The Centre for Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland or CELCIS is an organisation that supports the well-being of children.
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History
CELCIS was established in 2011 with the intention being to provide a holistic approach, rather than serving a specialist part of the professionals who deal with looked after children. It was established to facilitate collaboration and therefore works with a range of organisations to improve outcomes relating to the lives of looked after children in Scotland. The centre was preceded by the Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care (SIRCC), which was a centre of excellence that had been set up in 2000.
Types of work that CELCIS are involved with include supporting policy implementation, oversight of the looked after children strategic group and the provision of training, information resources and consultancy. Since August 2012 they have a specific responsibility for identifying the development needs of professionals working with looked after children.
The Centre are funded by the Scottish Government. They are hosted by the University of Strathclyde.
The Independent Chair of the Centre is Professor Alexis Jay.
International Work
In 2012 they were commissioned by the International Social Service to produce the “Moving Forward” report which aims to embed children’s rights in alternative care provision. In 2014 they were commissioned by SOS Children’s Villages to produce "Drumming Together for Change: A Child’s Right to Quality Care in Sub-Saharan Africa" report based on a synthesis of eight assessments of the implementation of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in Benin, Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.