Strathclyde’s Children:Working together to improve the lives of children and young people

Interprofessional Working and the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act

Andrew Kendrick, Claire Cassidy & John Paul Fitzpatrick

• Children’s rights• Corporate parenting• Children’s services planning• Child’s plans• Provision of named person• Early learning and childcare• After care and continuing care

Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014

Scottish Government’s aim:

‘to create a programme of change in the culture and practice of all services that affect the lives of children, young people and their families’.

Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014

• Kilbrandon – Social Education Department

• Youth strategies in the 1980/90s

• Children (Scotland) Act 1995

• Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC)

Interprofessional working

• Structures and systems

• Communication and information

• Professional and organisational priorities

• Whether partnership perceived as mutually beneficial

• Defending agency budgets

Barriers to partnership

Inter-professional working and the Children and Young People

(Scotland) Act 2014

Children – the missing link?

• “…steps which they could take which would or might better secure better or further effect in Scotland of the UNCRC requirements”

• Report every three years on progress and plans

• “...must take such account as they consider appropriate of any relevant views of children of which the Scottish Ministers are aware”

Rights

Adopted by UN General Assembly, December 2011

1. Everyone has the right to know, seek and receive information about all human

rights and fundamental freedoms and should have access to human rights

education and training.

2. Human rights education and training is essential for the promotion of

universal respect for and observance of all human rights and fundamental

freedoms for all, in accordance with the principles of the universality, indivisibility

and interdependence of human rights.

3. The effective enjoyment of all human rights, in particular the right to education

and access to information, enables access to human rights education and

training.

Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training

Some questions/issues to think about…

• Are they human?

• Pick a number

• And/or

Definitions are tricky

• UNCRC Articles 12 and 13• Age and maturity• Consultation and collaboration • Planning • Complaints• Reporting• ‘so far as reasonably practicable to ascertain

and have regard to the views of the child…’

Voice

• Meaningful; authentic• Power

• Voice• Space• Audience• Influence (Lundy, 2007)

• Partnership – where is the child?

Participation

Corporate Parenting

• Scottish Ministers• Local authorities• Children’s Hearings Scotland• National Convener of CHS• The Principal Reporter• Scottish Children’s Reporter

Administration• Health Boards• Healthcare Improvement Scotland• Scottish Qualifications Authority• Skills Development Scotland• Care Inspectorate

• Scottish Social Services Council

Corporate Parents

• Scottish Sports Council• Chief constable of the Police Service of

Scotland• Scottish Police Authority• Scottish Fire and Rescue Service• Scottish Legal Aid Board• Commissioner for Children and Young

People in Scotland• Mental Welfare Commission for

Scotland• Scottish Housing Regulator• Bòrd na Gàidhlig• Creative Scotland• Colleges and University

• Duty of every corporate parent:

– to be alert to matters which, or which might, adversely affect the wellbeing of children and young people,

– to assess the needs of those children and young people for services and support it provides,

– to promote the interests of those children and young people,– to seek to provide those children and young people with opportunities to

participate in activities designed to promote their wellbeing,– to take such action as it considers appropriate to help those children and young

people to access opportunities it provides and to make use of services, and access support, which it provides.

Corporate Parenting Responsibilities

• ‘Pre-school child’ – health board makes arrangements for the named person• All other children – local authority makes arrangements for the named person

• What a Named Person does:– Advising, informing or supporting the child or young person, or a parent– Helping the child or young person, or a parent to access a service or support– Raising matters about the child or young person with a service provider or relevant authority

• Duty to help a named person• Duty to share information

– Information shared ‘in breach of a duty of confidentiality’ is not to be provided to any other person

Provision of Named Persons

• If the child has a wellbeing need – that is if the child’s wellbeing is being, or is at risk of being, adversely affected by any matter

AND

• can be met by a ‘targeted intervention’

• The child’s plan is to contain a statement of:– The child’s wellbeing need– The targeted intervention

• Who is to provide it• How it is to be provided• The outcome that it is intended to achieve

• Duty to deliver and review the plan

Child’s Plans

• Both universal services and targeted services

• Children’s services plan prepared with a view that services are provided in a way that:

– best safeguards, supports and promotes the wellbeing of children in the area concerned,– ensures that any action to meet needs is taken at the earliest appropriate time and that,

where appropriate, action is taken to prevent needs arising,– is most integrated from the point of view of recipients, and– constitutes the best use of available resources

• So far as reasonably practicable, provide children’s services in the area of the local authority in accordance with the plan

Children’s Services Planning

• Making more hours of free early learning and childcare available for 3 and 4 year olds

• Making more hours of free early learning and childcare available for 2 year olds who are looked after or subject to a kinship care order, or who have been since turning 2

• Taking steps to make early learning and childcare more flexible.

Early Learning and Childcare

• Aftercare – ‘advice, guidance and assistance’

• any young person who ceases to be looked after by a local authority on or after their 16th birthday will be eligible to aftercare services.

• extends eligibility to aftercare services to care leavers aged 21 to 25.

• ‘Continuing Care’ - local authorities will be under a duty to assess and (if it is deemed appropriate) make provision for a care leaver to remain in their ‘looked after’ placement (or suitable alternative accommodation) and in receipt of ‘other assistance’ until the age of 21.

Aftercare and Continuing Care

• Building on the work that has gone before– GIRFEC– Early Years Collaborative– Whole systems approach

• Addresses all levels– National government– Local government and service providers– Individual professional

• Principles, policy and practice

• The child and family at the centre

Implications for Interprofessional Working