Page 365 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 2019
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not doing to or for, across its systems, including human resources and complaints. As a result of this philosophy and its support of staff in relation to caseload, supervision, recognition and career development, the organisation has gone from having one in four staff contracted through an agency to having 100 per cent permanent staffing.
The next visit was to Renfrewshire, just outside Glasgow in Scotland. I was keen to see Scotland’s getting it right for every child strategy in action and we certainly had a whirlwind tour of a range of services. Our first visit was to Arkleston children’s house, a purpose-built, government-run residential care home for six young people, which exemplifies the trauma-informed philosophy of care that the reforms are seeking to deliver. Getting it right for every child was introduced in 2006 and its values and principles guide work across education, social care and youth justice. The strategy’s objective is to see every child safe, well and healthy, with seven wellbeing indicators established to measure progress.
An example of the way in which systems, services and supports have been integrated is the fact that every child has a named person who offers a clear point of contact for children, young people or their parents if they need support. For children below school age it is usually a health visitor and for school aged children it is a head teacher, deputy or other designated teacher. The named person is expected to either support a family directly when they seek help or refer them to an appropriate service. Importantly, this is not something that applies only to vulnerable or at-risk families. It is a universal principle and reflects the view that everyone has a responsibility for child wellbeing and all children deserve to be nurtured.
Within the child protection or social care system, reform has been based on an initial survey of the entire population of 13½ thousand children and young people in care, providing a strong evidence base about what children and young people were experiencing as well as new approaches to social work based on the reclaiming social work model.
In contrast to England, Scotland has now seen reductions in the number of looked-after children for five consecutive years. This has resulted from a strong focus on early support or families first, which includes a range of evidence-based supports delivered in a way that was described as “completely relationship and person centred”. When children and young people do come into care the trauma-informed approach is now seeing indicator-based outcomes for children and young people in foster and residential care exceed those for children at home.
Following the visit and briefing, we toured Riverbrae School, a newly opened school for students with disability aged from 2½ to 18 years, formed from the merger of two special schools and a nursery. The school was a result of parent choice, as parents in the closing schools resisted mainstreaming, and has seen children return to schooling in Renfrewshire who were previously enrolled in other council areas.
One benefit of a purpose-built school is that it has enabled the provision of specialist facilities such as a hydrotherapy pool that would not be possible in a mainstream school. However, the school puts significant focus on students’ access to the outside
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