13 March 2012 - Scottish Government

GIRPB/06/02
GETTING IT RIGHT FOR EVERY CHILD (GIRFEC) PROGRAMME BOARD
MINUTES OF 5 TH MEETING
13 March 2012, 10:30-12:00, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh
Present:
Martin Crewe Director, Barnardo’s Scotland Chair
Tam Baillie
Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
Tim Barraclough Scottish Government, Deputy Director for Children’s
Rights and Wellbeing
Mike Foulis
Scottish Government, Director for Children and Families
John Froggatt
Scottish Government, Deputy Director for Child and
Maternal Health
Sharon Johnston Association of Support for Learning Officers (ASLO)
Items 3-10
Carol Kirk
Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES)
Iain Livingston
Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS)
Rep by Alan Crawford
Robert Nicol
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), Team
Rep by Kathy Cameron Leader Children and Young People
Carole Patrick
Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO)
Ralph Roberts
NHS Chief Executives, CEO NHS Shetland
Yvonne Strachan Scottish Government, Deputy Director for Third Sector
Rep by Gareth Allen
In attendance:
Pauline Davidson Scottish Government, GIRFEC Team Leader designate
David Hunter Scottish Government, GIRFEC
Catriona Mackenzie Scottish Government, GIRFEC Minutes
Boyd McAdam Scottish Government, Better Life Chances Unit Leader
Items 3-10
Robin McKendrick Scottish Government, GIRFEC Team Leader
Marion McParland Scottish Government, Policy for Carers
Phil Raines
Scottish Government, Head of Child Protection Policy
Items 3 and 4
Marj Stewart Scottish Government, GIRFEC Implementation Project
Leader
Apologies:
David Anderson
Lorraine Currie
Michelle Miller
Alan Small
1. Welcome
Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE)
NHS Grampian, CEL 29 Change Manager and Chair of Child
Health Commissioners (CHC) Group
Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW)
Scottish Government, Information Sharing Advisor
ACTION
Martin Crewe welcomed Tim Barraclough, Ralph Roberts, Carol Kirk and
Pauline Davidson to their first meeting of the board. He also welcomed
back Marion McParland, who was attending on behalf of Moira Oliphant.
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2. Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising
The minutes were agreed (GIRPB/05/02).
Matters arising from the previous meeting’s actions:
• A paper on Getting it right for young people had been tabled for the
board’s consideration (GIRPB/05/07) – see item 8.
• The Maturity Model had been circulated to the board
(GIRPB/05/03a) – see item 3.1.
• Papers providing the board with an update on information sharing,
including iACT had been tabled for the board’s consideration
(GIRPB/05/06 and GIRPB/05/06a) – see item 7.
• A common template for reporting progress on the board’s Action
Plan had been provided and written updates on each of the actions
submitted (GIRPB/05/04) – see item 5.
• The Risk Register had been refreshed (GIRPB/05/05) – see item 6.
3. Highlight Report
The board reviewed the Highlight Report (GIRPB/05/03).
3.1 Maturity Model
Robin McKendrick reported that the Maturity Model (GIRPB/05/03a)
had been finalised and had been circulated to the GIRFEC team’s
contacts within Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs). Many
had been keen to adopt the model, with some choosing to adapt it
to meet local requirements. It had also been shared with CEL 29
Change Managers.
At this stage, the Maturity Model was to be used as guidance to
provide help and support – this could be as a self evaluation tool or
in planning for full implementation of GIRFEC. Implementation
Advisors would report back on how the five priorities identified by
the board in September 2011 were being implemented across
CPPs.
The board expressed some concern that, due to varying levels of
engagement with CPPs, there were varying degrees of accuracy in
reporting progress. More than a few local authorities appeared to
be coming up against barriers for implementation and there was a
challenge for the board as to how the momentum to break through
these barriers could be provided. It was agreed that the Maturity
Model could be used as the basis of describing progress in each
area, that could then be shared with CPPs for their comment as to
accuracy.
