New Research Website Explores Physical Restraint in Residential Child Care
Amplifying Key Voices in the Sector A new website has launched to support an important research project examining physical restraint in residential child care across Scotland. Holding Differently, Containing Distress is a collaborative project involving the University of Strathclyde, the Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group (SPRAG), CELCIS and the residential child care sector. The research […]
Why Poverty Cannot Be Separated from Children’s Wellbeing
Poverty and children’s wellbeing are inseparable. Financial hardship can affect whether a child feels safe, stays healthy, participates in activities, achieves at school and feels included alongside their peers. For professionals working through GIRFEC, this means financial pressure cannot be treated simply as background information. Understanding a family’s circumstances is essential to understanding the child’s […]
When Young People Help Design the Services Intended to Protect Them
When young people help design services, those services become clearer, safer and more effective for the people who rely on them. That principle was recently demonstrated by a group of care-experienced young people from Kibble, whose insight helped make an anonymous crime-reporting service clearer and more accessible to young people across the UK. Their work […]
Closing Scotland’s Children’s Services Implementation Gap
Scotland has no shortage of strong policies, frameworks and commitments relating to children and families. GIRFEC, the UNCRC, The Promise, Whole Family Support and national child poverty targets all share an ambition to improve children’s lives through earlier, more coordinated and more rights-respecting support. The challenge is not always knowing what should happen. It is […]
Children in Scotland Annual Conference | 20 Years of GIRFEC: What Comes Next?
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 […]