Assessment of wellbeing - draft statutory guidance: consultation

Statutory Guidance – Assessment of Wellbeing

This Statutory Guidance is for practitioners and managers to embed Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) into their everyday practice. This guidance should be read in conjunction with the Scottish Government's GIRFEC Policy Statement, which refreshes our GIRFEC Values and Principles, and the Core Components of the approach.

The Practice and Statutory Guidance series are designed to provide further information on the key roles of GIRFEC, Assessment of Wellbeing, more detail on how to use the National Practice Model and guide our practice in Information Sharing to provide clarity and confidence.

The Practice Guidance

Practice Guidance 1. The role of the Named Person

Practice Guidance 2. The role of the Lead Professional

Practice Guidance 3. Using the National Practice Model

• Improving outcomes using the Wellbeing Indicators
• Gathering information with the My World Triangle
• Analysing information with the Resilience Matrix

Practice Guidance 4. Information Sharing

The Statutory Guidance

Assessment of Wellbeing – Part 18 (section 96) of Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014

This draft guidance was co-produced with a range of colleagues across local authority areas, health boards, the third sector and national organisations. Its development stemmed from a commitment made by the Deputy First Minister in September 2019. While much progress had been made prior to the pandemic, the more recent updates have purposefully reflected our current landscape.

With the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as its foundation, GIRFEC provides Scotland with a consistent framework and shared language for promoting, supporting, and safeguarding the wellbeing of children and young people. Getting it right for every child is based on evidence, is internationally recognised and is an example of a child rights-based approach. It is locally embedded and positively embraced by practitioners across children's services, changing culture, systems and practice for the benefit of children, young people and their families.^[1] However more needs to be achieved as we work towards #KeepingThePromise, and to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of all children in Scotland.

The refreshed values and principles of GIRFEC we want to fully embed and implement are:

• placing the child and family at the centre, and promoting choice, with full participation of children and families in decision-making;
• working in partnership with families to enable a rights-respecting, strengths-based, inclusive approach;
• understanding wellbeing as holistic and interconnected, with a child's developmental experiences understood within the wider context and influences of family, community and society;
• valuing diversity and ensuring non-discrimination;
• equitably tackling multiple and intersecting forms of inequality;
• shifting resources and support towards providing an early offer of support to improve outcomes for children, young people and families; and,
• joint working in a culture of co-operation and communication between practitioners and services, both locally and nationally across Scotland.