Getting it right for all East Lothian’s children and young peopleThe Children and Young People’s Service Plan

2016 - 2019

We are the people who made this plan. We work for lots of different organisations.

East Lothian Council NHS Lothian East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership Police Scotland Children 1st

Who Cares? Scotland Children’s Hearings

What we are all about

Our job is to work with you and your family.

We want to make sure that the all people working with you work together to support you.

We want to make sure that we make a positive difference to your life.

We want to get it right for you.

What do you know about children and young people in East Lothian

How old are the people we work with?

Babies to 4 year olds

2,974 boys and 2,882 girls

5 to 11 year olds

4279 boys and 4116 girls

12-16 year olds

2877 boys and 2895 girls

17-21 year olds

3,034 boys and 3004 girls

How many are at school just now?

13,658

About some of the children and young people we work with

Some of the children and young people we work with come from families who don’t have enough money. Did you know that ...

Nearly 2% of babies born in East Lothian are really underweight.

There are 87 homeless families in temporary homes in East Lothian with children or a pregnant mum.

For every group of 1000 girls aged between 13 and 15 in East Lothian, nearly 9 will become pregnant.

Nearly 8% of people who leave school won’t end up in work, further, study or training.

233 children had to attend a Children’s Hearing about their safety or conduct last year.

Over 11% of primary pupils qualify for free school meals because their families don’t have much money.

Nearly 9% of secondary pupils qualify for free school meals.

About some of the children and young people we work with

We support children who can’t live at home for lots of reasons. In East Lothian there are

1 in 26 children have a social worker

27 children on the Child Protection Register

88 children and young people looked after by foster carers

44 children are formally looked after by relatives who aren’t their mum or dad (kincarers)

28 children living in residential homes

Another 50 children and young people are looked after at home with support from social workers and other professionals

What’s important for children and young people in East Lothian?

All of East Lothian’s children and young people should:

Have the best start in life and be ready to succeed

Be successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens

Be supported into further education, training or employment

Be safe.

And

Looked-after children and young people should be able do as well as and have the same chances as other children.

Children with a disability should be able to make progress, taking into account their age, aptitude and abilities.

What plans will help us to do this?

Agencies have worked together on plans that will help these things to happen. These plans include:

Early Years PlanEast Lothian’s Young Workforce PlanCurriculum for ExcellenceCorporate Parenting PlanAdditional Support Needs and Disability plansChildren and Maternal Health strategy

We have also developed new and better ways for keeping children and young people safe – for example, ‘Signs of Safety’ which supports vulnerable children, young people and families to stay together.

Working together to make things better for children and young people, families and carers

All the groups involved in planning services for children and young people in East Lothian want to make sure that children, young people families and carers:

Have a chance to take part in decisions about themselves and the services they use

Are able to move easily from services for children to services for older young people and adults

Are helped to avoid problems or get help early on to stop problems from becoming really serious.

It is also really important that all the workers supporting you get very good training and are able to develop their skills to support you.

How to make things better – we want to make sure that you are ...

Safe Healthy Active Nurtured Achieving Respected Responsible Included

Helping children and young people to be safe

We want to help mums-to-be while they are pregnant and once the baby is born

We want to make sure that children are protected from harm at home, at school and in their communities

We want to make sure that young people are safe and have a good place to live when they leave care

We want young people to be able to move easily from children’s services to services for adults and get the help and support they need.

Helping children and young people to be healthy

We want to make sure that mums-to-be get more help when they are pregnant and after they have given birth.

We want all children to achieve their developmental milestones at 30 months and when they start Primary 1.

We want to make sure that looked-after children’s health is as good as other children’s.

We want children and families living with autism to be able to get faster diagnosis and the support they need.

We want children, young people and young parents understand about sexual health and make safe choices.

We want children and young people to experience better mental health and to feel good about themselves.

Helping children and young people to achieve

We believe that children should:experience positive parenting and be able to form strong relationships have good chances to play and develop and be ready to learngrow and develop in the same way as other children of their age and ability or better.

We want to help the lowest performing 20% of school children to do better at school.

We want to help more pupils and school leavers to have skills that will make it easier for them to find work.

Helping children and young people to be nurtured

We believe that children should:experience positive parenting and be able to form strong relationships be cared for in their families, communities, schools and families

We want children and young people who are looked after have better long-term chances and experiences.

Helping children and young people to be active

Let’s get out there!

We want everyone to be as active as they can.

Helping children and young people to be respected

We want children and young people understand their rights as laid out in the UNCRC

We want to support young people and their families so that they express their views and participate in plans about themselves and the services they use. We want looked-after young people to feel that they are listened to and their views acted on.

Helping children and young people to be responsible

We want children and young people to choose not to take illegal drugs or misuse alcohol

We want children and young people play an active part in their community.

Helping children and young people to be included

We want to make sure that children and young people with additional support needs or disabilities feel included wherever they are, for example, at school, in a youth club, in sports, leisure, arts and after-school activities.

We want to make sure that children are protected from poverty.

We want to make sure that children, young people and their families are:treated fairlyare helped to overcome any inequalities that they experience.

How will we achieve all this?

We will:

Review evidence and learning about children and young people’s services and experiences Plan to develop services together to better achieve the outcomes Do service delivery together Monitor achievement of plans

What do you think?

Complete our Survey to tell us what you think:

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