SSCE Cymru is a member of the SCiP Alliance practice group, and participates in the activities it conducts.
The SCiP Alliance’s vision: Thriving lives for Service children.
The SCiP Alliance’s mission: We bring together practitioners, researchers, policymakers and funders to build a stronger evidence-base, better policy, and enhanced support for Service children’s education and progression, placing their voices at the heart of all we do
The SCiP Alliance pursues this vision and mission by leading collaborative work to develop a robust evidence base, connect and support practitioners and influence the policy environment. Our responses are developed with and through young people with lived experience.
The SCiP Alliance:
For further information on the SCiP Alliance, visit www.scipalliance.org
The alliance has also curated the Thriving Lives Toolkit, providing schools with a framework of 7 principles through which to reflect on their practice and a 3-tier set of CPD resources. The resources in this toolkit have been developed in collaboration with a range of partners across the UK, and consist of:
The SCiP Alliance is committed to improving further and higher education outcomes for Service children. It needs to know better before it can do better. That’s why the SCiP Alliance is a research–practice hub.
The SCiP Alliance produces briefings that help to summarise research and provide recommendations for practice and policy. Their subjects include resilience and moving schools. The briefing series can be found here.
More information about research relevant to Service children’s experiences can be found in the SSCE Cymru School Toolkit.
"Four out of ten Service children who have the ability to progress into higher education are unlikely to do so."
McCullouch and Hall (2016), Further and Higher Progression for Service Children
A programme of investigation to improve our understanding of how those supporting the children of Armed Forces families and veterans/ex-Service personnel put children’s voices at the heart of all they do.
Hall (2020), Listening to Learn: The Voices of Service Children
The report, produced in association with the Directory of Social Change, aims to provide the first systematic and rigorous account of the landscape of funding for support for Armed Forces children and young people.
Howarth and Doherty (2023), Funding for Armed Forces children and young people
The SCiP Alliance network of regional hubs brings together partnerships that connect stakeholders so that they can:
The University of South Wales (USW) and SSCE Cymru run the SCiP Alliance Hub Cymru collaboratively. The first meeting took place in November 2019 and bought together organisations to discussion research, policy and University engagement with Service children and the Armed Forces community in Wales.
Organisations involved in the SCiP Alliance – Hub Cymru include:
For further information about how to get involved with the SCiP Alliance – Hub Cymru, please contact SSCECymru@wlga.gov.uk
"As soon as we get used to a house, you get moved - I’ve been to four schools and moved six times."
Aiden
"I lived in Nepal, then we went to Brunei, then Malaysia."
Ashim
"In my eyes, you have hundreds of friends in different places."
Chloe
"I’m used to moving now and mixing with the children... I’ve done it so many times, it’s just a normal thing now."
Chloe
"It's ok talking over skype and that, but sometimes you just want a hug when Dad is away."
Georgia
"He signed off last week, so he will be done by the end of this year. He’s done 24 years. I find that better because he will be around a lot. He likes watching us playing rugby, so he will get to see us more."
Lewis
"I’ve enjoyed going around to lots of places around the world, it's adventurous and exciting."
Harry
"In my eyes, you have hundreds of friends in different places."
Ieuan
"My mum got a chalk board and it says how many sleeps on it with chalk, every minute it’s getting closer for him coming home."
Mia
"I don’t want him to get promoted... I want him to get promoted but I don’t want to leave."
Oliver
"I might be going to boarding school so that I don’t change schools every few years."
Ryan
"I've been to seven different schools; I’ve not stayed put in one school long enough."
Shana
"He has been away for six months and he is back for two weeks, then he goes away again."
Sianed
"My parents were in the Army. My mum is a like a nurse and my dad went to the war in Afghanistan. I actually didn’t really know what he was doing so I was like, ‘Cool Dad, go there,’ but then I found out and thought, 'Thank God he came back alive.'"
Sanjog
"I’m going to a new place entirely. They don’t know anything about me and that’s a big restart and that’s really good for me."
Piaras
"I moved to Wales because my dad was posted in the Army. I thought I would get bullied and I was shy when you meet new people, but I made some friends."
Dan
"I've moved seven times in fourteen years."
Lilia
"Now we've got a forever home. I never have to worry about leaving or how long until I am leaving. I feel like I belong here a lot more, that's always great."
Oliver
"In June or July, my Dad is going away quite far. He's in the Army, he's a chef. Having your Dad gone is so sad."
Josie
"I've lived in many places. So, I was born in Cyprus, after that I've been to Germany, then I went to this place called Stafford. Then another place which is Wales."
Dominic
"My Dad, he's in the Army and he works in the Engineers and he goes away on week days and comes back on weekends"
Emily
"Dad often goes away. It is a bit worrying not knowing where your Dad is going. It does worry me and my sister. Yeah, you just never know when he's coming home".
Joe
"My Mum is my parent that is in the Armed Forces. She is a reservist. So when I was younger it was a lot worse, she travelled around a lot. I've lived in the same house my whole life, but she has moved around me. I was in a constant cycle of saying goodbye".
Emma
"For military children they [Mount Street Junior School] do a club called Little Troopers, they've done a Remembrance service, purple up day. We celebrate Holi and Dawali".
Arushi
"Being a military child is hard, but it also gets you a lot of new experiences that I wouldn't have experienced otherwise".
Esme-Jane
Welsh Local Government Association
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