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Purpose of the Guidance
1. Procedures and guidance cannot in themselves protect children; a competent, skilled and confident workforce, together with a vigilant public, can. Guidance provides the framework in which managers and practitioners can apply their skills collectively and effectively, with a shared understanding of the common objective - supporting and protecting children, particularly those who are most vulnerable.
2. One of the fundamental ways to improve outcomes for Scotland's most vulnerable children is for agencies to work together. This national guidance sets out common standards for services in Scotland to guide work in child protection, to make clear how agencies should work together, responding to concerns early and effectively, and to make sure that practice is consistent and of high quality. This guidance is based on the principles of Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC).
3. This document is intended to provide a national framework within which agencies and practitioners at local level - individually and jointly - draw up and agree on their own ways of working together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This guidance replaces the previous version, Protecting Children - A Shared Responsibility: Guidance on Inter-agency Co-operation, which was published in 1998.
4. While this guidance is intended to serve as a practical reference point for practitioners and agencies, it should not be regarded as exhaustive or exclusive. Nor does this guidance constitute legal advice. Users of this guidance should consider whether there is a need also to consult with others, including their legal advisers, if they have concerns about the welfare of a child.
Who is the Guidance for?
5. This guidance is for all public services, agencies, professional bodies and organisations, and individuals working within an adult and child service provider context facing, or potentially facing, child protection issues. Children and their families come into contact with services at various points for different reasons and with different needs. Often those needs are met by the family themselves or a single agency, but for some of our most vulnerable children and families, the complexities of their needs will require a collective and co-ordinated approach. Where children and their families have multiple needs, the application of different skills and roles will be required. Services that work with children and/or their families cannot work in isolation from one another. Protecting children and meeting their needs requires recognising when to be concerned about their safety and understanding when and how to share these concerns, how to investigate and assess such concerns and ultimately, what steps are required to address those concerns and ensure the child's safety and well-being.
6. The guidance, therefore, applies to all whose work involves contact with children and/or their families, across departments and agencies as well as being relevant to those working in the statutory, third and other sectors. These might be individuals working in health, education, police, social work services and third sector support services, along with others whose work brings them into contact with, or have access to information about, children and families.
7. The guidance provides a national framework for services and local inter-agency fora such as Chief Officer Groups and Child Protection Committees to develop further in their local multi-agency protocols, training plans and procedures. The guidance also aims to serve as a useful resource for practitioners on particular areas of practice and signposts where additional information can be found.
8. As well as other national policies that are referenced throughout the guidance, this guidance should be read in conjunction with the following key documents:
Protecting Children and Young People: Children's Charter; and
Content of the Guidance
9. This guidance is in four parts.
The Guidance in Context
10. Child protection has to be seen in the context of the wider wider Getting it right for every child ( GIRFEC) agenda and the Early Years Framework. All children and young people have the right to be cared for and protected from harm and abuse and to grow up in a safe environment in which their rights are respected and their needs are met. Children and young people should get the help they need, when they need it and their welfare is always paramount.
11. The Scottish Government has set out a vision that all Scotland's children and young people will be: successful learners; confident individuals; effective contributors; and responsible citizens. GIRFEC promotes action to improve the well-being of all children and young people. Eight areas of well-being have been identified as areas in which children and young people need to progress in order to do well now and in the future, through the following set of Well-being Indicators: healthy; achieving; nurtured; active; respected; responsible; included; and, above all in this context, safe.
12. GIRFEC has a number of key components: 1
13. Closely linked to GIRFEC, the Early Years Framework seeks to maximise positive opportunities for children to get the best start in life. It addresses the needs of those children whose lives, opportunities and ambitions are being constrained by Scotland's historic legacies of poverty, poor health, poor attainment and unemployment. At the heart of this approach is a shift to early proactive intervention in the lives of children that provides a supportive environment for children and the earliest possible identification of any additional support that may be required.
14. Within these two cornerstones of Scottish Government policy, the need to keep children safe is paramount. In the vast majority of cases, this role is played by parents and families. For many other children and families, early, proportionate intervention can provide the necessary support to prevent problems escalating. However, in some instances, parents and carers, either through acts of omission or commission, can cause significant harm to a child. In such instances, responses under child protection measures will be required.
15. In the past decade, increasing awareness of the potential negative impact on children from parental issues such as alcohol and drug misuse, domestic violence and mental health problems, has risen significantly. Equally, our understanding of the potential harm to children caused by child trafficking, internet grooming and sexual exploitation has also increased. This guidance, therefore, also addresses a number of areas that, whilst not necessarily linked to familial responsibility, can and do result in significant harm to children and require a strategic response from local services.
16. Child protection has, in the past, traditionally been seen as the domain of statutory services, in particular, social work services and the police, which both have a legal responsibility to investigate child protection concerns. Increasingly, it is recognised that this is a shared role among all agencies which interface with the public, both within an adult and child service provider context.
17. Services and/or agencies which perhaps previously understood their role as to 'pass on' concerns about children are now expected to recognise and actively consider potential risks to a child, irrespective of whether the child is their 'client', patient or service user. All services that work with children and/or their adult carers, are expected to identify and consider the child's needs, share information with other agencies and work collaboratively with other services (as well as the child and their family) to improve outcomes.
18. Messages from research and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education ( HMIE) and Social Work Inspection Agency ( SWIA) inspections of services to protect children have assisted in identifying 'good' practice in child protection. Alongside significant case reviews, they have contributed to our understanding of what pitfalls to avoid. The need for comprehensive and robust assessments, good communication and information-sharing, sound decision-making and outcome-focused planning and intervention have all been recurring themes in the past decade.
19. At the same time, there is a clear set of responsibilities placed with Chief Officers and senior managers to deliver robust, co-ordinated strategies and services to protect children and provide an agreed framework for practitioners and managers alike to achieve the common objective of keeping children safe.
20. Perhaps most significantly, the need for interventions to be outcome-focused and not process-led has been an increasing theme of policies and service provision. It is critical that this approach underpins how all who work with children consider issues of child protection. In line with GIRFEC, at all stages of intervention, practitioners should reflect on a series of questions that should shape how they respond to concerns:
By keeping these questions in mind, keeping children at the centre will be more than rhetoric and become the baseline by which we must measure any involvement in a child's life.