This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Review of services for vulnerable families
20/01/2003
The outcome of a review into services for vulnerable
families with very young children was launched today in
Glasgow.
Growing Support - a review of services for
vulnerable families with very young children, is the result
of an inter-disciplinary review of local authority and
health services to support vulnerable families with
children aged 0-3 years.
The Chief Social Work Inspector, Angus Skinner, set up
the review to establish:
- what support was currently provided to vulnerable
families with young children
- how well this support meet the needs of young
families
- how well organisations worked together to deliver
appropriate assistance to young families
The review found an extensive range of services offering
practical help, information, parenting education, advice
and emotional support to parents in difficulty in each
local authority and health board area. Family centres and
services were found to be very successful at helping both
parents and children improve their skills and were also
popular with families with young children.
In more than half of the cases reviewed where there were
concerns about children's safety development or welfare,
local authority social work involvement brought about some
immediate improvement.
However the review team found the following areas of
weakness in service delivery:
- frontline staff were not always able to offer the
right of kind of help at the right time and could
appear unsympathetic or unhelpful
- gaining access to services was not easy and
- senior managers did not always provide effective
leadership for professional practice and support for
front line staff
The report highlights the following issues:
- professionals' early intervention and sustained
support can prevent stresses for families with children
between 0-3 years from escalating into long term
serious problems
- health, social work, education and voluntary sector
services should work in partnership to deliver
integrated family support for children in need as well
protecting children from harm
- greater value to be placed on the role of the
extended family in resolving problems
- families whose children cannot safely live with
them need help to avoid repeating the same
patterns
These recommendations reinforce the findings of the
National Child Protection Review.
Deputy Health Minister Mary Mulligan said:
"Ascertaining risk and acting to reduce the risk to
young children is vital but on its own it is not enough.
Statutory agencies must not channel all their energies into
investigating and monitoring children at the expense of
providing direct help and resources to families. Early
intervention is vital and does make a difference; agencies
such as Starting Well in Glasgow can make a huge difference
to a young family.
"This review also highlights the crucial contribution of
extended family - grandparents, aunts, uncles and in-laws -
to supporting young families with problems. Health services
and local authorities need to give greater recognition and
support to these relatives who provide so much pratical
help and wisdom.
"In one in five of the families, children had been
looked after away from home during the local authority's
involvement but most of these children quickly returned to
their families of origin. In half of these cases,
grandparents or relatives had taken over the child's care
from parents, with local authority approval and
support.
"The findings of this report reinforce the work of the
Child Protection Audit and Review 'It's Everyone's Job to
Make Sure I'm Alright' and they will be fed into the
Ministerial Summit which is being held in February.
Dr Sandra Grant, Chief Executive, Scottish Health
Advisory Service and Chair of the review steering group,
said:
"This review report is one of several initiatives
underway to improve the welfare of vulnerable children in
Scotland. A multi-agency team saw first-hand what support
services are available. The views of parents who had sought
help were central to the process. The findings highlight
the good work being done, but also demonstrate significant
problems that urgently need to be tackled. The major factor
is the need for the different agencies to work together in
more innovative ways to provide the best care that focuses
on the needs of the child."
Marion McArdle, a lay member of the review team,
said:
"We would want to see service users given more say in
how they would like to see services develop and managers
more aware of the problems both for users and their
professionals in the field".
Growing Support contains the findings of
an inter-disciplinary review of the services provided to
young families. Over 147 local authority social work
records and some health visitor records were reviewed and
355 interviews carried out with professionals from health,
social work, education and housing services.
An audit and review of child protection was announced by
the Scottish Executive in March 2001 following the Hammond
report into the tragic death of Kennedy McFarlane. The
multi-disciplinary team were asked to review how well our
children are being protected by the range of agencies that
work with them.
The review team's report
It's everyone's job to make sure I'm alright (a quote
from a child interviewed by the team) was published
on November 25, 2002.
The Executive has outlined a programme of action in
response to the report's findings:
- a three-year programme of sustained activity will
reform child protection services by establishing clear
practice standards, developing the role and
responsibilities of Child Protection Committees, and
building capacity to deliver
- a team of experts from relevant agencies, with
top-level backing from the Executive, will work
directly with local agencies to implement the reform
programme and tackle poor performance
- a tough new system of inspection will monitor
progress over the next three years to ensure that
reform is delivered
- a Children's Charter, to be drawn up in conjunction
with professionals and children, will set out the
support that children have the right to expect
- extra support will be given to helplines that
provide counselling and support for children -
Childline and Parentline - including £500,000 to allow
Childline Scotland to open up a new call centre and
increase by up to 60 per cent the number of children
they are able to help.
Investment in the Changing Children's Services Fund,
which funds innovative projects which join up services for
vulnerable and disadvantaged, will double from £33 million
to £65.5 million between 2002-03 and 2005-06.