Children's Services Reform Research: Scotland’s Children’s Services Landscape: The Views and Experiences of the Children’s Services Workforce

This is a Scotland-based research study being undertaken by CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection at the University of Strathclyde. CELCIS was asked by the Scottish Government to carry out this research study with the aim of gathering evidence to inform decision-making about how best to deliver children's services in Scotland in light of the proposed introduction of the National Care Service, and its commitment to keep The Promise of the Independent Care Review. The purpose of the research is to answer the question: “What is needed to ensure that children, young people and families get the help they need, when they need it?” The Children’s Services Reform Research study has four separate strands of work, which together aim to provide a comprehensive approach to answering this question. The findings of each strand of work have been published separately, in a full research report and a shorter summary report.

This report is Strand 4: Scotland’s children’s services landscape: The views and experiences of the children’s services workforce explored, through responses to an online survey, interviews and focus groups, the opportunities, challenges, barriers and facilitators that members of the workforce identify as factors which bring about high quality experiences and outcomes for children, young people and families using services; close multi-agency working between practitioners across different services; continuity of support when young people transition to adult services; high quality support for the workforce and transformational change in services.

This strand of the research also produced additional insights regarding workforce perceptions of the association between integration and outcomes for children, young people and families and the wellbeing of the workforce.