The ALLIANCE Children and Young People programme 2021 review

The Children and Young People Programme continued to deliver on a wide range of objectives and activities during 2021, despite the pandemic.

The outcomes of the Getting to Know Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) programme of work have continued to be a key area of focus, with monthly online training being organised for professionals and parents/carers using our updated training materials. Aside from building capacity on the GIRFEC approach, these sessions also provide an opportunity for us to compile feedback from attendees to make Scottish Government aware of how GIRFEC plays out in practice, which also informed the GIRFEC guidance refresh ahead of the consultation period. Our Getting to Know GIRFEC Advisory Group continues to be active, with wide representation from colleagues across the third sector and Scottish Government. In December, we hosted a members event to support the launch of the GIRFEC guidance refresh consultation, which informed the scope of our consultation response. We also recorded two ALLIANCE Live videos to support the launch of the consultation, one on the purpose of the GIRFEC guidance refresh and another featuring a Question and Answer session with the GIRFEC Team Policy Manager.

The Children and Young People Programme has also continued to play an active role in the children’s policy domain, beyond the scope of GIRFEC. We submitted responses to the consultation on the new Child Protection Guidance Scotland and to the Transitions Bill, and added a children’s services perspective to our Policy Team’s National Care Service consultation response. A survey on the Child Disability Payment training programme was carried out in collaboration with Social Security Scotland. We also successfully championed for an amendment on inclusive communications to be added to the UNCRC Incorporation Bill, a joint effort with deafscotland (now merged with the ALLIANCE as part of the Scottish Sensory Hub) and our Policy Team. Our engagement in key representation platforms, such as the Children’s Sector Strategic & Policy Forum (CSSPF), the GIRFEC Stakeholder Engagement Group, the Disabled Children and Young People Advisory Group (DCYPAG), and the Engagement sub-group of the DCYPAG is ongoing.

Other highlights in 2021 included an interview with Bruce Adamson, Children and Young People Commissioner, an ALLIANCE Live event featuring an interview with Jennifer Wallace, Head of Policy Carnegie UK, on children’s wellbeing budgeting, and an ALLIANCE Live interview featuring Bill Scott and Lindsay Graham, from the Poverty & Inequality Commission, addressing childhood poverty and food insecurity in Scotland. In October, we held a members event on vaccine uptake among children and young people, with a report on key messages from the event available on our website.

In 2022, we continue to plan the scope of activity for the programme, look towards updating our GIRFEC training once the refreshed guidance is published, are involved in work on capacity building on the UNCRC incorporation, and collaborating on different projects with colleagues across the ALLIANCE.

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