Executive lays out plans for child protection

First minister Jack McConnell outlined the next steps in the
government’s three year child protection programme,
writes Maggie Wood.

McConnell told the country’s second child protection summit in
Edinburgh that the government must intervene at every stage where a
child is at risk.

Measures include the publication of a children’s charter
written from a child’s perspective, and outlines what every
child expects from the adults that care for them.

Other measures include a tough new inspection regime to check
how an integrated system of child protection is working, a new
national framework for standards for child protection, and the
development of local child protection committees.

In addition £600,000 government funding to train social
workers, particularly those who work with children whose parents
abuse drugs or alcohol, was announced.

McConnell said: “Two years ago I said we had three years
to get our collective act together. Systems were failing and we
were letting down Scotland’s most vulnerable children. Today
we are taking very important steps to improve that
system.”

McConnell added that the government is responding to the
children’s charter, developed by Save the Children, with
eleven pledges to children and young people.

The
children’s charter