The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

Protecting Children and Young People: Child Protection Committees

Ministerial Foreword

Children and young people should be protected from abuse, neglect and harm by others at home, at school and in the community. This is one of the first commitments in the Scottish Executive's vision for children and young people in Scotland and reflects the priority we give to keeping them safe and improving their protection.

Leadership and acceptance of responsibility by top and senior management for this most challenging and difficult area is vital. This needs to be discharged by key agencies within your area, in particular, health, police and the local authority. They should work singly and collectively in order to promote the best interests of children and young people. The Child Protection Committee (CPC) is the inter-agency mechanism to support this work.

Whilst CPCs have done much useful work to date, all too often progress has relied on the personal commitment and determination of individuals on the CPC rather than clear strategic direction from, and ownership by, the agencies they represent. This guidance sets out what
is expected of those at the top of agencies and CPCs. It makes clear the expectations of key agencies and their senior officials with respect to the protection of children. It also sets out in detail what is expected of CPCs themselves.

It is deliberately directive and specific in its content, and sets out clearly the functions that a CPC should undertake, and the key actions required to fulfil those functions. It is intended as a working document for Chief Officers, CPCs and their constituent agencies and provides a basis for the evaluation of the performance of individual CPCs and comparison between them.

There are a number of key outcomes that should flow from the implementation of this guidance. They include:

• greater strategic leadership and ownership of activity to protect children and young people;
• improved co-operation between agencies at a local area in their work to protect children;
• clearer understanding of the functions of CPCs, and key tasks that they should undertake in order to fulfil those functions; and
• better connectedness and contribution of CPCs, both to the development and delivery of local services and, in sharing good practice, to child protection across Scotland.

We are grateful for the work that has gone into the development of the model and this guidance and the positive engagement of agencies, the voluntary sector, CPCs themselves and others. Many areas are already well down the road of reviewing what needs to be done to respond to this and full implementation is expected by September 2005. Through the work of the multi-disciplinary inspection programme, the integrated children's services planning process, the child protection reform programme and other agency assessments, progress on delivery and development will be monitored. As has been indicated before, we have agreed to go down the route of guidance but, if it proves necessary, we will consider the need for legislation.

The Children's Charter and the Framework for Standards published last year provide the overarching context for the reform of child protection and our expectations of services.
The clear ownership of the child protection agenda and the work of the CPC by those at the top of agencies will help ensure that protecting children and young people remains a priority within and across agencies Scotland's children and young people deserve no less.

« Previous | Contents | Next »