"Getting It Right for Every Child" in Highland

Highland’s Joint Committee on Children and Young People has agreed that Highland should be a pathfinding authority for the national implementation of ‘Getting it Right for Every Child’.  This is a major programme, and is likely to have a significant impact on all of Highland’s children – and subsequently on all of Scotland’s children.  Implementation will commence first in the Inverness Area.

‘Getting it Right for Every Child’ involves action to implement the national review of the Children’s Hearings System, to achieve more joined-up assessment, planning and review processes for children, who would get the right service at the right time, packaged for their particular needs.

The success measures will include:

This programme will build on the good practices in Highland that support integrated children’s services, as well as best practice from the rest of Scotland.  Parents and children will be consulted at every stage.

Bill Alexander, Head of Children’s Services in Highland, said: "An integrated assessment framework, record and plan will be established.  This is not a national database.  Instead, details of children held on existing systems (in heath, education, social work, and police) will be accessed as required for key information about a child and where there are concerns that multi-agency action is needed to address these concerns. The pathfinder is more about practice change.  It is about focusing on the child’s needs, developing the single assessment, record and plan - identifying training needs and reducing bureaucracy.

"Information will be shared as far as possible on the basis of consent by children and families, but where there are concerns about a child being at risk, relevant information can be disclosed in order to ensure that the child can be protected."