Child Protection

This document sets out the Scottish Executive’s detailed proposals for a Scottish Human Rights Commission. The Scottish Executive believes that this new body will be a key means to ensure that human rights are protected in Scotland and will also help to develop a ‘culture’ of human rights. By promoting human rights, the Commission will work to ensure that you are more aware of your rights in the future and that you understand how they apply to you and to your family. This consultation paper focuses on the remit, functions and structure of the Commission.

The Assessment Triangle is a key concept within child welfare and is a term that has been used since the late 1990s. In Scotland, it has been adopted within the development of an Integrated Assessment Framework, to which we also refer in this learning resource. There are a number of aspects of child assessment, in any domain – the home, the playground, the classroom, the GP surgery, or residential care, and others – where you will be thinking about assessment models and practice.

This resource is the sixth in a series of lectures designed to honour the memory and achievement of Lord Kilbrandon who wrote one of the most influential policy statements on how a society should deal with 'children in trouble'. This lecture discusses Council of Europe treaties, standard setting, the promotion of rights and juvenile justice.

This is a participatory exercise designed to help participants identify and connect with the procedural, policy, guidance and legislative framework organisations require to maximise safety both for the children and young people they deliver services to and for the staff who deliver those services.

This resource examines the reasons for listening to children which includes that it acknowledges their right to be listened to and for their views and experiences to be taken seriously about matters that affect them. Listening can make a difference to our understanding of children’s priorities, interests and concerns and can make a difference to our understanding of how children feel about themselves. This resource highlights that listening is a vital part of establishing respectful relationships with the children we work with and that it is central to the learning process.

This episode of Radio 4's Woman's Hour series asks if children who get taken into care should be looked after by strangers or by members of their own family. The Children's Act says children should be looked after by family members - if they want to take on the responsibility and are deemed suitable. But on Woman's Hour, the Family Rights Group says family and friends are too often ignored or rebuffed by social services. If the family does get approved they don't always get the financial support they need.

This document concludes the first stage of a serious and systematic attempt to address the deficiencies in the social work information base in Scotland. Senior social work managers, the wider local government community, the Scottish Executive and the Accounts Commission for Scotland have all demonstrated their commitment to working together, through the Social Work Information Review Group, to define a list of information about social work that will meet the needs of all the organisations.

This cross government document aims to help tackle youth crime and anti-social behaviour, and contribute to community safety in England. It sets out a strategic approach to inform the work of the Healthy Children, Safer Communities programme board to fulfil the vision that children and young people will be safer, healthier and stay away from crime.

Substance abuse as a social phenomenon is all the more worrisome because of its prevalence among youth. Over the last two decades or so, countries all over the world have seen an alarming rise in the incidence of substance abuse amongst the most productive and crucial section of their populations.

In January 1998, the Minister for Home Affairs announced that the Social Work Services Inspectorate would inspect all sex offender cases supervised by Aberdeen Social Work Department, and such cases in a sample of other local authorities across Scotland, to assess compliance with National Objectives and Standards. This is the Report of these findings.