Getting It Right for Every Child
What is Getting it right for every child (Girfec)?
Every child and young person in Scotland has the right to play, to be healthy and
happy, to learn new things and to be looked after and nurtured – whether they live
at home or not. These rights are set out in the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child. This is an international law that seeks to make sure the voices
of children and young people are taken into account in families and children’s services.
The Scottish Government is committed to providing a consistent, supportive approach
for all Scotland’s children and their families. It’s called ‘Getting it right for
every child’ and is being used with families, nurseries, schools, health care, social
work, law enforcement, housing and some support services for adults. In fact as
a way of working it is designed to thread through all services and areas that involve
children and young people of any age.
Children and families say that what works best for them is co-ordinated support
when they need it, so that they are not passed around from one agency to another,
or having to repeat their story several times over. The Getting it right approach
helps make sure this happens.
Professionals need to work together to support families, and where appropriate take
early action at the first signs of any difficulty, rather than only getting involved
when a situation has already reached crisis point. This means working across organisational
boundaries and putting children and their families at the heart of decision making.
The Getting it right approach looks at eight areas of ‘well-being’. These are recognised
as areas in which children and young people need to progress in order to do well
now and in the future. They allow those responsible for the care and support of
children – including members of their own families – to look at a situation in a
structured way that will help them identify any needs and concerns and plan with
the child and family any action they need to take. The eight well-being indicators
are:
- Save
- Healthy
- Achieving
- Nurtured
- Active
- Respected
- Responsible
- Included
The approach gives a common language and a way to gather information about a child’s
world, making sure the child is developing, and has everything they need from the
people who look after them both at home and in the wider community.
This website is designed for children, young people, parents/carers and professionals
to promote the Getting it right for every child approach and give information to
improve outcomes for all.