A leading child protection expert has been appointed to decide if Scotland’s children’s services should be taken out of local authority control and managed nationally.

Professor Brigid Daniel, Professor Emerita at Queen Margaret University, will chair a group guiding independent research to determine where services fit in the forthcoming National Care Service (NCS).

The plan has drawn criticism from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) which said their inclusion “goes far beyond the scope of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care” and there is a lack of evidence and data to justify it.

Cosla’s Children and Young People Spokesperson Councillor Stephen McCabe said that the level of restructure and reform that is proposed “risks derailing and disrupting ongoing transformation work”.

He said: “The Scottish Government’s focus in the coming years should be on ‘Keeping The Promise’ and supporting and delivering better outcomes for our children, young people and families, not on costly and time-intensive structural reform which neither demonstrates nor evidences how it would improve the lives of children and families.”

Professor Daniel said: “The research team will be guided by the overarching question: ‘How do we ensure that children, young people and families get the help they need when they need it?’

She added: “We aim to ensure services for Scotland’s children and families are informed by the best possible evidence including the perspective of those who use and deliver those services.”

The research will be carried out by the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection (Celcis).