Scotland's children's services plans 2023-2026 review: improving outcomes for children, young people and families

10. Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC)

This chapter discusses how Children’s Services Plans have demonstrated they are working across partners to embed Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) at every level (strategic planning, operational service delivery, frontline practice).

GIRFEC (Criterion 8)

Children’s Services Planning Partnerships have a collective responsibility to provide strategic oversight of local multi-agency implementation of Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC), ensuring a joined-up approach to support children and families living in their area.

In 2022, the Scottish Government updated its GIRFEC practice guidance, as well as a refreshed policy statement to set out key values principles, and ambitions. Getting it right for every child lies at the heart of all policy development and service delivery with an impact on wellbeing of children and families; it states that it is everyone’s responsibility to work together to build the scaffold of support children and young people need to grow up loved, safe and respected so they reach their full potential.

A total of 23 Children’s Services Plans fully met this criterion for 2023-2026; four fewer than the previous review. In both reviews, all CSPs either fully or partially met this criterion (Figure 10.1).

The Children’s Services Plans which fully met this criterion frequently referred to the GIRFEC approach throughout and included specific sections describing local GIRFEC practice. Although it was rare for all aspects of GIRFEC to be explicitly referenced in CSPs, all those fully achieving this criterion referred to a range of GIRFEC related practice and initiatives, including wellbeing indicators (SHANARRI), audit and self-evaluation activity, Named Person and Lead Professional. Many also dedicated specific sections to workforce training and development opportunities showing how the CSPP was using their Children’s Services Plan to embed a partnership approach to support a competent and confident workforce.

Seven Children’s Services Plans only partially achieved this criterion; these CSPs did not provide sufficient detail on the local GIRFEC approach to fully meet this criterion. For instance, one plan stated that GIRFEC would be embedded in practice and information sharing. However, this was the only explicit reference to it, other than a link made under a national policy drivers section.

Commonly mentioned aspects included the GIRFEC national practice model (23), Wellbeing (SHANARRI) (21), audit and self-evaluation activity (19), holistic family support (18), multi-agency strategic arrangements or practitioner forums (15) and workforce development (22). SHANARRI wellbeing indicators were often mapped against specific actions, strategic priorities and progress measures.

Less frequently mentioned aspects of GIRFEC were the Child’s Plan or Child/Young Person’s Plan (11), Named Person (7), Lead Professional (6), the My World Triangle (5), the Team Around The Child (5) and the Resilience Matrix (4).

Examples of good practice

Aberdeenshire: GIRFEC Thematic Groups lead on the delivery of actions under each of the CSPP’s strategic priorities. Page 12 discusses how Aberdeenshire has implemented GIRFEC self-evaluation activity. Aberdeenshire has also created the ‘GIRFEC Portal’, an online toolkit with training and professional e-learning resources on a range of GIRFEC-related topics including local GIRFEC operational guidance on different aspects of GIRFEC practice; Child Protection; Early Years; and Mental Health and Wellbeing.

West Lothian: The Children’s Services Plan highlights that GIRFEC is one of the policies that underpins its vision and that it is a theme that runs through all its priorities. It is highlighted that organisations, services and practitioners across Children’s Services Planning Partnerships ‘positively embrace’ GIRFEC, with a focus on changing culture, systems and practice. A multi-agency GIRFEC group has been established to embed the refreshed guidance locally and to aid understanding of the role and function of child planning meetings. West Lothian’s priorities have been aligned to the Scottish Government’s Core Wellbeing Indicators as well as the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators and articles of the UNCRC.

East Dunbartonshire: The Children’s Services Plan has a stated aim to develop a routine questionnaire to gather feedback on family experience of Team Around the Child meetings to evaluate their impact and value.

Edinburgh: The Children’s Services Plan provides background information about the GIRFEC framework, including discussion of the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators. Edinburgh’s approach to supporting children and young people involves completing a GIRFEC whole family assessment using a partnership agreed assessment tool, and providing either a single agency response or coordinating a child’s plan and a team around the child and family. There is also an aim to strengthen GIRFEC practice and information sharing to support prevention and early intervention.

Scottish Borders: The national context section provides background information about GIRFEC and its relevance to children’s services planning in the Scottish Borders. The Children’s Services Plan confirms that Scottish Borders’ approach is rooted in wellbeing and the national GIRFEC framework, and shows how the priorities and actions laid out in the plan will contribute to the achievement of GIRFEC wellbeing outcomes. The CSP also discusses the importance of self-evaluation and relationship-based practice approaches. In addition, each strategic priority of the Children’s Services Plan is mapped against relevant aspects of wellbeing (using SHANARRI).

Additional Policy and Engagement Context

The Scottish Government has published a series of GIRFEC policy and practice guidance and GIRFEC Child’s Plan Practice Statement to provide practitioners and professionals with the confidence, clarity, and practical support to continue to embed the 'Getting it right for every child' approach across children’s and related services. The statement reflects the relationship and alignment between statutory and non-statutory plans and clarifies the roles and responsibilities of practitioners involved with the development and monitoring of a non-statutory GIRFEC Child’s Plan, including the implementation of Article 12 of the UNCRC to ensure that children and young people take part in and influence decisions on issues which affect them.

The Scottish Government’s GIRFEC Learning Network provides a forum in which effective practice can be shared between ‘Getting it right for every child’ leads across Scotland, offering a professional space where practitioners and leaders can identify common challenges with implementation of the values and principles of GIRFEC, and consider how these can be overcome. This is a crucial consideration for local collective leadership of Children’s Services Planning arrangements, with action to embed GIRFEC across partners as a core statutory criteria for every Children’s Services Plan.