A group of 14 practitioners from organisations across Scotland, volunteered to become members of the action learning set. The action learning was supported and facilitated by Evaluation Support Scotland (ESS). The action learning set was formed as a way to support the practitioners collate, reflect upon and analyse the stories of children and young people whose parents were on a recovery journey from problematic drugs and alcohol use. The practitioners met six times between April 2015 and March 2016, sometimes as two groups, sometimes as one.

They aimed to:

• Explore how we could better collect and make use of children and young people’s stories (their experiences, feelings and thoughts) – getting the method right.
• Capture and record a range of stories with a view to better understanding the support needs for children and young people when their parents are in recovery – collecting experiential evidence.

This component gives more insight into the process followed and the learning gained by practitioners, both individually and collectively, as they gathered and analysed short stories shared with them by children and young people. It contains two elements. The first covers key findings and themes from undertaking the action learning and the second is a practical guide to collecting and using stories and experiences. These resources have been written with and by the group of practitioners who formed the action learning set.