Child Protection Reform Programme
Improving the protection of children and young people is a priority for the Scottish Government. The Government's three year Child Protection Reform Programme (CPRP) will shortly come to an end.
Summary
The 2002 review of child protection services - It's everyone's job to make sure I'm alright - highlighted the unacceptable circumstances in which a minority of children live in Scotland, despite significant progress in child protection services over the last 20 years.
In response to this review, the Executive, with its partners, developed the CPRP, its overarching goals being to improve protection of children at risk of neglect and abuse and reduce the numbers of children who need protection.
It is important that the CPRP is seen within the context of the range of complementary policies developed across the Executive, which aim to protect children at home, at school and in their communities.
The first half of the CPRP delivered a range of initiatives including the Children's Charter, the new child protection Framework for Standards which applies to all agencies and the strengthening of the 30 multi-disciplinary Child Protection Committees across Scotland.
Here is an update on some of the more recent developments which came into play during the final year of the programme.
Child Protection Training and Materials
A range of training and learning materials are available in the framework for child protection. They enable practitioners to share knowledge and share information. This space has been widely welcomed by professionals and it goes some way towards delivering on recommendation 27 of An Inspection into the Care and Protection of Children in Eilean Siar which called for a national resource, providing research based consultancy.
Child Death and Significant Incident Review
A working group commissioned by the CPRP Steering Group was set up last year to draft guidance, primarily for Child Protection Committees, to enable them to focus on ensuring that lessons learned from significant incidents are fed back into local and national arrangements. This guidance was issued for consultation in autumn of this year. Over 60 responses are currently being analysed and the Executive will revise the guidance to reflect consultation findings before publishing in the spring.
Letters of Assurance
In March 2006, Ministers wrote to Council Leaders, Chief Constables and Chief Executive Officers in health boards and local authorities, seeking assurances that adequate measures are in place to protect children living with drug misusing parents. The commissioning letters and responses have been published on this website, along with a summary report of the exercise. These can be found on the Letters of Assurance page.
National Child Protection Information Line
Following a successful pilot in Grampian last year, Ministers have agreed to implement a national freephone telephone line which will route people who have concerns or queries about a child protection issue to the most relevant agency. This line is intended to complement existing help lines such as Childline and Parentline and it is expected to be operational early in 2007.
Short Life Working Group on Disclosure of Underage Sexual Activity
Balancing a child's right to confidentiality and privacy against the need to ensure they are safe and protected becomes a huge challenge for professionals when teenagers are sexually active. A short life independent working group is currently assessing existing information sharing practice and considering future procedures for handling disclosures of inappropriate sexual activity. This group will report to Ministers who will consider the recommendations, in tandem with the statutory Code of Practice on Information sharing provided for in the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Bill.
Next Steps
The Centre for Child Care and Protection at the University of Dundee and Barnardo's Scotland have been contracted to undertake an independent evaluation of the CPRP. The Executive expects a final report to be ready by the spring.
This marks the conclusion of three years' work, carried out in partnership with many individuals, groups and organisations. The CPRP has delivered significant improvements for Scotland's child protection services. In the coming months, the Executive will further engage with all those with an interest, to identify the new priorities and programme of work for the future.