The Scottish Government

. . .

April 2008

Welcome to the new-look Getting it right for every child Partner Newsletter. We aim to keep
partners informed about key developments relating to Getting it right for every child, and to
support, facilitate and promote change across Scotland.

Partner Newsletters will be produced every two or three months, and will be made available via
the Getting it right for every child web section on the Scottish Government website, which has
also been updated and restructured. The images at the top of the newsletter can be used as
shortcuts to some of the main content areas on the website.

E-alerts for the Partner Newsletters are also available via the Scottish Government email alert
system. This system emails partners when newsletters to which they have subscribed become
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The Getting it right for every child team is about to complete the first stage of a national
Roadshow that has taken place in Perth, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, with
further locations to follow. The Roadshow is just part of a series of events that will take the
Getting it right team across the country to support local development towards a common
national approach.

Our priority in staging the events has been to engage with stakeholders, raise awareness
of the Getting it right for every child approach - the core components, principles and values,
and to maintain the momentum that is being generated nationally and locally through
implementation activity.

The Minister for Children and Early Years, Adam Ingram delivered a recorded message to
delegates that clearly sets out the priority the Government is giving to Getting it right for
every child. In his message, the Minister refers to Getting it right as a methodology that
underpins all services for children. He describes progress as taking place on many
journeys but with one final and shared destination - to improve outcomes for children. He
was keen to encourage local development and implementation whilst maintaining a close
eye on national changes. Click here to view the interview with the Minister online.

Additional Roadshow venues:

Due to popular demand, the Roadshow will be travelling further afield in May and June to
the following locations: Troon 15th May, Kirkwall 20th May, Lerwick 22nd May, Peebles
30th May, Dumfries 2nd June, Falkirk 3rd June, and Stornaway 12th June.

To find out more, or to book a place please visit theRoadshow events website.

Getting it right for every child aims to improve outcomes for all children and young people.
It builds on universal health and education services and is the foundation for work with all
children and families.

The programme aims to change the way adults think and act to help all children and young
people grow, develop and reach their full potential. It promotes a shared approach that:

• builds solutions with and around children, young people and families
• enables children to get the help they need when they need it
• supports a positive shift in culture, systems and practice
• involves working together to make things better

Over the coming years, Getting it right for every child will help practitioners and organisations
to remove the obstacles that can block children's paths on their journey from birth to
adulthood.

The programme supports culture, systems and practice change across children's services
and promotes an inter-disciplinary approach that highlights how working in partnership with
other professionals can benefit children.

An on-line Learning Community is being developed that will give practitioners and
professionals a voice at a national level and enable lessons to be shared and ideas to be
tested in a safe space.

The Getting it right for every child approach is made up of a series of shared principles
and values, core components, child centred tools.

The Getting it right for every child pathfinder partners are making positive progress. In the
Highland Pathfinder area they are progressing a whole system approach and are moving
from development into implementation. Training for Lead Professionals and Named Persons is
now well underway on the approach which Highland has developed for its purposes. This is
being delivered around Associated School Group (ASG) areas, and 12 two day courses have
been delivered to approximately 240 staff from NHS Highland, Social Work, Education Culture
& Sport, Police and voluntary organisations. A further 6 sessions are planned from mid April.

This is an interactive course and the sessions are largely scenario and discussion based.
Training packs are now available in the form of lesson plans and slides and these can be
accessed by contacting GIRFEC@highland.gov.uk.

Further training for staff who are not likely to take on a Lead Professional role but will have a
significant part to play in children's plans, will be scoped in April. Planning for delivery will take
place thereafter, as will training for managers and other key staff across the Highland area.
Further training materials will be developed to meet the need identified in the scoping and will
be made available in due course.

Highland's Programme One training - a cascade training approach for managers to deliver in
the workplace - is accessible at www.forhighlandschildren.org/htm/girfec/girfec.php

Highland's overarching multi agency Practitioner Guidance is now at final draft stage and is
ready for consultation in Highland. This can also be accessed at
www.forhighlandschildren.org/htm/girfec/girfec.php

There have been a number of significant developments in the four domestic abuse
pathfinder areas of Clydebank, Edinburgh, Falkirk and Dumfries. In Falkirk, the training phase
has now been completed with some 128 individuals having completed the course. The Data
Capture forms have now been in place since November 2007, and have been reported to have
significantly improved information sharing between agencies. The next phase includes the
development of a single letter from the multiagency forum which will replace the existing
system which involves the issuing of multiple letters. Information leaflets for perpetrators are
also in development.

The Minister for Education and Early Years, Adam Ingram, visited Dumfries and Galloway last
month to see the work being progressed. The use of the Data Capture forms is being piloted
in Dumfries and a number of DVD's have been produced to support the training programme
and include the views of victims and professionals.

In Clydebank the reduction in inappropriate referrals to SCRA has proved significant, and the
statistical information that is being collated will enable further analysis and learning to take
place.

In the Edinburgh North area, their steering group has been reconfigured and the Data Capture
forms are now fully integrated into the electronic police note books which are currently being
piloted.

