Good morning ladies and gentlemen. You see where I'm located...
...we are as a unit set within the Heath and Social Care Directorate General...
...but we report to education ministers, so my prime minister is the Minister...
...for Children and Young People, Angela Constance.
So, if one's mental well-being is set by having certain parameters and...
...structures around one, I'm afraid my working life may need to improve slightly.
But, this reflects the way within Scottish Government we're trying to...
...operate now, with a much more greater focus on delivering outcomes...
...and the National Performance Framework.
This sort of matrix way of working helps us to work across boundaries...
...and deliver improvementS on those outcomes before we can have an influence.
I suppose in my area unlike different parts of the office which are looking at...
...children with disability, children with particular needs...
...I have the child as my focus.
What are we going to do to improve outcomes for children?
As you'll see from there, I work in Children's Rights and Well-being...
...and one of the challenges I have is how does all this work that's been done...
...relates to the programme that I have responsibility for.
Picking up on Geoff's point, what I'm trying to do is...
...one of the ways government's working is promote change and practice...
...at the individual level, the way practitioners work...
...and think around children and work to improve their outcomes.
So part of what I'll try and do is explain how these indicators link...
...to Getting it Right. Derek will follow me looking at...
...Curriculum for Excellence, and just to complicate matters he...
...reports to a different minister Dr Alasdair Allan.
The simple thing that links us all, is that we're all trying to improve...
...outcomes for children and young people.
We're trying to ensure that as a child grows and develops...
..he or she is supported in the best possible way to achieve their potential.
Now, whether that support comes through family, community activity...
...universal services, targeted services...
...the aim is to make the individual's life better.
We use this slide to say, we start of with the family.
The aim is to work through the family to improve outcomes for children.
As a need or risk grows you may have different interventions coming in...
...and if there is an acute risk, you go straight to the outer part of the circle...
...where you may need specific actions...
...say in child protection or for childrens' hearings.
But the Getting it Right approach or GIRFEC as I'll abbreviate to...
...really focuses on the individual. How do you plan, come together...
...to support activity that helps improve the child's outcome?
Our aim is to prevent problems getting worse...
...to build resilience in individuals....
...and where problems emerge to ensure action is taken as early as apprproiate.
All of this fits in with the early intervention and the prevention agenda.
Getting it Right has a broader age range, than the indicatiors.
As an approach we start at pre-birth, run right through to age 25.
I'll come on shortly to proposals for legislation, that might...
...in legislative terms require us to look at a different age band...
but over the past six years, this approach has been promoted...
...by the Scottish Government, with support from COSLA and our partners...
...as a way of working to bring about improvements in outcomes.
I know some of the audience here have heard me before, sometimes several times...
...apologies if I do a bit of an overview of the Getting it Right approach...
...but I think we need to understand that to see how our activity under GIRFEC...
...maps with the indicator set that's been launched today.
GIRFEC is very much work in progress. We've been developing the agenda...
...for the last six years, I think there's at least another...
...five plus years before we see that embedded in actual practice.
We started with Highland, looking at how professionals, how systems...
...needed to change to put the child right at the centre, to hear their voice...
...to work out how you streamline planning processes...
...to make sure that the child remained the focus and that outcomes were improved.
We did that by working with the Highland Community Planning Partnership...
...effectively, so the Chief Officers group, that brought together health...
...education, police, the childrens' reporterer and the third sector.
From that work we developed 10 core components, they're up on the screen.
But what we're looking to see happening on the ground is people working...
...in a way that delivers on those 10 core components...
...and reflects the values and principals operating under Getting it Right.
Now that's very high level and vague so how do we translate that into something...
...that is meaningful in practice? What are we looking to see?
There are six areas on the screen there, some of them are process...
...but we would be looking to see a named person...
...in universal services, for every child and young person.
We would look to see arrangements, identifying where a lead professional...
...comes together for a child, where there is a need for multi-agency planning.
We are looking to see this child centred approach, getting the voice of the child...
...keeping the child right at the centre, in the way people are working...
...and in the engagement with families.
We look to see, for the National Practice model, which I'll come on to describe...
...,the appraoch is developing the well-being of the child and building resilience.
Using an approach which draws together in a holistic view of the child...
...an assessment of that child, where they are at that moment and...
...where you want them to be.
We'll come on to how I see Specialist Assessments fitting into that.
Now, the main aim of this is to strengthen, initially, universal services.
Start with addressing the problems as early as possible, wherever possible...
...within universal services, but where the needs and risks arise and become...
...more intense, then you need to co-ordinate activity.
