange a conversation just with you, either in-person or online. This will take about 30 minutes and will be arranged with you and the person who cares for you.
As a thank you for sharing your time and knowledge with us, you will receive a £10 voucher.
Are you aged 16-25? We would like to invite you to have a one-to-one conversation with us, either online or in-person. We would like to spend around 45 minutes speaking with you about your views and experience of voluntary care arrangements.
As a thank you for sharing your time and knowledge with us, you will receive a £20 voucher.
Contact us
If you are age 8-15 and think you might like to take part, please tell your social worker or carer about this project and share this page with them. They can also read more information to you from the information sheets we’ve put together for children and young people, or for carers.
If you are age 16-25 and think you might like to take part, please read the information sheet we’ve put together for young people.
If you have any questions, or if you’d like to let us know that you want to take part, you can phone or send a text or WhatsApp message to Robert in our team on 07967339359, or you can email Robert and Brandi Lee at: celcis.vca@strath.ac.uk.
Download more information for children aged 8-15
Download more information for young people aged 16-25
Download more information for caregivers
Your rights in taking part
If you decide to take part in this project it is important to know that:
- It is completely up to you whether you want to take part.
- No matter what you decide about taking part, it won’t change where you stay or who takes care of you.
- If you want to stop in the middle of taking to us, we will ask you if you want us to use what you have already told us or if you’d like us to get rid of our notes and not use anything you have said.
- After talking to us, if you decide that you don't want to help us with the project anymore, that's OK. We will listen to you and will not use anything you told us and get rid of the information about you. We can stop using what you told us at any time up until we start writing about what we found out.
- If you choose to take part in the project, we might use some of the words you say but we will not tell people who said it or use your real name in what we write. You will have the chance to choose a name to keep in our notes for you, and we will ask you which pronoun (he, she, they, etc) you prefer to use. We will use this chosen name and pronoun if we use something you said in what we write.
- We won’t use anything you’ve shared with us for any reason other than for the project: what we write about it and what we say about it to share with other people what we learned about making things better for children and families.
- You can ask to see what information we have about you at any time.
- We won't share information about you or anything you said with anyone except the project team unless what you tell us means that you or someone else may be in danger. If this happens, we have to speak to your social worker.
More information about your rights in taking part are available in the information sheets.
Need to speak to someone?
If you’re finding anything in your life hard at the moment and would like to talk to someone about it, or find out where to get help, you can ask for support from any one of these free services:
If you are 18 years old or younger, you can contact Childline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by phoning 0800 111, or visit www.childline.org.uk
Childline also offers a counsellor service online: https://www.childline.org.uk/get-support/1-2-1-counsellor-chat/
Breathing Space, is a confidential phone and webchat service and available to anyone in Scotland over the age of 16 who needs someone to listen, offer advice, and provide information to them.
Visit www.breathingspace.scot anytime, or phone 0800 83 85 87 Monday-Thursday 6pm - 2am, and Friday-Monday 6pm - 6am.
