Professional curiosity

Professional curiosity is widely recognised across public protection as an essential quality for best practice. It is a topic which comes up frequently in learning reviews across ASP and Child Protection, and has wider resonance throughout Public Protection. However, professional curiosity is not always well understood or defined.

Project year 1 (2025/26) focused on exploring the topic with a wide range of professionals, to understand what matters and what is needed. We did this by convening discussion sessions with 115 practitioners from across the public protection landscape. We also conducted a literature review, produced a short animation and brought the learning together in a summary report. Finally, a short-life working group helped focus our learning and inform priorities for the future.

This year (2026/27) we will:

• Work towards a definition of professional curiosity for the Scottish context, including developing a number of practice examples
• Focus on leadership: work with leaders to develop resources, supporting them to create conditions for curious practice