The first seminar for all Domestic Abuse pathfinder service managers and project boards
was held this month. This enabled learning to be shared and provided the opportunity to
outline the challenges to be faced over the coming year. The seminar also supported the
development of next year's key milestones/objectives and focussed on what is required for
the National Domestic Abuse Delivery plan for children and young people.

In establishing pathfinders, the Scottish Government is interested in the following outcomes:

• what the advantages and disadvantages of each approach are in relation to national
  implementation;
• whether geographic, demographic and structural factors can determine which approach
  is more helpful in managing change;
• to what extent outcomes for children and young people can be improved;
• what impact there has been on culture, systems and practice and what can be learned
  about the cost benefits and timeframes of change.

Work continues at a national level to develop guidance and support materials using lessons
emerging from pathfinders and other areas to ensure all children and young people benefit
from the Getting it right for every child approach.

On 18 March the First Minister and Councillor Isabel Hutton of COSLA launched a joint policy
statement on early years and early intervention.

Over the coming months the Scottish Government and COSLA will work with partners to
develop the detail of the early years framework, which will cover children pre-birth to 8 and
which will be published in the autumn.

We have always known that the earliest years of life are crucial to a child's development. We
want to ensure that every child in Scotland is given the best start in life, and we intend that the
early years framework will play a significant role, through prevention and early intervention,
in building resilience and in improving outcomes for all children. Work taking place through the
Getting it right for every child approach both supports and reinforces this message.

We believe that the biggest gains in improved outcomes and reduced inequality will come from
supporting parents - to help them to help themselves - and by creating communities that are
positive places to grow up. We will continue to develop services that are integrated across the
public sector and centred around the needs of children and families.

The policy statement sets out the political and policy context within which the early years
framework will be developed. It contains within it a list of tasks that we believe cover the
high level strategic content of an early years framework and up until 18 April, we are
consulting on that list. Following this brief initial consultation, the Scottish Government and
COSLA will establish a number of task groups, each taking forward consideration of one of
the themes for the framework i.e.:

• Building parenting and family capacity pre and post birth
• Creating communities that provide a supportive environment for children and families
• Delivering integrated services that meet the holistic needs of children and families
• Developing a suitable workforce to support the framework

These task groups will involve a broad range of stakeholders, from the full range of early
years interests, including all sectors and all levels. The groups will be supported by a team of
policy makers, service managers, researchers, economists and statisticians from within the
Scottish Government and local government.

The Transformational Technologies Division within the Scottish Government is responsible,
amongst other areas, for policy on the sharing of personal data, the implementation of a national
data sharing environment (eCare), and the development of national data standards. The Division
supports the implementation of Scottish Government policies which require the effective and
secure sharing of personal data. It also supports ongoing and cross-cutting initiatives and in
addition also works actively with stakeholders, IT solution vendors and suppliers.

The Division works in partnership with and supports 14 local data sharing partnerships, each one
based on one of the Scottish health board geographies. Each partnership is responsible for
developing the work of local data sharing using the eCare framework technical and non technical
products.

The Getting it right team and the Standards Branch of the Transformational Technologies Division
have been working together for some time now to develop requirements for a 'Getting it right for
every child' electronic information sharing model, ensuring that relevant information is securely
shared, processed, and used appropriately to aid children in getting the help they need, when
they need it.

Getting it right for every child introduces the Policy and methodology for providing support to a
child and eCare provides the practical realisation of some of those elements. The eCare
Framework provides two functions for Getting it right for every child.

1. Provide relevant information to practitioners so they can make informed decisions about
   what action is needed to help the child. This is facilitated through the sharing of factual
   information, concerns and events in a child's life at an early stage and creates a multi
   agency chronology. Once the information is verified, decisions can be made about the most
   appropriate support for the child.
2. To create a 'Child's Virtual Shared Record' (CVSR) for every child that needs one. The CVSR
   is initiated when two or more agencies are working together for a common purpose, with
   the reason for working together clearly understood. This creates a shared virtual record
   (virtual in that it is fed by data from whatever agencies are working with the child and
   viewed collectively. It never exists on an agency system in its entirety) This Record consists
   of Data related to the purpose and reason for working together to ensure that information is
   proportionate to the reason for the inter agency case, and that only relevant data that is
   shared.
   

The vision and values of Getting it right for every child are at the heart of the good practice
document soon to be published to support all agencies who are working with the small but
significant number of children and young people who present a risk of serious harm to
themselves and others, and who have complex needs. This includes children and young
people involved in sexually harmful behaviour, sexual offences and violence.

Getting it right for children and young people who present a risk of serious harm has been
designed to enable all agencies to demonstrate that they have in place the processes and staff
competence to meet the child or young person's needs and to reduce risks for the community,
staff and the child or young person and their family. The document signposts readers to
current research, practice and includes a self assessment tool which is designed to identify the
best way forward to develop a service providing support to children and young people who
have caused serious harm.

To support the implementation of the good practice, the Scottish Government has
commissioned the Criminal Justice Social Work Development Centre to run a series of
practitioner networks through it's Champions' Groups focussing on the specific needs of the
children and young people involved in this behaviour. To find out more visit: www.cjsw.ac.uk.