This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Review of services for vulnerable families
20/01/2003
The outcome of a review into services for vulnerable families with very young children was launched today in Glasgow.
Growing Support - a review of services for vulnerable families with very young children, is the result of an inter-disciplinary review of local authority and health services to support vulnerable families with children aged 0-3 years.
The Chief Social Work Inspector, Angus Skinner, set up the review to establish:
- what support was currently provided to vulnerable families with young children
- how well this support meet the needs of young families
- how well organisations worked together to deliver appropriate assistance to young families
The review found an extensive range of services offering practical help, information, parenting education, advice and emotional support to parents in difficulty in each local authority and health board area. Family centres and services were found to be very successful at helping both parents and children improve their skills and were also popular with families with young children.
In more than half of the cases reviewed where there were concerns about children's safety development or welfare, local authority social work involvement brought about some immediate improvement.
However the review team found the following areas of weakness in service delivery:
- frontline staff were not always able to offer the right of kind of help at the right time and could appear unsympathetic or unhelpful
- gaining access to services was not easy and
- senior managers did not always provide effective leadership for professional practice and support for front line staff
The report highlights the following issues:
- professionals' early intervention and sustained support can prevent stresses for families with children between 0-3 years from escalating into long term serious problems
- health, social work, education and voluntary sector services should work in partnership to deliver integrated family support for children in need as well protecting children from harm
- greater value to be placed on the role of the extended family in resolving problems
- families whose children cannot safely live with them need help to avoid repeating the same patterns
These recommendations reinforce the findings of the National Child Protection Review.
Deputy Health Minister Mary Mulligan said:
"Ascertaining risk and acting to reduce the risk to young children is vital but on its own it is not enough. Statutory agencies must not channel all their energies into investigating and monitoring children at the expense of providing direct help and resources to families. Early intervention is vital and does make a difference; agencies such as Starting Well in Glasgow can make a huge difference to a young family.
"This review also highlights the crucial contribution of extended family - grandparents, aunts, uncles and in-laws - to supporting young families with problems. Health services and local authorities need to give greater recognition and support to these relatives who provide so much pratical help and wisdom.
"In one in five of the families, children had been looked after away from home during the local authority's involvement but most of these children quickly returned to their families of origin. In half of these cases, grandparents or relatives had taken over the child's care from parents, with local authority approval and support.
"The findings of this report reinforce the work of the Child Protection Audit and Review 'It's Everyone's Job to Make Sure I'm Alright' and they will be fed into the Ministerial Summit which is being held in February.
Dr Sandra Grant, Chief Executive, Scottish Health Advisory Service and Chair of the review steering group, said:
"This review report is one of several initiatives underway to improve the welfare of vulnerable children in Scotland. A multi-agency team saw first-hand what support services are available. The views of parents who had sought help were central to the process. The findings highlight the good work being done, but also demonstrate significant problems that urgently need to be tackled. The major factor is the need for the different agencies to work together in more innovative ways to provide the best care that focuses on the needs of the child."
Marion McArdle, a lay member of the review team, said:
"We would want to see service users given more say in how they would like to see services develop and managers more aware of the problems both for users and their professionals in the field".
Growing Support contains the findings of an inter-disciplinary review of the services provided to young families. Over 147 local authority social work records and some health visitor records were reviewed and 355 interviews carried out with professionals from health, social work, education and housing services.
An audit and review of child protection was announced by the Scottish Executive in March 2001 following the Hammond report into the tragic death of Kennedy McFarlane. The multi-disciplinary team were asked to review how well our children are being protected by the range of agencies that work with them.
The review team's report It's everyone's job to make sure I'm alright (a quote from a child interviewed by the team) was published on November 25, 2002.
The Executive has outlined a programme of action in response to the report's findings:
- a three-year programme of sustained activity will reform child protection services by establishing clear practice standards, developing the role and responsibilities of Child Protection Committees, and building capacity to deliver
- a team of experts from relevant agencies, with top-level backing from the Executive, will work directly with local agencies to implement the reform programme and tackle poor performance
- a tough new system of inspection will monitor progress over the next three years to ensure that reform is delivered
- a Children's Charter, to be drawn up in conjunction with professionals and children, will set out the support that children have the right to expect
- extra support will be given to helplines that provide counselling and support for children - Childline and Parentline - including £500,000 to allow Childline Scotland to open up a new call centre and increase by up to 60 per cent the number of children they are able to help.
Investment in the Changing Children's Services Fund, which funds innovative projects which join up services for vulnerable and disadvantaged, will double from £33 million to £65.5 million between 2002-03 and 2005-06.