| Title |
Cherishing our Families Strategy 2023-2026 - Supporting the prevention and reduction of child neglect in East Ayrshire |
| Lead officer(s) |
Charles Rocks |
| Telephone number |
|
| Email address |
charles.rocks@east-ayrshire.gov.uk |
| Date summary created |
25 Mar 2024 |
| Date assessment completed |
19 Mar 2024 |
| Summary of policy aims |
The aim of this document is to set out the strategic aims and objectives of East Ayrshire's approach to preventing and reducing child neglect across the community. This includes working within the approach of the HEART model to ensure that issues are addressed holistically and in a family context, and to also pull together all the work happening across the CYPSP to reflect consistent ways of working to tackle the issue of neglect. This will help us to improve outcomes for children, young people and families in East Ayrshire. |
| Key issues |
The strategy has been reviewed several times and updated to reflect feedback. In earlier drafts of the strategy, some of the language was seen as having negative connotations. This has been amended to ensure the language reflects the supportive approach we are taking in the strategy. |
| Summary of involvement with Groups |
Extensive engagement took place to develop the HEART wellbeing model. In order to ensure that a future model would begin with the experience of families, two main strands of listening and exploration took place. The aim was to reach families who had used a range of children's services in order to understand their experiences and journeys from their perspective.
The key themes from the engagement that took place have been used to inform this strategy. Children and young people's responses made clear that they valued family above all else in their lives. Parents and carers similarly spoke above all about the importance of family. Their responses particularly highlighted the need for social bonds and community. The overwhelming theme in responses from professionals was the importance of building up positive trust-based relationships with children and families.
To gather further feedback on the draft Strategy, a survey was created and published for a period of 4 weeks. There were 142 responses to the survey. The respondents were broken down into 39% members of the public, 60% were members of staff and 1% of elected members. Feedback on the draft strategy was positive with respondents agreeing that the voice of the child and support for families are at the centre of the strategy. |
| Key recommendations |
The Cherishing our Families Strategy will be sit with the GIRFEC group for implementation. Progress reports will be provided to the Children and Young People`s Strategic Partnership. |