Consultation - Children's Services Plan

Consultations have taken place to inform the development of Inverclyde’s virtual Children’s Services Plan. Inverclyde Council organised an event entitled ‘Nurturing Inverclyde – Getting the Connections Right” on 27th March 2014 to consult with professionals.  In addition, a series of workshops were held with young people that are looked after and accommodated and parents/carers.  The purpose of the consultation was to identify areas of good practice and areas where improvement is required. 

The following thirteen examples of good practice were identified from the analysis of feedback provided:

  • GIRFEC (Getting It Right for Every Child)
  • Special Needs Iin Pregnancy Service (SNIPs)
  • Looked after Children Services
  • Young Carers Services
  • Virtual Schools Approach as an addition to mainstream Education
  • Early Years Support for Children:  this is multi-agency with programmes to support Education, Psychology, Social Work and Health Services.
  • Early Years Collaborative.
  • Services to support the social and emotional health of children as well as their general health and wellbeing. 
  • Early Bird and Early Bird Plus support children and parents with autism, downs syndrome and associated issues.
  • Mentors in Violence Programme – an approach to addressing gender violence and bullying
  • Prison Services now involve families more with induction programmes for those entering prison and their families.
  • Book Bug – this project has good interaction with children.  It is well attended and goes into homes and develops good relationships with parent, helps build relationships and has a positive impact on communities.
  • Drop in sessions – Free play and resources at the drop in café for parents meets some needs of the community for pre 3 provision.  

The consultation highlighted the following areas where improvement could be made:

  • Formal communications between agencies and an alignment in priorities among different partner agencies. 
  • More strategic co-ordination possibly through the Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) or the Alliance Board.
  • Better engagement with young people and improved facilities for young people
  • Poverty and the damaging impact were seen as a major issue. 
  • Transition Gaps were identified for all children and young people as well as the Looked after population, transition issues
  • The need to develop a befriending service for young people. 
  • It was felt that the inequalities faced by Looked after Children (LAC) needs to be addressed.
  • The need for better local Maternity services and more Health Visitors.