The role of CELCIS in residential child care
At CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, our Residential Child Care team works alongside those who work in and are connected to residential child care. We are focused on meeting the needs of children, young people and their families so that every child in Scotland has the high quality and well-rounded care and education they need and deserve. These close working relationships enable us to work across a range of roles and settings, supporting quality improvement and the implementation of small scale and transformational change projects, delivering specific training and support, facilitating connections between professionals, and to design and deliver work that aligns with the individual needs and priorities of everyone we work with. In these ways we work to help ensure that our care experienced children and young people grow up loved, safe and respected.
The Promise of Scotland’s Independent Care Review, described that the workforce needs support, time, and care to develop and maintain relationships with children and young people. It states that “Scotland must hold the hands of those who hold the hand of the child.” Ongoing professional development and support are critical to maintain the high standards of care that children and young people deserve and have a right to.
SIRCC Conference and CELCIS
For over 20 years, the Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care (SIRCC) Conference, hosted by CELCIS, has been a staple annual event in the residential community’s calendar in Scotland. Through in-person conferences and, most recently, online events, we have shared pivotal keynote presentations, practical and creative immersive workshops and key networking opportunities.
The future of residential child care in Scotland
At our most recent online conference, we heard that there are fundamental questions facing residential child care:
- What is the role and place of residential child care in Scotland now and the future?
- What does high-quality care look and feel like for children?
- What are the emerging developments in practice to learn from?
- And how do we do this together as a community with all the new ways to connect, share and come together?
We then ran a number of in person and online sessions to explore these questions with the workforce.
Information from session 1, Information from session 2, Information from session 3
The Residential Child Care Learning and Development Community of Practice
The Residential Child Care Learning & Development Community of Practice is a collaborative initiative by CELCIS. This group aims to offer support to practitioners working in learning and development roles in residential child care by facilitating a space where they can provide each other with opportunities for ongoing learning, sharing best practices, and building a supportive network. Key activities of this group include:
- Connection and collaboration: Offering various opportunities to build connections and relationships with professionals in similar residential child care learning and development roles across Scotland.
- Knowledge Exchange: Facilitating the sharing of insights, evidence, and experiences among learning and development professionals working in residential child care to improve care practices.
- Support and Resources: Sharing of resources, webinars, and events that focus on current best practice, issues and challenges, in the residential child care sector.
To find out more about the Residential Child Care Learning and Development Community of Practice at CELCIS, contact CELCIS@strath.ac.uk and a member of the team will be in touch.
