Getting It Right for Every Child (GIRFEC)3 seeks to improve the wellbeing of all children and is a key foundation for all action with children and families. Wellbeing is characterised by the following eight indicators and all services must play their part in making sure that children and young people are:
Safe: protected from abuse, neglect or harm at home, at school and in the community.
Healthy: having the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health, access to suitable healthcare, and support in learning to make healthy and safe choices.
Achieving: being supported and guided in their learning and in the development of their skills, confidence and self-esteem at home, at school, and in the community.
Nurtured: having a nurturing place to live, in a family setting with additional help if needed or, where this is not possible, in a suitable care setting.
Active: having opportunities to take part in activities such as play, recreation and sport which contribute to healthy growth and development, both at home and in the community.
Respected: having the opportunity, along with carers, to be heard and involved in decisions which affect them.
Responsible: having opportunities and encouragement to play active and responsible roles in their schools and communities and where necessary, having appropriate guidance and supervision and being involved in decisions that affect them.
Included: having help to overcome social, educational, physical and economic inequalities and being accepted as part of the community in which they live and learn.
The approach puts the child and family firmly at the centre of planning and action and seeks to build solutions with and around them. GIRFEC applies to all children, whatever their level of need, and to all services. Holistic, streamlined planning, assessment and decision making processes which lead to the right help at the right time to address children’s need and risks are at the heart of the approach. The emphasis is on improving outcomes. Other elements of the GIRFEC approach are common values, information sharing, risk assessment models and the development of a lead professional role.
A GIRFEC approach requires effective working arrangements between staff who work with children, a single system of assessment and access to one record for each child. Where action to support children involves multi-agency activity, there should be one integrated plan and, ideally, the child and family should be involved in its development and implementation. These practices should become embedded within services and should be taken into account when making evaluations on how well services met the needs of looked after children and young people.
Curriculum for Excellence4 aims to enable all of Scotland’s children to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. Children’s wellbeing is a necessary requirement for this to be achieved. It is clear that a collaborative approach will be most successful in addressing this aim and it is expected that the full range of professionals working with children will be familiar with it and contribute to achieving it.