13 March 2012 - Scottish Government

GIRPB/06/02
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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