The Children in Scotland Annual Conference 2026 brought together professionals from across the care, education and third sector landscape to reflect on an important milestone: 20 years of GIRFEC.
For the Geco Connect team, it was a fantastic opportunity to meet practitioners, leaders, local authority representatives and sector organisations who are all working towards the same goal: improving outcomes for children and young people.
Across the two-day event, discussions focused on how GIRFEC has transformed practice over the past two decades and, importantly, what comes next.
One of the strongest messages from the conference was that Scotland already has a strong framework. GIRFEC and the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators provide a clear structure for understanding and supporting children and young people. The challenge facing many organisations today is not understanding the framework. It is implementing it consistently and evidencing outcomes effectively.
This is a challenge many residential care providers, specialist education settings and local authorities know all too well.
Staff spend significant amounts of time recording information, producing reports and preparing evidence for inspections and reviews. Yet despite all this work, information can still become fragmented across different systems, making it difficult to build a complete picture of a young person’s progress.
These conversations reinforced why Geco Connect exists.
The platform was designed to help organisations reduce duplication, improve collaboration and create a shared view of each young person across care, education and wellbeing teams. By aligning reporting with the GIRFEC framework and SHANARRI indicators, organisations can spend less time chasing information and more time focusing on support and outcomes.
The conference also highlighted something we firmly believe at Geco Connect.
The future of the sector will not be defined by new frameworks. It will be defined by how effectively organisations can turn information into insight and demonstrate the impact they are having on the lives of children and young people.
It was a privilege to be part of the conversation and we look forward to continuing to support organisations as they build on the next chapter of GIRFEC.