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Protecting Children and Young People: Child Protection Committees
Appendix 1
Constitution
Suggested areas to be covered in a constitution or partnership agreement:
- title;
- aims and objectives;
- role of the chief officers group and relationship to CPC;
- relationship to other structures;
- members' roles and responsibilities;
- role and responsibilities of Lead Officer and other staff working directly to the CPC;
- role of training co-ordinator;
- administrative support to CPC;
- Chair and Vice Chair;
- terms of office;
- process of appointment;
- agenda, meetings and minutes;
- confidentiality and information sharing;
- sub-groups or working groups; and
- process of amendments to constitution.
Appendix 2
Reporting Mechanisms
Each CPC is required to prepare and submit an annual report and business plan. These will be:
- integrated into the planning and reporting cycles for children's services planning, which is a rolling three year plan;
- completed annually, and cover the financial year; and
- submitted to the Scottish Executive, as part of the integrated children services planning requirements, and published no later than the end of June following the end of the financial year.
CPC annual reports need to fulfil a number of functions. They will:
- provide an account of the year's work against the previous year's plan;
- provide information on the level and quality of interagency work; and
- outline a business plan, including a budget for the coming year, in order to:
- allow some comparison across CPCs and, more importantly, year on year trends for individual CPCs;
- provide public information, both to staff in partner agencies and the wider public about the activity of the CPC; and
- inform policy development at local and national level.
To fulfil these functions a significant degree of consistency is needed in both the core coverage and format of these reports, although additional local elements will also be appropriate as agreed with Chief Officers. It is important that it is possible to make comparisons between CPCs, and help assess progress made by each CPC over time. To that end, the following format is recommended and whatever format is adopted these elements will be included.
Annual Report on Protecting Children and Young People in CPC area...
Preface from Chief Officers
This will endorse the report and the business plan and be signed by the Chief Officers and the chair.
Introduction
This introduction will set the scene, highlight particular issues or challenges faced by the area and/or CPC in respect of child protection in the period covered by the report, and any particular achievements or good practice.
Evaluation and Inspection
This section will summarise:
- any evaluation work undertaken or commissioned by the CPC;
- relationship between national and local statistical trends;
- any inspection undertaken of the CPC; and
- implications for future actions.
Fulfilling Functions
This section will be completed under nine key headings with reference to the bullet points. Evidence should be provided against each of the bullets.
- Public Information;
- Policies, Procedures and Protocols;
- Management Information;
- Quality Assurance;
- Promotion of Good Practice;
- Training and Staff Development;
- Communication and Co-operation;
- Planning and Connections; and
- Listening to Children and Young People.
Future Planning
The plan for the next 12 months will be summarised under the nine headings under an agreed template.
A suggested model is as follows:
- Objective
- What are we going to do?
- When will we do it by?
- What resources do we need to do this?
- How will we know we have done it?
Conclusion
Concluding comments.
Appendices
Membership
A list of the membership of the CPC, and officers serving the CPC, will be included here.
Resources dedicated to the CPC
Where these have come from, and new resources over the year. Any resources identified jointly, e.g. with DAATs.
Sub group/working groups
Membership (if a standing group), remit and outputs.
Appendix 3
Partnership Assessment Tools
Introduction
This appendix briefly describes, and in electronic format provides web links to, a number of resources that a CPC may find useful in assessing and improving its effectiveness. Some can be used by CPCs themselves, whilst some may work better as part of an externally facilitated process. They are all drawn from government or government agency sources.
Communities Scotland Managing Partnerships Handbook
Communities Scotland have developed a handbook which brings together a series of online tools that can be used flexibly in a way that best suits individual or partnership needs. It has been designed to encourage users to use flexibly as the need arises and includes material relevant to all stages of partnership working, from setting up a partnership to reviewing mature partnerships. Chapters from the handbook can be accessed as follows:
Introduction to partnerships
Chapter 1: Developing joint goals and objectives
Chapter 2: Monitoring and evaluation
Chapter 3: Forming the group
Chapter 4: Agreeing the ground rules
Chapter 5: Understanding your partners
Chapter 6: Assessing and managing relationships
The link to the document is as follows: http://www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/Web/Site/Library/library_general_publications.asp
Assessing Strategic Partnership Partnership Assessment Tool
The Strategic Partnership Taskforce was established by the UK Government to help find innovative ways in which local government could improve public service delivery by working in partnership. They commissioned the Nuffield Institute at the University of Leeds to provide a tool that local authorities could use to assess partnership relationships and aid the achievement of successful partnership working. The tool draws heavily on the research carried out by the Institute that had been successful for health and social care partnerships. It is quick and simple to use.
The link to the document is as follows: http://www.valuingpeople.gov.uk/documents/PartnershipODPMAssessmentTool.pdf
Appendix 4
The Legal Context
The legal context for CPCs is to be found within the legislation set out below.
Children (Scotland) Act 1995
The most relevant sections of this Act for CPCs are sections 19 to 21.
Section 19 deals with the duty of a local authority to prepare, publish and keep under review plans in relation to services for children, and lists who should be consulted in the preparation of such plans. It sets out a wide range of bodies and persons to be consulted in the preparation of such plans.
Section 20 deals with the duties of a local authority to publish information about services for children, provided by them for children in their area or which are provided for these children by other local authorities. They may also, where they consider it appropriate, publish information about services provided by voluntary organisations and by others.
Section 21 permits the local authority to request help, in the exercise of their functions in children's services, from a range of persons specified, including any person authorised by Scottish Ministers. It also imposes an obligation on the person requested to provide help, unless where doing so would not be compatible with that person's own statutory or other duties.
Local Government in Scotland Act 2003
The most relevant aspects of this act for CPCs are parts 2 and 3.
Part 2 deals with the context for Community Planning, which has two main aims:
- making sure people and communities are genuinely engaged in the decisions made on public services which affect them; allied to
- a commitment from organisations to work together, not apart, in providing better public services.
Part 2 places a duty on a local authority to initiate and maintain a process of community planning, to invite and encourage a range of agencies to participate. It also places a duty on a range of agencies, including Health Boards and Police Boards, to co-operate with the process.
Part 3 of the Act deals with the power to advance well-being. This sits alongside community planning and allows a local authority to do anything to promote or improve the well-being of persons, either generally, or a particular group within the authority's area.
Appendix 5
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