Protecting Scotland's children and young people: it is still everyone's job

Acknowledgements

There are many people to thank for their assistance with the work of this Review.

The considerable commitment of time and expertise by the members of the Review Group cannot be underestimated and was invaluable.

They shared their own well-informed views throughout the Review frankly: identifying what is working well, what needs to be improved and how to achieve that.

Their canvassing of emerging findings and recommendations with colleagues, and contacts across their professional networks meant that the Review engaged with a rich cross section of all those currently involved with child protection work in Scotland.

We also learned much from the professionals who invited us to attend their meetings and conferences to hear of their work and gather their observations on the system.

The insight around international child protection approaches which Dr Sharon Vincent provided was particularly appreciated by the Review Group; as was the generous assistance given by Dr Vincent and a wider network of child protection experts who provided peer-review of the papers drafted for consideration at our meetings.

The high quality of these papers and overall support to the Group came from CELCIS in the form of Dr Louise Hill and her colleagues, who facilitated our deliberations and provided IT and administrative support, all of which made possible the examination of the evidence and delivery of this Report and Recommendations within such short timescales.

The Review Group hope that the recommendations are helpful to all those involved in working to keep children and young people safe in Scotland.

Catherine Dyer
Independent Chair
March 2017