In December 2010, the Scottish Government published The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland.| This guidance:
-
Includes a full revision of the previous national guidance ‘Protecting Children – A Shared Responsibility: Guidance on inter-Agency Co-operation (1998);
-
Incorporates the previous CPC Guidance – Scottish Executive (2005) - Protecting Children and Young People: Child Protection Committees; and
-
Takes account of all major child protection policy developments and/or legislative developments since 1998 – including policy developments from the Child Protection Reform Programme and Getting it Right for Every Child;
A briefing note| has also been developed to help staff and managers understand the key changes.
At the same time, Scottish Government also issued
National Guidance in relation to Under-age Sexual Activity: Meeting the Needs of Children and Young People and Identifying Child Protection Concerns|
Within the Falkirk Council area, the main guidance for all agencies involved in child protection is found in the Inter-Agency Child Protection Guidelines.| We are currently reviewing our Inter-Agency Child Protection Guidelines to comply with the National Guidance. In doing so, we have developed supplementary Forth Valley guidance for staff – Child Protection Case Conferences.|
Child protection is an evolving area as our understanding of risk to children changes with changes in society. The protocols, which work alongside the Inter-Agency Procedures, reflect this.