Child Protection Improvement Programme

Child Protection Improvement Programme – Update #6

October 16, 2017 by Lewis Worobec No Comments | Category Uncategorized

A great achievement for the Child Protection Improvement Programme (CPIP) who saw the marketing campaign for ‘How Insight Helped Inform The Public About Child Sexual Exploitation’ being awarded a gold at the annual Marketing Society Star Awards in June this year. A further gold award in the communications category went to the campaign ‘Child Sexual Exploitation: Raising Awareness of An Invidious Crime’. Congratulations to all those involved in raising awareness of Child Sexual Exploitation.

The National Child Protection Leadership Group met for the first time on Thursday 22nd June and again on the 21st September. The minute of the first meeting is available on the Scottish Government Child Protection Policy webpages. Two working groups were established from the first meeting in June: one to take forward the planning for Regional Events and the other to look at establishing a specific short life project team for Joint Investigative Interviews. The minute of the September meeting will be available soon.

Scotland’s first Trafficking and Exploitation Strategy was published on 30th May 2017. It sets out how the Scottish Government and partners will work together to provide support to victims and make Scotland a more hostile place for traffickers.

The Strategy sets out 3 main action areas:

• Identify victims and support them to safety and recovery;
• Identify perpetrators and disrupt their activity; and,
• Address the conditions, both local and global, that foster trafficking and exploitation.

In addition, the Strategy has a 4th section which brings together the specific children’s actions in the preceding sections and sets out actions where the situation for children who are, or who may be victims of human trafficking and exploitation, differs from that for adults.

The Strategy was developed alongside the Child Trafficking Strategy Group which comprises children’s services stakeholders and includes representation from Child Protection Committees Scotland (CPC). This group is acting as the vehicle through which the children’s actions within the Strategy are monitored and progressed.

Included in the children’s actions, are ones specific to CPCs on partnership working, the provision of training and ensuring relevant local policies, procedures and guidance are in place and accessible by services.

On 29th August, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice launched the human trafficking awareness raising campaign for Scotland.

Six different digital banner adverts ran across various online channels including Facebook and news sites throughout the duration of the campaign.

A hard-hitting 60 seconds film was produced by STV to support the campaign. It featured Bronagh Andrew, Operations Manager at Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance (TARA), discussing the realities of human trafficking and the fact that it is closer to home than many people think. The signs of human trafficking are highlighted along with information on how those who have concerns can report the crime.

The implementation of actions from the Update of the National Action Plan on Child Sexual Exploitation (2016) continues to be overseen by the National Child Sexual Exploitation Group, which last met on 28 August 2017. A further meeting will take place on 27 November 2017, and will discuss a draft progress report, due to be published in March 2018.

Safer Internet Day 2018 will take place on 6 February 2018 with the theme ‘Create, Connect and Share respect – A better internet starts with you’. Online Safety Live is a programme of events designed exclusively for professionals working with children and young people and as part of national activity scheduled to support on-going work to better protect and safeguard children in the online world, the Scottish Government, in partnership with local authorities, are facilitating Online Live events in Orkney on 14 November, Aberdeen on 15 November and Oban on 17 November. To sign up please follow the links attached.

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and the Minister for Childcare and Early Years visited Iceland in August, to learn more about creating a child-friendly, safe environment for those involved in the justice system. The visit, which included a Barnahus site tour, was facilitated by Scotland’s national children’s charity Children 1st and looked at the innovative concept that supports child victims and investigates abuse, bringing together all relevant services under one roof. Read more of what the Cabinet Secretary said about the visit in the press release.

Following this visit the Scottish Government facilitated a stakeholder event in early September, to hear the views from stakeholders of how Barnahus elements could work for Scotland. The event was opened by Mark McDonald MSP, Minister for Childcare and Early Years and guest speakers included Bragi Guðbrandsson, the General Director at the Government Agency for Child Protection in Iceland, Simon Cordon, Service Manager at The Havens, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Mary Glasgow, Acting Chief Executive of Children 1st.

In other news –

The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill was introduced to Parliament by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Michael Matheson MSP, on 17 March 2017. The Bill is currently at Stage 1, and the Justice Committee heard evidence from interested parties throughout May and June 2017. The Committee’s Stage 1 report is available on the Parliamentary website.

The Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative (CYPIC) brings together the Early Years Collaborative and the Raising Attainment for All Programme to deliver quality improvement (QI) throughout a child’s journey. This aims to reinforce the link between children having positive experiences in the early years and educational attainment.

The CYPIC remains closely aligned with the Maternity and Children Quality Improvement Collaborative where the focus is on maternity, neonatal and paediatric healthcare settings.

This year’s CYPIC learning session – Working Together to Improve Outcomes – will take place on  21 and 22 November 2017 at the SEC in Glasgow. Registration opened on the 28 August 2017 and will close on 6 October 2017. For further information go to http://www.cypic.co.uk/learning-session/

On 15 November 2016 the first Quality Improvement Awards ceremony was held in partnership with Healthcare Improvement Scotland. Following the success of these inaugural Awards, we are again, in partnership with Health Improvement Scotland, hosting the 2017 Quality Improvement Awards. The awards will celebrate and showcase the fantastic range of quality improvement practice that is taking place across the length and breadth of Scotland to make services the best they possibly can be for babies, children, young people and their families in all aspects of their lives. Entries for the 2017 Quality Improvement Awards opened on 8 May 2017 and the shortlist was announced in September 2017. The Awards ceremony will take place at the Science Centre in Glasgow on the evening of 21 November 2017. For further information, including stories from the 2016 shortlist go to www.qiawards.co.uk

Further updates will follow and will also be provided through stakeholder channels.

Comments