1. Children’s Services Plan
Engagement Events

2. Engagement Events Purpose of events and desired outcomes
Context and legislation of children’s services planning
Current situation and how we got here?
What have we been doing?
Where are we now?

3. Purpose of Events
Engage with as wide a group of stakeholders as possible
Provide an opportunity to inform and shape the plan
Recognise the value that everyone, including smaller groups and organisations, can bring
Allow for as much ownership of the plan as possible

4. The Children’s Services Plan – context and legislation
Replaces ‘Integrated Children’s Services Plans’
Must be ready by 1 April 2017
Each plan must cover a 3-year period starting from 1 April 2017.
A “children's services plan” means a document that sets out all our plans for the provision of all children's services and related services over the 3 year period.

5. The plan must secure the achievement of these aims:
1. that children's services in the area concerned are provided in the way which—
best safeguards, supports and promotes the wellbeing of children in the area concerned,
ensures that any action to meet needs is taken at the earliest appropriate time and that, where appropriate, action is taken to prevent needs arising,
is most integrated from the point of view of recipients, and
constitutes the best use of available resources,
2. that related services in the area concerned are provided in the way which, safeguards, supports and promotes the wellbeing of children in the area concerned.
cHILDren’s services should operate according to ‘SHANARRI’ principles
Support wellbeing through primary prevention or early intervention
Depends on effective GIRFEC implementation
Achieves best value, eliminates duplication, appropriate quality support
We need to determine ourselves what our related services are – once we’ve defined them, our plan has to set out how the related services will be delivered in a way that best safeguards, supports and promotes wellbeing of children.
For example, if we decide that housing is a related service then we have to say in the plan how housing will contribute towards keeping children safe and healthy.

6. Processes involved
Undertake detailed assessment of current position – population needs, community assets, service resources
Establish clear vision of what will be achieved by end of plan – outcomes, priorities, objectives, indicators
Agree what activities/services will be delivered in order to achieve vision
Decide through transparent processes how activities will be resourced – including areas of disinvestment
Hold persons to account for delivery of activities with governance embedded in existing structures
Monitoring progress through structured process of review, making sure plan continues to fit the context.

7. Review & Implementation
Partners must keep the CS Plan under review.
Partners can issue a revised CS Plan.
During the 3-year period of the plan, Council, NHS and other services must provide services in accordance with it (children’s services and other services – both as far as reasonably practical).

8. Links with other statutory plans & reports
Identify and clarify relationships between different planning processes
Detail links between planning processes in the plan
Children’s rights – Part 1 Section2 of CYP Act places duty on LAs and NHS boards to report on steps they have taken to better secure UNCRC reqs –
Corporate Parenting Plan and Early Learning and Childcare Plan etc.
We need to use the same activity like consultation or needs assessment to satisfy statutory requirements under multiple planning systems.
CLD plan, Child protection plan, corporate parenting plan, early learning and childcare plan, integrated health & social care strategic plan.

9. Current Situation Joint Inspection Report April 2014
Interim Children’s Service Plan
Priority Areas
Children and young people are protected by appropriate and timely actions, including the assessment of risks, to protect them from abuse and neglect.
Vulnerable children, young people and families get the help they need at an early stage.
Priority areas of need are tackled successfully to improve the life chances of looked after children, young people and care leavers.
Consistently high standards of work are achieved through the implementation of an effective quality assurance framework.
We provide the stronger collaborative leadership needed to plan and direct the delivery of integrated children’s services results in measurable improvements in outcomes for children, young people and families.

