Research strengths and interests within the Centre for Excellence for Looked after Children in Scotland focus on six priority areas:

• Corporate Parenting – e.g. Roles and responsibilities of corporate parents, inter-professional communications, understandings of the corporate family,  corporate provision and residential care, access to services (including education, leisure, transport, housing, health);
• Family and Community Support – e.g. Family contact, family support, kinship care, children in need, children looked after at home, parental experiences of the hearings systems, parenting support and training, public perceptions of looked after children, access to and engagement with community facilities, early years support;
• Permanence, Stability and Transitions – e.g. Permanence orders, recruitment and assessment of adopters, changing demography of adopters, alternate forms of permanence, assessment and intervention, foster carer experiences, care leaver experience of further/higher education, barriers to FE/HE entry;
• Diversity and Disability – e.g. Improving data and the use of intelligence, the dimensions of diversity, ethnicity and culture, diversity and outcomes, disability and looked after children, the role of short breaks and respite, LGBT looked after children, the impact of child poverty, additional educational needs;
• Advocacy and Human Rights - Children and young people as researchers, peer mentoring, reflections on historic abuse, adult care leavers’ identities, looked after children’s use of technology, children’s experiences of the hearing system, the interests of looked after  children and young people;
• Leadership and Management – e.g. Service evaluation, identification of good practice, policy impact, implementation studies, workforce development, supervision and support of staff,  training and the role of feedback, working experiences of practitioners, stress and work, international comparative studies, qualifications and credentials.