Action: GIRFEC team to report to the board on progress against the five
priorities for implementation across CPP areas.
Boyd McAdam
26 June 2012
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3.2 Tayside Conference
Robin McKendrick reported that the Minister for Children and
Young People, Aileen Campbell MSP, had attended a conference
for practitioners from agencies across Tayside in Dundee on 6
March. The Minister had both made a speech and attended some
of the sessions at the event.
Robin also informed the board that, following this conference,
officials from the GIRFEC team had met with the Minister to update
her on engagement across Scotland. Ms Campbell had endorsed
the programme of work, including grant funding, and had
specifically identified policy on young people as one area within her
portfolio where more needed to be done. The Minister was also
looking for specific opportunities to support GIRFEC
implementation during the summer tours period and officials had
agreed to provide her with another update on progress in February
2013.
Action: GIRFEC team to circulate the speech the Minister gave at the
Tayside conference on 6 March 2012 to the board for their information.
3.3 Highland Child’s Plan
Boyd McAdam
26 June 2012
Marj Stewart reported that the Additional Support for Learning
Officer in Highland has been leading on a piece of work to refresh
the Child’s Plan (GIRPB/05/03b) for all agencies in the area,
following feedback on the previous version of the plan. Highland
were confident that the revised plan would also meet the
requirements for a Coordinate Support Plan, should it have to go to
tribunal. The plan would appear on the GIRFEC Community of
Practice.
The fact that all the agencies involved had been able to agree on a
single plan was welcomed by board members, who commended
the agencies concerned.
3.4 Police management of concerns
Alan Crawford presented the ACPOS paper on police management
of concerns (GIRPB/05/03c). In particular, he highlighted:
• The high level of referrals to the Children’s Reporter that
came from police sources
• Ensuring appropriate training across all forces to give
officers the skills and confidence in raising a concern about a
child
• Supporting not just front line officers but also their
supervisors, for example through the work being done on
chronologies
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• The real willingness for 16 and 17 year olds to be kept away
from the criminal justice system and look at diversional
measures
• The ACPOS lead on GIRFEC was expected to be ACC Allan
Moffat, in order to capture the preventive aspect of GIRFEC.
In discussion it was suggested that the consistent rate of 88% of
referrals from the police should be more evenly spread if early
intervention were happening and it would be possible to look at the
differences in referral rates in each local authority area, which were
available through the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration
(SCRA). It was suggested that it might therefore be a good
measure of how implementation of GIRFEC is progressing. The
importance of linking in with housing personnel was also raised, as
they are often the only ones going into a house.
Mike Foulis observed that there was work to extend the Whole
Systems Approach across the country and beyond offence
referrals, and that there seemed to be agreement that, where the
approach was implemented, it had been effective in reducing
timescales and the number of referrals.
3.5 Third sector
Carole Patrick highlighted that there was lots of good practice to
build on and work going on around how to link the Supporting Third
Sector Embedding of GIRFEC Locally National Project with the
Early Years Change Fund.
Gareth Allen reported that the meeting of the Supporting Third
Sector Embedding of GIRFEC Locally National Project Scoping
Group on 14 March would focus on the delivery mechanism for the
project, which would allow an update on this to be made to the
board in June.
GIRPB/06/02
Action: Update the board on the delivery mechanism for the Supporting
Third Sector Embedding of GIRFEC Locally National Project.
3.6 Meeting of NHS Change Managers (CEL 29)
Yvonne Strachan
26 June 2012
John Froggatt reported that the meeting of NHS Change Managers
on 29 February had been attended by 12 of the 14 territorial health
boards and all of the special health boards, indicating a good level
of buy-in. The group had received updates on the policy context for
GIRFEC, progress on implementation (which raised awareness of
the support available), GIRFEC in the context of the NHS, the
Maturity Model and the Children’s Services Bill consultation. There
was also feedback from each of the Change Managers on the
challenges within their own areas, the insight from the special
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oards for instance suggesting that support to them from the
GIRFEC team would be particularly important. The group had
agreed to continue to meet and that the next meeting would be
more structured to address specific issues.
