Meeting of the Parliament 02 December 2015
Police Scotland has been a full and constructive member of the GIRFEC programme board and has been supportive of the named person approach, as it said many times during the progress of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill through the Parliament.
For the avoidance of doubt, the heartbreaking cases in London that Ruth Davidson cited in her article had absolutely nothing to do with named persons or any similar provision for protecting children. I hope that Ruth Davidson will reflect on the parallels that she sought to draw and hang her head in shame.
Here are the facts. The getting it right for every child approach puts the best interests of the child at the heart of decision making, to ensure the child’s wellbeing. It works with—and not around or against—children, young people and their families. It embeds early intervention and prevention, and it stipulates that professionals must work together across professional boundaries in the child’s best interests.
GIRFEC has been developed in response to families’ needs. Parents do not want to have to tell or even shout their stories over and over again to a crowd of services; they just want appropriate support if and when they need it. Any one of us might need support with parenting—however much or little—at one time or another.
Early intervention means tackling the small, persistent issues in a child’s life—the ones that are not easy for a family alone to resolve—before they escalate into a crisis. We hear a lot—particularly from Liz Smith—about vulnerable children and families, as though they walk around with signs on their heads. We cannot predict which children or young people will be the ones whom our services need to support.