Permanently Progressing? Phase Two: Middle Childhood
Project Dates
December 2020 - September 2024
Funder
The Nuffield Foundation and an anonymous donor
Project Summary
In 2018, 14,738 children were looked after in Scotland (Scottish Government 2019) whilst around 85,000 children were looked after in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (DfE 2018; Statistics Wales 2018; DoH 2018). Until recently, little was known about children’s experiences and pathways through the Scottish care system; the balance of voluntary and compulsory placements, the routes taken and time to permanence (at or away from home), and what influences outcomes and wellbeing.
The Permanently Progressing? study is addressing these gaps by gathering information on all 1,836 children who became looked after in Scotland when aged five or under in 2012-13. This three-phase longitudinal research project is tracking children’s progress at key life stages (early childhood, mid childhood and late adolescence/early adulthood). Phase 1 – Building Secure Futures for Children in Scotland - ran from 2014-2018 and analysed children’s pre-care experiences, pathways and early outcomes. It used administrative data, surveys of caregivers and social workers, interviews with caregivers, and play and talk sessions with children. We found that a third of the children were not in permanent placements after four years and that adoption generally took over two years.
During Phase 2 (2020-24) the research team have revisited the cohort children in middle childhood (age 7+) to find out where they are living, their legal status, wellbeing, and what services bolster resilience. This will provide important and robust information for families, practitioners and policy makers, in Scotland and internationally, which in turn will result in more effective services and better outcomes for children and families.
Thank you to all the children and young people, kinship carers, foster carers, adoptive parents, birth parents and social workers who took part or who supported others to take part.
The final report and summaries are below.
Publications
Helen Whincup, Linda Cusworth, Maggie Grant, Paula Jacobs, Jade Hooper, Ariane Critchley, Alison Hennessy and Ben Matthews (2024) Permanently Progressing? Building secure futures for children: Phase 2 Middle Childhood. Final report. Stirling, University of Stirling. [available here]
A number of different summaries are also available:
- an accessible summary for children and young people [available here]
- a short summary for caregivers and professionals [available here]
- a summary focusing on the experiences of birth parents [available here]
- a policy summary [available here]
- and an executive summary of the report [available here]
Research Team
Lancaster University
Dr Linda Cusworth, Co-investigator
Jade Hooper, Senior Research Associate
Stirling University
Dr Helen Whincup, Principal Investigator
Dr Margaret Grant, Co-Investigator
Jade Hooper, Researcher
Dr Paula Jacobs, Researcher
Dr Alison Hennessy, Lecturer
Dr Ariane Critchley, Lecturer
Dr Ben Matthews, Lecturer
Practice Collaborators
Contact
For further information contact Linda Cusworth (l.cusworth@lancaster.ac.uk)
