About SIRCC

Update on SIRCC’s Future Development

Creation of a New Centre to improve children’s lives and futures.

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Scottish Government has announced today the creation of a new centre for excellence of Scotland’s looked after children and young people, and those leaving care. This builds on work already undertaken by the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care (SIRCC) over the last ten years to improve outcomes for children and young people in residential care.

The new centre, which will encompass the work of SIRCC, will work collaboratively with a range of other organisations. The role for the new organisation is to:

·       Offer specialist training and support to anyone working with looked after children and young people.

·       Work with the further and higher education sectors to ensure appropriate qualifications are available to relevant professionals.

·       Retain a consultative role with children and young people on practice improvement.

·       Provide ad hoc consultancy advice to help relevant groups put in place, monitor and evaluate projects.

·       Act as a central point of contact for those seeking information/advice, including the provision of a web-based resource.

·       Run seminars and conferences to promote good practice and raise awareness of current thinking and developments in the area of looked after children, as well as helping to develop good practice through a research programme covering domestic and international practice.

·       Work with the sector to reduce the stigma associated with being a looked after child or young person.

This announcement comes as new looked after children statistics were published today, showing that the number of children looked after by local authorities increased by 4% between March 2009 and July 2010, to 15892.

Romy Langeland, independent chair of SIRCC, said: “We recognise that there is already a great deal of important work being undertaken to improve a child’s experiences throughout their journey within the care system.  We welcome this opportunity to come alongside partners and work together to ensure that we maximise the opportunities and outcomes for looked after children.”

SIRCC director Jennifer Davidson said: “We are delighted by this recognition of the quality and effectiveness of SIRCC’s work with the residential child care sector. We are keen to work closely in the coming years with an even wider range of partners working with these children, in residential and other forms of care, to ensure that looked after children get a consistently high quality of care and the best possible chances in life.”

The creation of a centre of excellence for looked after children has largely been informed by a scoping study commissioned by Scottish Government. You can read the document here.

For a copy of the Scottish Government press release about the announcement please click here

To view the Looked after Children’s statistics from Scottish Government, please click here

You can read a fully copy of a letter to the residential sector from SIRCC here

Further updates will occur here on the SIRCC website and more information will shortly become available at www.thenewcentre.org.uk

If you would like to register your email address for future electronic updates, please do so at thenewcentre@strath.ac.uk

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The Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care (SIRCC) was established in April 2000. We are a partnership of the University of Strathclyde, The Robert Gordon University, Who Cares? Scotland and Langside College, and we are funded primarily by the Scottish Government.

Our Mission

SIRCC acts as a catalyst to influence and improve the quality of care and outcomes for children and young people living in residential care. We seek to do this by:

• Providing learning and development opportunities
• Supporting organisational development and workforce planning
• Establishing a sound evidence base which incorporates the views and experience of young people
• Our activities respect and value children and young people and the workers caring for them in residential establishments

Our Vision

For those children and young people who need it, residential care should be a valid, stable, nurturing and therapeutic form of care.

• It should be a placement of choice because it is successful in meeting children and young people’s needs, recognising their rights, and helping them overcome the difficulties that led to their placement
• Placements should be designed to help children and young people grow, develop and realise their potential
• Residential child care should not be a marginalised service seen as a last resort. It is likely to be a relatively small but core service offering specialised and expert provision
• It should be part of a continuum of provision, the balance and focus of which will change in response to changing needs
• SIRCC aims to be a catalyst to achieve this vision

Our Aim

SIRCC aims to ensure that residential child care workers throughout Scotland have access to the skills and knowledge they require to meet the needs of the children and young people in their care.

Attachment	Size
CentreforExcellencescopingstudyFebruary2011.pdf	143.1 KB
SIRCC_letter_to_RCC_Sector_21_Feb_2011.pdf	190.42 KB