Children’s Neighbourhoods Scotland: exploring local responses to COVID-19

The last few weeks have seen life as we all know it change in ways we could never have predicted. COVID-19 is having an unprecedented impact on society and the communities we live in. This impact is particularly stark for children and families, especially those already experiencing poverty and disadvantage.

Working across a number of communities, Children’s Neighbourhoods Scotland (CNS), a partnership between the GCPH and the University of Glasgow, is working to support efforts and services to reduce poverty, increase participation and capacity within communities, and to help tackle the issues currently making it difficult for children and young people to live happy and healthy lives.

As CNS is working with local people and organisations in the communities in which they live, it is well-placed to help capture early lessons from local responses to this unprecedented situation. CNS is now undertaking a new piece of research, in partnership with Policy Scotland, to understand the impact of COVID-19 on families with children and how services and organisations are responding to it.

Key to the research is an exploration of the supports and services that are working well, as well as the challenges that families are facing due to the pandemic. The findings from this piece of work will be used by local and national services and organisations to help inform the ongoing response to COVID-19.

Access further information on the research study.

Short regular briefings are being prepared which highlight some early and emerging themes and insights from the research at the local level. Briefings can be found in the Resources section of the CNS website.