Getting it right for every child - GIRFEC For parents

If you live in Scotland, you will be aware of the current GIRFEC legislation, which brought into actualisation the legal definition of well being for children, and gave every child in Scotland a named person.
This particular legislation was not particularly popular and few parents were enthusiastic; though it is worth stating that nobody argues that all children deserve a high standard of care and that our future generation deserves the highest standard of wellbeing we can achieve.

Being well acquainted with GIRFEC is very important for parents, especially if you are parenting with safeguarding or child protection measures in place. Every meeting, every conference, assessment, and every child plan, will have this well being wheel as its guide. The entire children and families services are looking to ensure that every child is achieving in all aspects of the eight areas of wellbeing. 
Hence, as a parent, it is a valuable resource to be reading from he same page as the professionals. 
 So what is GIRFEC?

GIRFEC focuses on eight areas of wellbeing that are important for your child to grow and develop to reach their full potential. These are: 
  • Safe
  • Healthy 
  • Achieving
  • Nurtured
  • Active
  • Respected
  • Responsible
  • Included.
Whenever your child needs help or support, GIRFEC aims to make sure that both you and your child:
  • feel confident about the help being given
  • understand what is happening and why
  • are listened to carefully, with your wishes heard and understood
  • are appropriately involved in discussions and decisions that affect you 
  • can rely on appropriate help being available as soon as possible
  • experience a fair and co-ordinated response from staff.
Important elements of GIRFEC are:
  • By 2016 every child and young person aged 0-18 will have a named person - someone that you or your child can contact whenever you have any concerns or problems.
  • If at any time your child needs support from people in different professions and organisations (for example health and social work) as well as school staff, someone called a lead professional will be appointed to ensure that all the people supporting your child work well together.

    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2014/8/enacted


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