Part of the model under GIRFEC, which we are encouraging...
...this will have to come through on workforce developing and training...
...and local arrangements as the approach becomes embedded...
...is practitioners should really ask themselves these five questions.
Now, we set those out in 2008 in the guide, they were reinforced in...
...June 2010 when we published an implementation guide around in GIRFEC.
The whole idea under this is to support early intervention...
...so that the assesment is as a process...
...and not a one off event. You capture where the child is...
...but you come back and review. You check how you're making that progress...
...to know whether for the individual child you are making a difference.
Now the child and the child's views have to permade all the thinking and working...
...but critically at the heart of GIRFEC is his concept of well-being.
Picking up on Tam's comment earlier, about achievement, we've got that as...
...one of the key segments in that well-being wheel...
...with safety, we've got nurture, we've got inclusion and respected...
...which is where we would see the Rights Agenda fitting in.
The view is that each individual child has to be in the best possible place...
...around those segments in order for them at an individual level to fufil...
...their potential. The outer ring are the four capacities of...
...Curriculum for Excellence. So again, we're trying to show how action...
...with the child we'll deliver an improvement and well-being and through...
...that an improvement and outcome and for each child it will be different.
A child with a disability may not be as a child without a disability.
So what are we doing for that individual child to make their circumstances better.
How are we improving their well-being, their ability to fulfil their potenial...
...and therefore improve the lot of children across Scotland.
If you want to read more about the rational behind that approach...
...there's our website that is there, there are lots of publications there...
...but we're shortly going to be publishing a piece of work done for us by...
...Edinburgh University. Which is taking those segments and looked...
...behind them at a more specific level, or what are the particular indicators...
...you might be looking for around a individual child and how that might inform...
...those segments. When we did the evaluation of the Highland Pathfinder approach...
...we began that process of looking behind what safety meant, what health meant...
...what acheiving for the child meant.
The work that we're going to produce shortly will go further beyond that and...
...we'll look at how an indicator will not only support safety and health...
...but might read across all those indicators.
I have to stress in talking about this, we're looking to the future and...
...what I'm decribing is might. We are working this through just now...
...and part of I think the importance of today's indicators is...
...a framework within which we think about the individual child's data that...
...we capture and how it then might inform the more population based approach.
I think from what's been described, the surveys, the source materials...
...for the indicators that are launched today...
...it would be fair to say these are population data.
What we need to work through now, is how the Getting it Right assesment...
...and analysis around the individual, can support a record of improvement...
...in their well-being and their outcomes and if we can establish a more...
...consistent way of capturing concerns, recording information about the...
...individual child, across all agencies who are working with children.
You may then begin to aggriate the data from the individual children..
...up and to a locality, geographical a category of children approach.
That would be greatly assisted if you could acheive that electronically, but I think...
...as many of us know IT is a huge challenge. The approach and the thinking about...
...what it is that we should be capturing, in each of our professions...
...around the individual child is where I think the indicators launched...
...today will help us take forward our development.
I mentioned the National Practice model. I hope many of you in the room are...
...familiar with it, but it takes the concept of the well-being of the child...
...where is the child at the moment, from your assesment?
What is it that's going on in the child's life that's preventing them fulfil their...
...potential and improve their well-being, so that's the My World triangle...
...where you begin to assess the circumstances of the child.
You apply your resilience matrix looking at what is it going on that is positive...
...and negative in the child's life and then produce an action plan...
with a aim of improving the well-being where you see their is a deficit.
Throughout this process the child is right at the centre, the whole of...
the approach and the way of working is to capture the child's views to engage with...
...the child and their family, to involve them, to obtain their consent around...
...information sharing and so on.
For a child for whom the universal services meet all their needs, that line would be...
...running along right at the bottom within universal services...
..the child will see a midwife when born, they will see a health visitor.
They will go to school, they will occassionally see the GP, but most of the time...
...the needs and the risks will be addressed by the universal service...
...but their will be circumstances where those needs and risks will rise slowly...
...they might rise dramatically if there is a child protection concern...
...and that's where the planning process that runs through the child's life...
...will cut in and above the universal service line is...
...where we see the lead professional being brought in to manage...
...and co-ordinate all activity.
At a certain point you will have a plan of where you want the child to be in the future.
In this case we want them back into universal services.
For a looked after child who is going to be involved in care throughout their lives...
...that dotted line may well remain above universal.
For each child it is different, but under pinning it is the planning process...
...that looks and draws together all activity.
So we have the My World triangle and under GIRFEC we say that to plan for action...
