Getting it right for every child review of 2017

The GIRFEC team review activities over 2017 for our annual report.

Over this year we have remained agile, and continuously adapted and improved our training and information materials on Getting it right for every child. Changes have been made to our materials and approach as a consequence of the introduction of the Information Sharing (Scotland) Bill which makes proposed changes to the way information would be passed to or shared by the Named Person. We have been asked by third sector partners to run training on information sharing in the light of the passage of this Bill through Parliament. We have held or participated in over 20 training events in various locations across Scotland, with each event being fully booked within a matter of weeks – highlighting the demand for up to date learning. The feedback from these events has been really positive. We have also held external workshops with a number of national third sector organisations including NSPCC and CHAS, as well as at conferences, which have all been hugely successful. Our overall message is the Getting it right for every child is a matter of equity and rights. The GIRFEC approach when it is working well can ensure that all children and young people have the right to expect the same high quality  consideration and service wherever they live or learn.

We have been working in partnership with the National Third Sector GIRFEC team at Barnardos and Young Scot, as well as both the Edinburgh and Fife Young Carer groups, to develop a national wellbeing discussion tool in the form of a card game. The content of and wellbeing examples in the tool were generated by the young carer groups to ensure it is relevant to young carers and to other young people, and tie in with the wellbeing principles outlined in the UNCRC. We are also hoping for input into the tool from the ALISS (A Local Information System for Scotland) programme to help signpost young people to services if they are needing extra support. This game will be launched early next year.

We have produced a major report on a study; Experiences of Transitions to Adult Years and Adult Services. This is a report on the lived experience of 30 disabled young people and of their families. The report was launched by the Minister for Children and Early Years. Key relationships with local government, health and third sector colleagues being maintained to ensure impact. Proposals have been put to the Scottish Government on potential ALLIANCE involvement in taking forward the recommendations in the report.

During the year, the Associate Director, children and young people has been seconded as the third sector professional advisor to the Scottish Government GIRFEC team

We responded on behalf on the ALLIANCE to the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee’s Call for Evidence on the new Information Sharing (Scotland) Bill and illustrative draft code of practice. We held a consultation event, inviting third sector organisations and children and young people with lived experience to help feed in to the response, which was sent to the Committee for consideration on the 6^th September.

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