Improving the service given to Scotland's children is one goal of a new research seminar series bringing together child experts from across the country and beyond.
Recent government policy has emphasised the need for joined-up working between different professionals and agencies to help improve the life chances of young people.*
This has been driven, in part, from recent judicial inquiries into child protection cases that identified a lack of accountability and the failure of agencies to share information.
Now a new ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) seminar series has been initiated by researchers at Aberdeen, Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities aimed at closing the gap between children's service providers.
The first seminar will be held at the University of Aberdeen's School of Education tomorrow (Thursday May 29) and Friday May 30, 2008.
Researchers, policy-makers and practitioners from around the UK and beyond, including the United States, will gather to explore ways in which they can together forge a new vision for children's services.
Keynote speakers include Mark Smith, a lecturer in social work at the University of Edinburgh, who will give a paper on the "slow death" of social work in Scotland.
"Clearly, the changes in the delivery of services now being sought by government will require a transformation in professionals' working practices – and it is this that will be explored in the seminar series."
For more information visit: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/education/research/ESRC20082009.shtml
And for more on the ESRC: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/index.aspx
*Getting it Right for Every Child agenda (GiRfEC) http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Young-People/childrensservices/girfec