Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC): child's plan - practice statement

1. Background

The Scottish Government’s ambition is to work together with children, young people, families, organisations and communities to make Scotland the best place for each and every child to grow up.

Through Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC), everyone in Scotland can work together to build the scaffold of support children and young people need to grow up loved, safe and respected so that they reach their full potential. We want all children and young people to live in an equal society which enables them to flourish, to be treated with kindness, dignity and respect, and to have their rights upheld.

GIRFEC provides Scotland with a consistent framework and shared language for promoting, supporting, and safeguarding the wellbeing of children and young people. Through a common understanding of wellbeing, we recognise that children and young people need to grow up safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included, so that they can become confident individuals, effective contributors, successful learners and responsible citizens.

GIRFEC is an evidence-based, internationally recognised and child-rights-based approach. It is locally embedded and positively embraced by organisations, services and practitioners across Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs), with a focus on changing culture, systems and practice to improve outcomes for babies, infants, children, young people and their families.

The non-statutory child’s plan within GIRFEC remains an important part of how children’s and related services can work in a co-ordinated way to support the wellbeing of children, young people and their families. This practice statement reflects the relationship and alignment between statutory and non-statutory plans, and legislative and policy developments such as the Scottish Government’s commitment to incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) within the limits of devolved competence into Scots law as soon as practicable, the rights of siblings (and those of a similar relationship) to be placed together and to have contact where appropriate, and our work to Keep the Promise in response to change programme one.