...and assessment and anaylsis is required.
We never introduced an integrated assessment framework in Scotland...
...and we did alot of thinking about it, but the thinking has now informed the..
...Getting it Right approach.
Now for some children there will be very specific needs....
...which will need additional specialist assessments or considerations...
but they should always point back to that practice model that I mentioned...
...so that the overview of the child can be taken and any planning co-ordinated.
So I think today's indicators that are launched, are some of the very specific...
...considerations that could be used by any practitioner...
...working with a child, looking at their state of, I would say well-being...
...today's context mental well-being.
Some of the datas that have been pointed out already does not have a ...
...populated data source.
It may well be that in looking at the individual child and discussing with the child...
...where they think they are, you could use some of the indicators...
...to inform your understanding of how the child feels. Do they feel...
..respected, included, involved.
We may not have that source, but part of the dialogue with the child and planning...
...might help us to begin to get a feel of what is happening.
So I think that the mental health indicators could be considered as an additional...
...tool in practitioners' boxes, to help them take the earliest and most...
...appropriate action, just as the indicators of risk are used.
With the resilience matrix, once we say the information has been collated...
...along with any other detailed assessments...
...either individually with universal services or in a multi agency environment...
...you then look at where the child draws support from...
...or where there are adverse influences. That becomes central to the planning process...
...and how assessment will help identify where the action is best targeted...
...in order to improve well-being.
Now I've struggled trying to put this across, the slide isn't very clear...
...but the approach should bring together specialists and people from all backgrounds.
It's like an airport where there are specialist aircraft all coming in...
...but they're all docking in to that airport and discharging passengers...
...with a particular purpose. You're getting them from A to B.
As a Star Trek fan, I prefer the concept of spaceships, but...
...it's rather difficult to get one with a docking station. This is San Fransisco aiport.
In data terms, each specialist assessment will have lots of data...
...part of GIRFEC is thinking what are the key things that we...
...A should be capturing through that data collection...
...and what do we need to bring together in the centre to inform...
...what the child needs and how we improve their outcomes.
I will not go through these slides in any detail there are benefits from this approach...
...both in outcomes for the child and better trust across agencies...
...better outcomes and releasing of resources and we are...
...in discussion with community planning partnerships across Scotland...
...Chief Executives in health under sell 29 in 2010, were asked to...
...plan for implementing GIRFEC.
So, it is part of the agenda, it is a long change process, so it's taking time.
One of the things that ministers want to do in the manifesto was to legislate not...
...just on the rights agenda that we've heard about...
...but on a children services bill to embed both the Getting it Right approach...
...and support the early years framework.
So part of what I've been describing around the well-being wheel...
...the National Practice model, we are looking at over the coming months...
...to how we translate that into legislative activity...
...that is going to push forward this agenda.
There are lots of materials on the Government's website and through the GIRFEC website.
So GIRFEC's on it's way and Jane had a complicated slide, this one I think is...
...as, if not more complicated.
But, it's part of the thinking we're doing around...
...how you take individual data about each child...
...agregate that up so you can understand how every child is being helped and improved.
Today's indicators, I think, are very much looking at a population level...
...but for us, how do you pick up the relevant bits of data that will inform...
...perhaps the gaps in data that you have at population data.
Around early years there's work on the early development...
...instrument. That's looking at transistion into primary school.
What, when you are capturing information about an individual child...
..should we be capturing in the GIRFEC approach...
...that might inform that, or the child's well-being.
I'm conscious that time is movng on so...
...the early years is one of the big areas...
...where we're doing a lot of work to provide indicators around that age group.
There are certain indicators that exist around the approach...
...both the mother or father's approach to the child.
How the health of the child is being improved and developed.
But how then do we take that and understand what's happening...
...across Scotland and how the National Performance Framework is being deliverd.
I think I'll come to an end here, just reflecting again..
...that the Getting it Right approach as we've heard elsewhere about the indicators...
...support a whole range of policies across the Scottish Government...
...and what we are all wanting to do and achieve with children.
If you identify what's going on in the individual child's life...
...the recognising that poverty might be the influence.
What do you do as practitioners to address what you can...
...how do you bring other people in to address those circumstances.
We are tied in very closely to the early years framework...
...equally well, acheiving our potential...
...and of course the whole parenting strategy that is going to be launched next year...
...is again part of the work that we're all tapped into.
So Getting it Right is here, I very much welcome today's set of indicators...
...as a way of helping us think through further what data we should be capturing...
...around the individual and how through that process...
...we might help fill in some of the gaps that have been identified.
Thank you.