Reintegration and transitions for young offenders: guidance

5. Getting It Right For Every Child ( GIRFEC) and young person

GIRFEC aims to improve outcomes for all children and young people. It is the foundation for work with all children and young people, including adult services where parents are involved. ⁴² It is best seen as an approach to developing service responses and coordinating those through systems and practice change.

It promotes a shared approach that:

• builds solutions with and around children and families;
• enables children to get the help they need when they need it;
• supports a positive shift in culture, systems and practice; and
• involves working together to make things better.

Its key components include: ⁴³

• a focus on improving outcomes for children, young people and their families based on a shared understanding of well-being;
• a common approach to gaining consent and to sharing information where appropriate;
• an integral role for children, young people and families in assessment, planning and intervention;
• a co-ordinated and unified approach to identifying concerns, assessing needs, agreeing actions and outcomes, based on the Well-being Indicators ⁴⁴ ;
• streamlined planning, assessment and decision-making processes that lead to the right help at the right time;
• consistent high standards of co-operation, joint working and communication where more than one agency needs to be involved, locally and across Scotland;
• a Lead Professional to co-ordinate and monitor multi-agency activity where necessary;
• maximising the skilled workforce within universal services to address needs and risks at the earliest possible time;
• a confident and competent workforce across all services for children, young people and their families; and
• the capacity to share demographic, assessment and planning information electronically within and across agency boundaries.

These components act as a checklist to consider whether the key elements of service delivery and coordination have been achieved.