Child Protection Committees
Local Child Protection processes and services are the responsibility of the relevant child protection committee in that area. These committees, of which there are 30, consist of representatives from a range of backgrounds including the police, health services, local authorities, children' services and community planning structures and relevant voluntary sector fora amongst others.
It is the responsibility of the committee to:
- Clearly identify the key links that are required to be made with other bodies, and ensure that these links are made;
- In conjunction with other bodies, identify issues where either joint working would be beneficial or duplication could be avoided and ensure that action is taken to address these issues; and
- Have in place, and regularly review the effectiveness of, joint protocols around particular identified issues.
Individual members of CPCs are responsible for:
- Representing the commitment of their agency to promoting the safety and welfare of children and young people, preventing abuse and neglect and the protection of children and young people;
- Making strategic and operational decisions on behalf of their agency in relation to child protection;
- Facilitating communication between the child protection committee and their agency; and
- Contributing their skill and expertise to the work of the CPC.
Further information on the role and functions of CPCs can be found here.
Child Protection Committees are represented nationally by the Scottish Child Protection Committee Chairs Forum, which meets quarterly with the Scottish Government and other key partners. The current 'Chair of Chairs' of the Forum is the Chair of the North East of Scotland Child Protection Committee, Colin McKerracher.
Child Death and Significant Case Reviews
Scottish Ministers and their partners recognise the importance of ensuring that lessons learned from significant incidents are fed back into local and national arrangements. One of the key outputs from the child protection reform programme was the development of guidance for child protection committees for conducting a significant case review. The guidance has been developed with a view to introducing consistency in how decisions are made on:
- When to call for a review;
- What type of review to hold;
- The management of the process;
- The skills and expertise required to undertake the review;
- The reporting requirements of the review; and
- The implementation of any findings.
The use of Significant Case Reviews is currently being reviewed by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Child Protection Committee Chairs Forum. An initial report by a working group led by Beth Smith, Director of the Multi-agency Resource Service, was published in summer 2010.