In 2022, CELCIS was asked by the Scottish Government to carry out a 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 for Scotland, and its commitment to Keep the Promise of the Independent Care Review (2020).

The purpose of the Children’s Services Reform Research study 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 study has four separate strands of work, which together aim to provide a comprehensive and holistic approach to answering this question. A final report will be published at the end of the study which will draw together and synthesise all four strands of the findings to address the research question.

For this second strand of the study, we have developed six cases studies of a range of approaches to transformational reform programmes in different places to help us to answer the research question:

What transformational reform programmes have been introduced to enhance the delivery of children’s social work services through closer working with health and/or adult social care services in the case study countries, and what has been the impact of these on children, families, services and practice?

We looked at approaches to changes in the structures and modes of delivery of children’s services in Finland, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland; and what can be learned from Scotland’s experiences of national service reorganisation through the development of Police Scotland.

A full report with these case studies and an accompanying summary have been published.

Read the report

Read the summary of the report