Ralph Roberts commented that four of the main themes that had
come out of the updates from Change Managers had been:
engaging with other services, such as maternity and adult services;
information sharing and paperwork; culture; and training.
3.7 Scrutiny of children’s services
Phil Raines updated the board on the current position with regard to
scrutiny of children’s services, highlighting:
• The current round of inspections was due to come to an end
in June 2012
• The methodology for the new integrated children’s services
inspections was being developed by the Care Inspectorate,
based on GIRFEC principles
• Testing would take place in Angus during April and May to
develop the methodology further
• There would be six or seven pilots of the new methodology,
starting in July
• There would be consultation around the country on the new
inspections during April and May.
4. Update on legislation
Phil Raines provided an update to the board on children’s legislation. Two
key pieces of legislation had been announced: the Rights of Children and
Young People Bill, for which the Scottish Government response to the
consultation was still pending; and the Children’s Services Bill, which had
been the focus of work over the past couple of months and looked likely to
be called the Children and Young People Bill. This second bill would be a
vehicle for implementing GIRFEC and introducing practical changes in the
delivery of services. Current thinking was that the consultation on the
policy behind the services bill was likely to take place after local authority
elections with a view to the production of a draft bill in spring 2013.
5. Programme Board Action Plan
Martin Crewe presented the progress report on the board’s Action Plan
(GIRPB/05/04), stressing that he would be looking for Programme Board
leads to be reporting personally to the board at future meetings. He invited
comments on the progress report.
The following points were raised in discussion:
• In response to the challenge identified in Objective 1 around the
Community of Practice, it was suggested the change that
GIRPB/06/02
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Communities of Practice were undergoing would be an opportunity
to refresh engagement in this area.
• The timing in Objective 2 may not be right as there is the possibility
of political change within COSLA following elections, though this
should not prevent the board being aware of the importance of
engagement with local authorities and COSLA.
• The words “pour encourager les autres” in action 7.1 could be
taken negatively.
• Some of the outcomes identified in the report were perhaps too
focused on process.
• The board should recognise that CPPs and local authorities would
continue to progress in different ways at different paces and that
the adaptability of the Maturity Model reflected this.
• Rod Harrison, Children and Families Analysis at the Scottish
Government, was undertaking a piece of work to draw out from the
range of outcome frameworks key outcomes which were most
important to improving children’s lives.
6. Risk and Issue Register
Robin McKendrick presented the risk register (GIRPB/05/05), bringing to
the board’s attention that the narrative had been updated and the register
had been re-scored to reflect developments.
The board noted the register and remarked on the particular challenges
associated with risk 7.
7. Information Sharing
Boyd McAdam presented the paper updating the board on information
sharing, including the inter-Agency Communications Tool (iACT)
(GIRPB/05/06). He reported that iACT is being reviewed as part of a wider
review of eCare, which coincides with the development of the eHealth and
Social Care strategy. The Data Sharing Technologies Board (DSTB) had
been created to advise on technology which might support information
sharing across Health and Social Care services. The policy responsibility
for information sharing for children and young people continued to rest
with the GIRFEC Programme Board. Boyd highlighted the work of the
GIRFEC team in providing guidance on chronologies
In line with the Board’s responsibilities, he presented the business
requirements for information sharing to support the GIRFEC approach as
agreed by the iACT Advisory Group (iAG) (GIRPB/05/06a). The majority of
these requirements represented what was essential from a GIRFEC
perspective, with a significant minority of the requirements being
necessary to make it attractive to practitioners. Not everything sought by
practitioners had been incorporated in to the business requirements,
following discussion with the Advisory Group.
GIRPB/06/02
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Following discussion, the Board agreed to recommend the minimum
business requirements with the following amendment:
• Page 9, section 3.4, second paragraph, first sentence – the words
“of school age” to be deleted so the sentence reads “To ensure that
the need for support is identified and early intervention can be
undertaken with the aim of preventing escalation towards crisis
every child will have a Named Person.”
