Bringing up children: your views

So what's next…?

We hope you have found this magazine interesting. We are really grateful to the hundreds of you who took part. The messages highlighted within this magazine are just some of your views. We are going to use your feedback as a starting point to help us identify what we can do to support and empower parents and carers across Scotland.

Your feedback will help inform:

The Scottish Government's first National Parenting Strategy to be published in October 2012

This strategy will provide a response to your feedback and will set out what we think about parenting and what we are going to do.

Discussions with local partners (health, education, social work and voluntary sector)

There is lots of good work already under way, nationally and locally, and we will use your feedback as part of our discussions to look at ways of doing more of what works well to empower and support parents and carers across the country.

Getting it Right for children and families

You told us that what works best for you is co-ordinated support when you need it, so you are not passed around from one agency to another, or having to repeat your story over and over again. The Getting it Right approach helps make sure families get that co-ordinated support no matter who they are, or where they live. This means services working across organisational boundaries and putting children and their families at the heart of decision making.

Proposed legislation

Children, young people and their families can come into contact with many different agencies and services as they grow up, such as teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers, youth workers and so on. The Scottish Government is suggesting making it a legal requirement that every child and young person has access to a point
of contact - a 'Named Person' - from birth to the age of 18. This is to ensure we get it right for children and families across Scotland, that services work together and that support is better co-ordinated.

Where young people who are in need or are looked after are supported by different agencies and services, the Scottish Government is suggesting a legal requirement for these agencies to have a 'Single Child's Plan'. This will identify what support is needed from which agencies and pull it together into one single plan that takes account of all the child or young person's needs.

Early learning and childcare support - increasing hours and improving flexibility

We know from the feedback that childcare is an important issue for parents. The Scottish Government is therefore proposing to introduce in law an increase in the provision of early years support through greater flexibility and more free early learning and childcare (by raising this from 475 hours a year to a minimum of 600 hours) for every 3 and 4 year old and the most vulnerable 2 year olds.

If you wish to find out more information about the proposed legislation, have a look at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Young-People