Protecting children and young people: Child Protection Committee and Chief Officer responsibilities

Appendix 2: Legal Context

The legal context for CPCs is to be found within the legislation set out below.

Children and Young People (Scotland) Act, 2014

Among a wide range of provisions aimed at "making Scotland the best place in the world for children to grow up", this Act establishes a structure for the integrated planning and delivery of all children's services in a local authority area.

Part 3 (Children's Services Planning) requires local authorities and health boards to take a strategic approach to the design and delivery of a wider view of services used by children and families than those previously set out in the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

Section 8 requires every local authority and its relevant health board to jointly prepare a Children's Services Plan for the area of the local authority, in respect of each three-year period.

A range of other relevant local and national bodies are expected to be either consulted with, or obliged to participate, at various stages of the development of the plan. The Act also requires the local authority and relevant health board to jointly publish an annual report detailing how the provision of children's services and related services in that area have been provided in accordance with the plan.

Children (Scotland) Act 1995

This Act sets out the duties of a local authority to publish information about services for children, provided by them for children in their area or which are provided for these children by other local authorities. They may also, where they consider it appropriate, publish information about services provided by voluntary organisations and by others (section 20).

The Act also permits the local authority to request help, in the exercise of their functions in children's services, from a range of persons specified and imposes an obligation on the person requested to provide help, unless where doing so would not be compatible with that person's own statutory or other duties (section 21).

Section 20 deals with the duties of a local authority to publish information about services for children, provided by them for children in their area or which are provided for these children by other local authorities.

Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015

Part 2 of the Act replaces community planning provisions in the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 and provides a statutory basis for Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs). Community Planning is a process that helps public agencies to work together and with the community to plan and deliver better services that make a real difference to people's lives. Part 2 came into force on 20 December 2016.

The purpose of community planning is improvement in the achievement of outcomes resulting from, or contributed to by, the provision of services delivered by or on behalf of the local authority or the persons listed in schedule 1.

Schedule 1 of the act lists all the bodies considered to be community planning partners of the local authority, including the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, NHS boards and any Integration Joint Board established by the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.

The CPP must prepare and publish a local outcomes improvement plan (LOIP) that sets out the local outcomes the CPP will prioritise for improvement.

Tackling inequalities will be a specific focus. They must also produce 'locality plans' at a more local level for areas experiencing particular disadvantage. All partners must take account of these plans in carrying out their functions and must contribute appropriate resources to improve the priority outcomes.

Participation with communities lies at the heart of community planning. CPPs must support community bodies to participate in all parts of the process, in the development, design and delivery of plans and in review, revision and reporting of progress.

Local Government in Scotland Act 2003

Part 3 of the Act deals with the power to advance wellbeing. This sits alongside community planning and allows a local authority to do anything to promote or improve the wellbeing of persons, either generally or a particular group within the authority's area.

Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014

This Act provides a legislative framework for the integration of health and social care services in Scotland. The Act removes community health partnerships from statute and places a duty on local authorities and NHS boards to integrate the governance, planning and resourcing of adult social care services, adult primary care and community health services, and some hospital services. A total of 31 health and social care partnerships (HSCPs) have been established, with a jointly agreed integration scheme for each setting out key arrangements for the integration of services.

The Act also allows for the integration of other areas of activity, such as children's health and social care services.