Chamber and committees

The guidance on inter-agencyco-operation Protecting Children: A Shared Responsibility (1998: paras 2.14-24),the Framework for Standards (2004: Standard 4), and the Guidance for ChildProtection Committees (2005: section 3:12) set out the Scottish Government’s requirements on agencies to establishand maintain suitable communications procedures for sharing information about childrenat risk.

The government’s confidencein how well this is being done is founded principally on two evidence bases. Thefirst is that Child ProtectionCommittees are required to prepare and submit to the Scottish Government their AnnualReports which feed into local Integrated Children’s Service Plans. On a routinebasis, we expect these reports to evidence developments in joint working and informationsharing.

The second and morefocused source of evidence is provided by the Her Majesty’s Inspectorate ofEducation-led joint inspection of child protection services across Scotland. Ninejoint inspection reports (out of 30) have so far been published. The scoring forthe indicator “information-sharing and recording” shows that eight of thosenine reports rate well under this measure - six are scored as “good”, two as “adequate”and one as “weak”.

Based on this evidence,the Scottish Government is broadly confident that inter-agency communication proceduresare in place and working adequately well, although there is continued scope forimprovement in this area. That is why the government has recently sought a widerange of views on a draft Code of Practice for Sharing Information when thereare concerns about a child. The 87 responses are currently being analysed and willinform a redrafting of the code in coming months.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-5455 on 8 November 2007. This highlights the requirements for effective information-sharingset out by the Scottish Government in guidance, the sources of evidence used bythe government to assess the extent to which those requirements are being deliveredin practice and refers to work on a draft Code of Practice for Sharing Informationwhen there are concerns about a child.All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The reply toquestion S3W-5455 on 8 November 2007 sets out the requirementson child protection agencies for effective information-sharing set out by the ScottishGovernment in guidance documents since 1998 and refers to work on a draft Codeof Practice for Sharing Information when there are concerns about a child.

Between September2005 and March 2007, the Scottish Government has made available over 2,500 trainingplaces under Children at the Centre – a national training programme for social workersin child care and protection. An evaluation of the effectiveness of this programmeand consideration of next steps is under discussion.

All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The 2006 lettersof assurance exercise yielded assurances from Chief Officers that systems werein place and working effectively to identify and meet the needs of vulnerablechildren, though detailed evidence was not consistent or systematic. the Scottish Government is currently assessing how best to progress the childrenaffected by substance misuse agenda to ensure the needs of all affectedchildren are being met.

The Scottish Governmentis confident that frameworks, including inspection regimes, are in place to helpensure that the welfare of children with drug abusing parents is protected. Whererelevant, inspection regimes consider the role of assessing parental capacity andwhere weaknesses are found, appropriate recommendations to agencies are made.

Examining the qualityof local authority assessment and case management processes is an integral partof the Social Work Inspection Agency’s (SWIA) performance inspections. In 2007,the SWIA also conducted the first multi-agency inspection of substance misuse services,alongside NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and the Care Commission. This coveredthe level of assessment of parental capacity carried out by the relevant agencies.Her Majesty’s  Inspectorate of Education’s inspections of child protection servicesalso consider whether children with drug abusing parents are protected and thatthe relevant agencies communicate effectively with each other.

The Getting OurPriorities Right guidance for working with children and families with substancemisuse states that parents with problem substance use should be assessed where theirpersonal difficulties affect their parenting and care of children. The guidancenotes that such assessments will vary in complexity, relative to the actual or potentialimpact on the child.

It is for local authoritiesto decide on the level of resources to allocate to meet particular local prioritiesand needs. By the end of the current Spending Review, core funding to local governmentwill have increased by over £3 billion from 1999-2000. Overall Grant Aided Expenditure(GAE) provision for social work will have increased by almost £984 million overthe same period.

Councils already haveconsiderable flexibility to allocate resources from their aggregate budgets to meetlocal priorities, including child protection. Future funding for local governmentis being considered as part of the Spending Review.

As the answer to questionS3W-2152 on 9 August 2007, noted, the 2006 letters of assurance exerciseyielded assurances from chief officers that systems were working effectively toprotect vulnerable children, though detailed evidence was not consistent or systematic.The Scottish Government is currently assessing how best to progress the childrenaffected by substance misuse agenda to ensure the needs of all affected childrenare identified and met.

The responseswill be placed on the Scottish Executive website on Monday 13 August 2007 inthe child protection pages:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Young-People/children-families/17834.

InMarch 2006, the then Ministers for Justice, Health and Education wrote to ChiefOfficers in Scotland seeking assurances that systems were in place to ensurechildren affected by drug misuse could be consistently identified andinformation on the extent to which the needs of children adversely affected bydrug misuse had been assessed and met. While all respondents providedassurances that they were working effectively to protect vulnerable children,detailed evidence was not consistent or systematic. The Scottish government isassessing how to develop the agenda further to ensure that the needs of allchildren adversely affected by drug misuse are identified and met.

Informationon children affected by drug misuse by local authority and police force area isnot held centrally. The most recent estimate for Scotland is that up to 60,000 children under 16have a parent with a drug problem. Of these, it is estimated that between10,000 and 20,000 live with a drug using parent. These figures are calculatedusing a method which combines three sources: NHS National Services ScotlandInformation and Statistics Division (ISD) data, National Prevalence Studyfigures (Hay et al) and the Drug Outcome Research in Scotland study.