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Section 1: What is Getting it right for every child?

Getting it right for every child is the foundation for work with all children and young people and will also affect practitioners in adult services who work with parents or carers.

It builds from universal health and education services and drives the developments that will improve outcomes for children and young people by changing the way adults think and act to help all children and young people grow, develop and reach their full potential. It requires a positive shift in culture, systems and practice across services for children, young people and adults.

Getting it right for every child is a fundamental way of working that builds on research and practice evidence to help practitioners focus on what makes a positive difference for children and young people and act to deliver these improvements. Getting it right for every child threads through all existing policy, practice, strategy and legislation affecting children, young people and families.

Applying a GIRFEC approach to improve outcomes for children and young people contributes directly to the 15 national outcomes agreed by the Scottish Government and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities ( COSLA). Several of the outcomes apply directly to children and young people and the way agencies work to help them become successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens.

The delivery of the outcomes will support the overall strategy of growing the Scottish economy in order to develop full opportunities for all.

For children, young people and their families Getting it right for every child means:

• They will feel confident about the help they are getting
• They understand what is happening and why
• They have been listened to carefully and their wishes have been heard and understood
• They are appropriately involved in discussions and decisions that affect them
• They can rely on appropriate help being available as soon as possible
• They will have experienced a more streamlined and co-ordinated response from practitioners.

For practitioners, Getting it right for every child means:

• Putting the child or young person at the centre and developing a shared understanding within and across agencies
• Using common tools and processes, considering the child or young person as a whole, and promoting closer working where necessary with other practitioners.

For managers in children's and adult services, Getting it right for every child means:

• Providing leadership and strategic support to implement the changes in culture, systems and practice required within and across agencies to implement Getting it right for every child.
• Planning for the transition as staff in agencies move from the current working processes to the new child centred processes.

Changing information systems to support practitioners

A significant development over the next few years will be the new version of the national eCare framework that will further support information sharing. The existing framework already supports controlled messaging of information about child protection issues, and is being rolled out across Scotland in 2009. The next version of the framework is being developed in parallel, to support electronic sharing of information about children and young people, to aid decision making surrounding their needs. The system is also being designed to ensure strictly controlled access to information, yet give ready access to those practitioners who need to know who else may be involved with a child or young person. More information on the development of the eCare framework is available on the Scottish Government Data Sharing and Standards website.

In the future, practitioners will be expected to record information using shared language, structured around a standard practice model, sharing key relevant information through the eCare framework.

Bringing this information together from all involved agencies will allow a chronology and/or a child's virtual shared record to be created. When two or more agencies are working together for a common purpose a child's virtual shared record could be created if appropriate to do so. This record will be an amalgamation of relevant participating agency information viewed as a single entity.

To begin to make sense of the information requirements for practice a national forum called the Children's Information Sharing Group ( ChISG) is being set up to look at governance and information standards issues. More information on the draft information sharing model can be found on the Getting it right for every child website.

For children, young people and their families the information system changes will mean:

• Being asked for consent to share information as appropriate so that they will not have to tell their story to different agencies, and so that the right support can be provided more quickly, when it is needed.

For practitioners the information system changes will mean:

• Being prepared to change current practice to fit in with the developing model and with appropriate information sharing in an electronic environment.

For managers in agencies working with children, young people and adults the information system changes will mean:

• Understanding how local IT developments will begin to support the model of information sharing and support changed practice to deliver improved outcomes for children and young people. At a strategic level it also means considering what new governance and accountability mechanisms may need to be created to support the Getting it right for every child approach.

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