< Previous | Contents | Next >

HEALTH FOR ALL CHILDREN: GUIDANCE ON IMPLEMENTATION IN SCOTLAND - A DRAFT FOR CONSULTATION

Dear Colleague

HEALTH FOR ALL CHILDREN: GUIDANCE ON IMPLEMENTATION IN SCOTLAND - A DRAFT FOR CONSULTATION

In February this year, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) published the fourth edition of Health for All Children, the report of its most recent review of child health surveillance and screening activity in the UK. Soon after publication, the Child Health Support Group organised a national conference to consider and build consensus around how to implement the report’s recommendations in Scotland. Participants favoured the production of national guidance by the Scottish Executive to ensure a consistent approach to implementation across Scotland. This document is a first draft, developed in consultation with a multi-agency and multi-disciplinary reference group established by the Child Health Support Group. It is being published today for a three-month consultation period and will be revised in the light of comments received.

You are invited to submit comments on this draft by 31 March 2004, to the Women & Children’s Unit at the above address, either in hard copy or by email to womenandchild.unit@scotland.gsi.gov.uk. We would be grateful if you could clearly indicate in your response which parts of the consultation paper you are responding to, using section and paragraph references, as this will aid our analysis of the responses received. You are asked to detach, complete and return the "Respondee Information Form" from page (i) with your response to help ensure that we deal with it appropriately. We will make all responses available to the public in the Scottish Executive Library by the end of June 2004 unless confidentiality is requested. All responses not marked confidential will be checked for any potentially defamatory material before being logged in the library.

This draft guidance is being published electronically on the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Health Service (SHOW) websites. If you wish to access this consultation online, go to www.scotland.gov.uk/view/views.asp. You can telephone Freephone 0800 77 1234 to find out where your nearest public internet point is.

If you have any queries, please contact Kelly Martin on 0131 244 2272. Please also contact Kelly if you require the text of this consultation paper to be made available in an alternative format.

We look forward to receiving your views.

Yours faithfully
Dr Linda de Caestecker
Head of Women & Children’s Unit

Scottish Executive Consultation Respondee Information Form

Please detach, complete and submit with your consultation response. This will help to ensure that we handle your response appropriately.

The Scottish Executive Consultation Process

Consultation is an essential and important aspect of Scottish Executive working methods. Given the wide-ranging areas of work of the Scottish Executive, there are many varied types of consultation. However, in general, Scottish Executive consultation exercises aim to provide opportunities for all those who wish to express their opinions on a proposed area of work to do so in ways which will inform and enhance that work.

While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant public body. Consultation exercises may involve seeking views in a number of different ways, such as public meetings, focus groups or questionnaire exercises.

Typically, Scottish Executive consultations involve a written paper inviting answers to specific questions or more general views about the material presented. Written papers are distributed to organisations and individuals with an interest in the area of consultation, and they are also placed on the Scottish Executive web site enabling a wider audience to access the paper and submit their responses
¹. Copies of all the responses received to consultation exercises (except those where the individual or organisation requested confidentiality) are placed in the Scottish Executive library at Saughton House, Edinburgh (K Spur, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD, telephone 0131 244 4552).

The views and suggestions detailed in consultation responses are analysed and used as part of the decision making process. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:

• indicate the need for policy development or review
• inform the development of a particular policy
• help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals
• be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented

If you have any comment about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to:

Mary Sloan
Scottish Executive Health Department
Women & Children’s Unit
St Andrew’s House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
E-mail: womenandchild.unit@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

< Previous | Contents | Next >