The Board also requested that senior officers across Data Sharing
Partnerships be invited to endorse the minimum business requirements
GIRPB/06/02
Action: GIRFEC team to circulate the business requirements
recommended by the board to all relevant agencies at the most senior
level for their agreement as minimum business requirements.
Boyd reported that, in order to inform the Board on options and costs of
further development of iACT, a gap analysis was being explored. The cost
of such an analysis would not be available until mid-April but, subject to
resources being available, he advised that the gap analysis - based on the
business requirements as amended - would proceed. The GIRFEC team
would report to the Board on progress, if necessary seeking the Board’s
approval if affordability of the gap analysis became an issue and limited
the Board’s ability to explore options. With more robust information the
Board would be better placed to decide whether a business case for the
further development of iACT should be prepared or whether alternative
systems to iACT should be explored to support information sharing.
Boyd McAdam
30 April 2012
The Board endorsed the proposed course of action
In discussion, the Board recognised the efforts of local areas to produce IT
solutions for information sharing but felt that there was also a need to
share across boundaries, meaning the board would need to consider
whether it should be prescriptive on certain elements of any solution.
Further, any IT solution should support rather than reduce communication.
Action: GIRFEC team to –
Boyd McAdam
• report to the board’s on progress on the gap analysis 30 April 2012
• seek in writing the Board’s views on how to progress if the
affordability of the gap analysis became an issue in the opinion of
the GIRFEC team 30 April 2012
• report to the Board once the gap analysis is available on
- the likely resources to develop iACT as a system to support
information sharing and how such development might be funded
- alternative options. For information systems and the likelihood
- whether there was a likelihood of getting buy-in from
stakeholders for the iACT system if developed and/or alternative
systems 26 June 2012
• advise the Board on options for being more prescriptive in order to
ensure cross-boundary sharing of information 26 June 2012
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8. Getting it right for young people
David Hunter presented the paper on young people (GIRPB/05/07),
highlighting:
• The Minister for Children and Young People’s desire to see
progress in this part of her portfolio
• A paper relating on young people from a More Choices More
Chances was expected from Bobby McDowall, a former member of
the GIRFEC team
• The work set out in the paper was more about joining up and
making the most of existing work than creating new work.
The board raised the concern that, with the additional range of issues
presented by extending into young adults and the existing challenges in
implementing GIRFEC, becoming more heavily engaged on this age
group may lead to a loss of focus. It was, however, agreed that exploring
the territory would be worthwhile. David emphasised that the Minister had
clearly expressed a wish to see progress made in this area, which she felt
had been somewhat neglected, (see section 3.2) and also that most of the
work involved would take the form of joining up and making more
productive workstreams already ongoing.
The board agreed to the proposed work plan set out in the paper and
nominated Martin Crewe as the board member who would work with the
group taking the work forward.
9. Any other business
9.1 Young Carers
Marion McParland submitted a paper to update the board on
progress in young carers policy (GIRPB/05/08). She sought the
board’s views on whether young carers were being involved in
GIRFEC and whether staff were able to support young carers within
GIRFEC, including through having access to the appropriate
training.
The board highlighted that:
• In some areas, schools were often unaware whether a pupil
was a young carer unless they were already known to social
services
• The report to parliament from Scotland’s Commissioner for
Children and Young People would contain some relevant
information
• In areas where the role of the Named Person was more
mature, there was an emerging pattern of earlier
identification of young carers
• Implementation Advisors within the GIRFEC team could pick
up on the point of young carers as part of their usual
engagement.
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GIRPB/06/02
9.2 Robin McKendrick’s retirement
Martin Crewe informed the board that Robin McKendrick would
shortly be retiring and would be replaced by Pauline Davidson. He
thanked Robin McKendrick for his support to the board and wished
him well in his retirement.
10. Date of next meeting
The date of the next meeting was set for 26 June 2012.
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