These meetings are attended by Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Moray Councils and Grampian Police. The meetings are to ensure that the implementation and use of the IAF in each organisation is running in parallel.
Click here for link to "For Highlands Children" for more information about what is happening in the Highlands with relation to Integrated Assessment Framework.
May 2010
Moray's strategic Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) Group is a multi agency senior managers' group chaired by the Performance and Strategy Manager, Children and Families Services, and supported by the Getting it right for every child Development Officer. The Group reports to the SMARTER Theme Co-ordinating Group, one stream of Moray's Community Planning Partnership, represented by multi agency Heads of Service.
Moray is embedding the GIRFEC agenda through its Local Integrated Assessment and Planning (LIAP) Procedures for all agencies which work together in a multi agency way to meet the needs of children and young people. Following an extensive consultation period, the LIAP Procedures have been updated and reviewed in light of comments received. The 2010 Procedures have been in usage from 5 April 2010 and will continue to be monitored and reviewed in order to support best practice.
Moray's GIRFEC Group is supported in its work by a sub group for Training. A training calendar has been developed to ensure staff are fully trained and supported in the procedures and associated documentation. There is also a sub group for practitioners which is currently working on developing processes around business mapping and planning pathways. The next stage of practice being reviewed is that of 'Looked After Children'.
Moray's GIRFEC Development Officer liaises with professionals from other local authorities, including Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire, other authorities nationally, and Scottish Government to ensure the GIRFEC developments are influenced by, and influence, practice elsewhere.
For further information, please contact girfec@moray.gov.uk
Aberdeen City Addressing the GIRFEC Agenda
August 2008
Aberdeen City is about to embark on a 'Rollout Programme' involving all practitioners in Children's Services. The programme has the aim of ensuring that everyone involved with supporting children, young people and their families are using the single multi agency assessment and planning process within the same framework as required by the Government.
The City's integrated assessment and planning process has been developed and agreed by all the partner agencies including the social work and educational services of the City Council, Grampian Police, NHS Grampian and the Voluntary Sector. Throughout the development process strong links have been maintained with both Moray and Aberdeenshire Councils so that a consistent approach that will underpin the provision of appropriate services and the seamless transfer of information for children and families moving from one Council area to another has been achieved.
The framework is a tool that will assist in co-ordinating assessment processes across all services and agencies working with children and young people and their families. It aims to support professionals and develop joint working practices, reduce duplication and to help the delivery of positive outcomes for children, young people and their families, whilst ensuring that a child or young person is supported by one integrated multi agency plan that is regularly reviewed.
All the planning processes within children's services have been aligned and or incorporated into the framework, including Case Conferences, Care Planning and Educational Planning
Detailed Operational Guidance has been written. The operational guidance is seen as being a working document that will be reviewed and updated in the light of experience. The guidance is being circulated in both hard and electronic copy to all points of service delivery. It gives clear direction to those working with children and young people on how they should proceed to arrange the appropriate support for a child or young person when they become aware of an issue or a concern that requires support additional to that available through universal provision.
Locally all the work undertaken in response to GIRFEC has been aimed at ensuring that the child is central in any process. Work has focussed on developing and encouraging the replication of current 'best practice' where the risks, needs, resilience and protective factors of the whole child influence the response.
Consulting with children young people and their family and or carers has also been seen as critically important.
Throughout the development process, meeting the needs of the child or young person has been the central, ensuring that actions are outcome focussed and acknowledging that there are times when what is required is 'no action'.
We believe that our process will lead to a quality assurance framework, that will support self-evaluation, will enforce interagency responsibility for improving collaborative multi service support, involve less bureaucracy, and will be ready to respond positively to any outcomes from the development work of the Data Sharing Partnership.
Electronic Single Planning Tool
A great deal of work has been undertaken on the development of an electronic tool that will assist the process of multi agency assessment and planning for children. Stage one of the development project is now completed. A multi agency group were involved with the designer in the final stages helping with 'snagging' the programme and ensuring that it could meet the needs of those working in children's services so that children and young people would experience a more joined up coherent delivery of service. A number of comments and suggestions were received. These comments along with those received in the future will be collated and used to inform the development of the second phase of the work.
The planning tool will be ready for use when the 'Data Sharing Partnership' provides the means to share information securely across children's services.
This tool can be used immediately to help in the gathering and presentation of information for an assessment or when structuring in the information ready for analysis.
When the programme is 'live' hitting the 'print' option will deliver a document in report style ready for presentation to the Reporter to the Children's Panel Hearing, to a case conference or any other forum requiring a multi agency plan for a child or young person.
To support the integration of assessment and planning process an operational guidance document has been written and agreed by all the partner agencies and planning forums.
For further information contact:
Liz Moore
Tel : 01224 51238884
Email : Liz.moore@aberdeencity.gov.uk