The Independent Care Review’s aim is to identify and deliver lasting change in Scotland’s care system and leave a legacy that will transform the wellbeing of infants, children and young people.

This report summarises findings from a joint targeted area inspections of ‘the multi-agency response to child sexual abuse in the family environment’ in the UK, which took place between September 2018 and May 2019. The findings in this report consider the extent to which children’s social care, health professionals, youth offending services, the police and probation officers effectively work together to safeguard children who are subject to, or at risk of, sexual abuse in the family environment.

In this article, the authors explore how relationships in the workplace may be an important source of support for some care experienced young people.

This first of a two-part paper discusses the first of a two-stage, transatlantic study aimed at identifying and exploring threshold concepts in residential child care.

This article from the Guardian describes a new venture started by social entrepreneur Helen Costa to "help adopters, foster carers, social workers, teachers and judges understand the impact of attachment-related trauma on a child, 'and the response we need from the grownups,'"

"Ten years ago, Parliament demanded that the Home Office, in all of its immigration and asylum functions, must promote and protect the welfare of children," says Lucy Leon, Policy & Practice Adviser – Refugee & Migrant Children at The Children’s Society in this guest blog post for the Refugee Council. "But a decade later some policies still fail in this duty, particularly the one that makes it almost impossible for child refugees, alone in the UK, to be reunited with their family."

This article for The Herald Scotland describes the recently launched Scottish Independent Care Review as "a once-in-a-generation scrutiny of our care system, with far-reaching recommendations for change. It is not unreasonable to expect that other countries might look upon it as a model for their own systems."

This paper reports on an empirical study of child protection services in a local authority where rates of investigations and interventions rose to unprecedented levels during the course of a single year.

The work of the Independant Care Review in Scotland culminated in the publication of seven reports in February 2020, including 'The Promise' which set out what needs to change in the care system to ensure children and young people grow up loved, safe and respected.

The UK Department for Education commissioned the research on which this report is based to gain a better overall understanding of the issues around the use of unregulated and unregistered provision for looked after children (LAC) and care leavers.