The Bright Spots Programme Scottish Pilot
CELCIS, in partnership with Coram Voice, is leading the Bright Spots programme Scottish pilot. The Bright Spots Programme supports local authorities with a new opportunity to listen to the voices of their care experienced children and young people about the things that are important to them.
Using surveys, ‘Your Life, Your Care’, and ‘Your Life Beyond Care’, which have been developed to provide an opportunity for children and young people to share their experiences of care and how they feel about their lives, the local authorities can help to drive local service provision and focus on change where children and young people say it is needed.
The initial Scottish pilot began with three local authority areas – Aberdeenshire Council, Dumfries and Galloway Council and East Ayrshire Council – in 2022. The second pilot phase began in 2024 with three new partner local authorities: Aberdeen City Council, Scottish Borders Council and Stirling Council.
These partner local authorities formed a partnership with CELCIS and Coram Voice to support:
- The delivery of the surveys
- Dissemination of the findings and learning
- Action planning to respond to what children and young people told local authorities in the surveys.
In 2020, Scotland’s Independent Care Review reported that ‘Scotland collects data on the ‘care system’ and its inputs, processes, and outputs rather than what matters to the experiences and outcomes of the people who live in and around it’. By participating in the Bright Spots programme, local authorities have another opportunity to listen to care experienced children and young people in ways that can informing service that support their wellbeing and experiencing of care and leaving care.
In November 2026, CELCIS and Coram Voice published new research and analysis bringing together data and the views of 1,316 children in care and young care leavers from across the six local authority areas that piloted the Bright Spots programme for the first time in Scotland.
This snapshot of first-hand experiences over a three-month period in 2022 and three-month period in 2024 reveals the ‘bright spots’ of what children and young care leavers feel is going well for them and what matters to them. Analysis shows what affects the wellbeing of children and young people, including their relationships, trust, safety and health. It compares the experiences of children in care and care leavers across the six areas, with care experience children and young people in England and Wales, and with the general population.
Your Life, Your Care
Full report
Your Life Beyond Care.
Full report
Your Life Your Care
Report summary
Your Life Beyond Care.
Report summary
A series of posts for the CELCIS explain more about the work of Bright Spots and how the views and experiences shared by children in care and young care leavers are informing the support, practice and planning local authorities provide in Scotland to respond to the needs and rights of their children and young people with experience of care. .
More About the Bright Spots surveys
Using these surveys provides an effective measure of wellbeing, quality of care and leaving care experience. Informed by research and developed by Coram Voice and the Rees Centre at the University of Oxford with funding from the Hadley Trust, these capture the experiences of children from four years old up to the age of 25 through age-appropriate questionnaires.
The two surveys focus on:
‘Your Life, Your Care’
A survey for children and young people in care, which uses age-appropriate questionnaires (for ages 4-7, 8-11 and 11-18)
‘Your Life Beyond Care’
A separate survey for care leavers up to the age of 26
Children and young people helped to design the surveys, and children in care and care leavers shared their thoughts with researchers about what was important to them.
In England, Wales and Scotland, the two online surveys have been used by over 80 local authorities and received over 24,000 responses.
The Bright Spots programme Scottish pilot short films
In these two short films, recorded in October 2022 and September 2023, two local authorities that were involved in the Scottish pilot and one local authority from England share their experiences of the Bright Spots programme.
Learning from the Bright Spots programme – October 2022
In this video, Micky Anderson, Data Lead at CELCIS, introduces the Bright Spots programme Scottish Pilot.
Grace Fletcher, Service Manager for Family Support and Young People at East Ayrshire Council and Andrew Dick, Social Work Manager for Corporate Parenting at Aberdeenshire Council discuss the reasons why they wanted to be involved in the Bright Spots programme Scottish pilot, the process of carrying out the surveys in their local authorities and learning along the way.
The film also hears from Toby Wilson, Team Manager for the Voice and Participation Team at West Sussex County Council in England, who discusses what’s been learned from carrying out the surveys over several years, and the impact the Bright Spots programme has had for children, young people and care leavers.
Making change happen: Reflections and impact from the Bright Spots programme Scottish pilot – September 2023
In this video, Grace Fletcher, Service Manager for Family Support and Young People at East Ayrshire Council and Andrew Dick, Social Work Manager for Corporate Parenting at Aberdeenshire Council, reflect on being involved in the Bright Spots programme Scottish pilot. Two years after applying to take part, they discuss the findings the surveys, changes that have taken place to improve the lives of children, young people and care leavers, and offer thoughts and reflections for local authorities thinking about applying to take part in the second Scottish pilot phase.