Scotland's Children Children (Scotland) Act 1995 Implementation Newsletter No 4

Monitoring implementation of the Act

The Scottish Office will take a three-pronged approach to monitoring the implementation of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995: inspection, statistics and research.

Inspection

The Social Work Services Inspectorate will carry out a programme of studies to check how well the key objectives of the Act are being achieved.

Some of these will be short-term, looking at how new responsibilities and procedures are being implemented; others will be longer-term, assessing the experiences of children and families receiving services under the Act. SWSI will consult on its inspection programme during 1997.

Statistics

Both central government and local authorities need good management information to ensure the effective implementation and functioning of the Act.

A joint Scottish Office/local authority working group - the Children Act Scotland Management Information Group, or CASMIG - has been established to assess the types of statistical information needed.

The focus is on the development of a common information base, from which the local authorities and The Scottish Office may draw for their respective requirements.

While local authorities require information to monitor the progress made in putting new regulations and procedures into operation in their own areas, The Scottish Office Social Work Services Group also require broadly similar information about services across different authorities to help assess the operation and impact of the Act across Scotland as a whole.

CASMIG considers that most of the statistical information needed can be obtained through modifying a number of existing national information systems including those for child protection, children’s hearings, children in care and children in residential accommodation.

For example, changes will be made to the current child protection system to capture important information about the use of child protection orders

Apart from this, the group considers that the main new information system requiring to be developed is in relation to aftercare - this is an extended responsibility for authorities under the Act (Section 29) to provide transitional support to young persons when they cease to be looked after. A CASMIG sub-group is currently working on the development of proposals for a suitable system.

For further information contact John Taylor at The Scottish Office Social Work Services Group, Room 50, James Craig Walk, Edinburgh EH1 3BA. Tel: 0131 244 5366.

Research

The Scottish Office has published a research programme which has been developed to monitor the implementation of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and evaluate its operation and impact.

The research programme will complement the work of statistics and inspection in monitoring and evaluating the Act.

The research programme is designed to examine the impact of the Act on the lives of children and their families, to examine how its underlying principles have been translated into practice and to evaluate policies, procedures and practices introduced as a consequence of the Act. Findings from the programme are expected to contribute to further development of policy and practice and will be widely disseminated.

Underpinning the Act are three main themes which provide a framework for the research programme. These themes are described in ‘shorthand’ terms as welfare of the child, legal interventions and children’s views. The themes are closely interwoven and this will be reflected in the research commissioned.

Reflecting the comprehensive nature of the Act and its wide-ranging implications, the research programme encompasses a broad range of interests including social work, civil law, education and criminology. Research topics include:

child protection services for children in need children looked after by local authorities the impact of the Act on legal processes, the courts and children’s hearings obtaining the views of children the role of local authorities in implementing the Act.

The research programme covers a period of 5 years from October 1996. It is anticipated that the bulk of the research will be commissioned in the first 3 years. Work will continue beyond this period to allow evaluation of the impact of the Act’s provisions over the longer term and dissemination of research findings.

For further information contact Sarah Campbell at The Scottish Office Central Research Unit, Room 53A James Craig Walk, Edinburgh EH1 3BA. Tel: 0131 244 5428.