10. What have we been doing?
New processes, policies and practice introduced including
IRDs
Chronologies
Information Sharing Guidance
New Child’s Plan template and GIRFEC products
Pre-birth Protocol
Evidence based approaches – Risk Assessment Framework and Neglect Toolkit
New Services developed -, new housing developments for LAC, access to leisure for LAC, specialist LAC Health Team
Quality assurance and performance management information
Engagement and communication with stakeholders including
Regular briefings
Staff Engagement events
Neglect Conferences
Champions Board
New multi-agency learning and development approaches – more e-learning, competency framework
We have developed and introduced a Pre-Birth Protocol that supports early identification of risks to vulnerable pregnant women and their unborn babies and will lead to timely, proportionate interventions. The protocol was introduced on 1 October 2015 and should be used by all professionals who work in services for children, young people and families; and in particular those who provide care to pregnant women and their families. The protocol is intended to be used in conjunction with GIRFEC guidance and in line with Dumfries & Galloway Inter-Agency Child Protection Procedures and Supporting Guidance.
The Initial Referral Discussion (IRD) process for child concerns was introduced in 2014 and multi-agency decision-making has become embedded since then. The Children’s Services Executive Group receives regular performance reports on the IRD process. The learning from this quality-assurance process has informed changes to the IRD Inter-Agency Procedures and the revised procedures have been updated on the Child Protection webpage.
The new Child’s Plan template is supporting improvements in the quality of assessment and planning. (On the GIRFEC webpage under Multi-Agency Forms, Templates, Toolkits ).
We have a revised Parenting Strategy that aims to develop a spectrum of support for parents that will be delivered in a range of ways and will be accessible across our rural communities.
We have improved our performance management and quality assurance arrangements with regular reporting to the Child Protection Committee and an independent Chair to provide robust challenge.
We have further developed our Named Person Service in preparation for statutory implementation in August GIRFEC drop-in sessions for staff were held in November and December 2015.
A ‘Social Worker in Schools’ project is operating in Stranraer and North-West Dumfries. The project aims to:
Improve relationships and understanding between Social Work and Education staff
lead to greater understanding of thresholds and processes within the GIRFEC framework
Support early intervention.
Improve children, young people and families’ understanding of the role of Social Work.
As Corporate Parents, we have:
established the Champions Board
reviewed the provision of advocacy services
established a specialist LAC Health Team to ensure that all looked-after children and young people have a health assessment.
Revised and re-published our Educational Guidelines for looked-after children.
We have introduced guidance and training that has led to an improvement in the use of chronologies.
We have implemented revised multi-agency child protection procedures: Protecting Children and Young People in Dumfries and Galloway. This document is the West of Scotland Inter-Agency Child Protection Procedures embedded in supporting guidance that puts them into a local context for their application in Dumfries and Galloway.
We have introduced evidence-based approaches for example the National Risk Framework and provided training and guidance on this.
We have delivered 8 multi-agency staff engagement events across Dumfries and Galloway since the publication of the Joint Inspection Report in 2014.
Other developments to look out for in the coming months include:
An intensive family support service for the most vulnerable children that is currently in development.
Improved connectivity and planning around the themes of parental mental health; parental substance misuse and domestic abuse.
The one-day themed conference on Neglect taking place on Thursday 12 May. (Look on the Training Webpage under the section headed ‘Application Forms’.)
The introduction of a toolkit/framework for neglect.
Further development about performance management/quality assurance.
Information Technology developments: development of the ePortal; the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and the GIRFEC Gateway.
Action Learning sets.

11. Follow On Inspection May 2016 – Overall Findings
The Care Inspectorate reported that we had made:
significant progress in ensuring that children are protected from abuse and risk.
significant progress in improving the life-chances of our looked-after children, young people and care-leavers.
significant progress in strengthening our collaborative leadership to plan and direct the delivery of integrated children’s services.
considerable progress in ensuring consistently high standards of work are achieved.
reasonable progress to ensure that vulnerable children, young people and families get the help they need as early as possible.
Good news story – in some areas of progress we have managed to improve to the extent that we can be compared favourably with other CPP areas – given the position in April 2014 when we were effectively bottom of the pile this represents significant improvement and commitment from staff across all agencies and at all levels

12. Priority Areas and Activities
Not a wish list or a blank canvas
Takes account of financial situation facing partnership
Takes account of statutory responsibilities
Continued focus on vulnerability
Continued focus on some areas in previous plan – embed and review

13. Your Views What priority areas need to be in the plan?
What activities should we focus on?

14. Next Steps Take the findings from consultation and write them up
Use to inform plan
Draft plan
Governance and sign off

15. Contact Information