Keeping the Promise - health and wellbeing of care experienced children and young people: longitudinal quantitative evidence review

Ongoing projects

Below are summaries of projects identified during the search that fell within the scope of the evidence review but that are currently under development or are new/ongoing and yet to report.

Looked after children grown up: a scoping study of the Scottish and Northern Ireland Longitudinal Census data

This scoping study aims to explore whether research on long-term outcomes of looked-after children in England and Wales can be extended to Scotland and Northern Ireland. It aims to identify children in various care settings using the 1991 and 2001 censuses, assess data quality and statistical power, and evaluate the feasibility of linking to health and social care records

Meeting the health needs of looked-after children in Scotland - ADR Scotland

The overall aim of this study is to examine looked after children’s use of unscheduled health care in Scotland, comparing those living at home with parents to those living away from home in, for example, kinship care, foster care or residential care. This project uses the CLAS data linked to health datasets via Community Health Index (CHI), which is the same administrative foundation used in longitudinal linkage projects. This project also seeks to determine the minimum identifiers needed from CLAS for secure linkage to health data via the CHI, and to compare patterns of unscheduled care use between children looked after at home and those looked after away from home across all ages. It aims to use data linked from the Primary Care Out of Hours Service; the Scottish Ambulance Service; A&E (hospital Accident & Emergency); SMR01 inpatients and day cases; NHS24 call data; and CLAS.

Exploring the feasibility of a new longitudinal birth cohort study focusing on children at risk of poor outcomes

This Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) initiative aims to improve the quality, consistency, and linkage of administrative and survey data to strengthen evidence on outcomes for care experienced children and young people in the UK. It will explore integration of existing datasets and opportunities to capture broader wellbeing measures. Findings from this work are expected to be published in 2026.

Children’s Health and Monitoring The Promise - PHS

This project aims to develop a national surveillance system to monitor health outcomes and healthcare equity for care experienced children and young people. The initial phase focuses on school-aged children currently looked after at the start of the school year, with indicators prioritised for feasibility, relevance and usefulness. The work aims to provide robust, policy-relevant indicators to inform early intervention and monitor Scotland’s progress towards meeting The Promise.