Meeting children’s needs for care and protection

The evaluation of everyday multi-professional intervention to safeguard and promote the well-being of vulnerable children is limited and restricts both operational planning and professional intervention. The Scottish Universities Insight Institute hosted a programme seminars to contribute to the development of a platform that can support better understanding of the routes from intervention to outcomes for vulnerable children through utilising administrative datasets and longitudinal research. The intention was to identify the core constituents of a robust longitudinal design that would be fit for the evaluation of the efficacy of everyday professional intervention aimed at improving the lives of vulnerable children. The intention was also to explore the type and range of data that is required to capture fundamental aspects of everyday multi-professional intervention and child well-being. The purpose was to help identify the most appropriate measures to capture intervention and child well-being and develop a robust analytical package for capturing outcomes over the short, medium and longer term. The seminars brought together international experts in longitudinal studies, policy-makers, software providers, analytical services and representatives of key professional disciplines to discuss a mechanism for establishing the infrastructure for more effective routine data collection about child well-being in Scotland. The seminars also explored the contribution of well-designed longitudinal research. Emerging themes and opportunities from the programme are highlighted in this summary.