Community Planning Partnership
The Community Planning Partnership is the formal mechanism for Community Planning in East Ayrshire and our Community Plan is the sovereign planning document that sets out our partnership's shared vision for the future.
‘We want to ensure that each child in East Ayrshire, including those who are not yet born have the best start in life. Therefore our commitment to children and young people, their families and carers is to provide them with the support they need, when and where they need it in order to help them achieve their aspirations and potential.’
Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership
Role and remit of the Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership
The Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership (C&YPSP) was established in 2015, following the restructuring of the Council and the establishment of the East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership.
The Partnership includes representation from: the local authority (early years; education; housing and communities, corporate policy); the East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership (social work, health visiting; school nursing; adult services and planning & performance); NHS Ayrshire and Arran (midwifery, specialist services); North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS); Police Scotland; Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration SCRA); the Third Sector; Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and Ayrshire College.
Reporting directly to the Community Planning Partnership Board, the role and remit of the Partnership is to:
- recommend to the Community Planning Partnership Board, the strategic priorities for children and young people’s services in East Ayrshire
- develop and monitor the implementation of the Integrated Children and Young People’s Service Plan and the Community Plan as it relates to children and young people
- ensure effective performance management and continuous improvement through self-evaluation; taking into account existing arrangements
- co-ordinate inspection of children’s services on behalf of the Community Planning Partnership Board
- further promote integrated practice in relation to children and young people
- further promote the integration of resources in relation to children and young people
- support the shift of resources towards early intervention and prevention
- ensure the effective co-ordination in the commissioning of children and young people’s services
- address barriers to information sharing in relation to children and young people
- lead and contribute to multi-agency developments and initiatives in respect of children and young people and
- ensure workforce planning takes into account all of the above.
Child Protection Committee
The Child Protection Committee (CPC) is a strategic partnership with its membership made up of senior officers and staff from; East Ayrshire Council; NHS Ayrshire and Arran; East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership; Police Scotland; Scottish Children’s Reporters Administration; Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service; Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Third Sector
CPC members provide the views of their respective agencies or services, have delegated authority to make strategic and operational decisions and in addition, can provide a vehicle to ensure issues raised with them by members of the public or during community engagement activities, are brought to the attention of the committee.
The purpose of the Child Protection Committee in East Ayrshire is clarified in the following definition:
“Child Protection Committees are locally-based, inter-agency strategic partnerships responsible for the design, development, publication, distribution, dissemination, implementation and evaluation of child protection policy and practice across the public, private and wider third sectors in their locality and in partnership across Scotland. Their role, through their respective local structures and memberships, is to provide individual and collective leadership and direction for the management of child and direction for the management of child protection services across Scotland. They work in partnership with their respective Chief Officer’s groups and the Scottish Government to take forward child protection policy and practice across Scotland.”
(National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2014).
The core functions of the East Ayrshire Child Protection Committee (EACPC) relate to:
- Strategic planning
- Continuous improvement
- Public information and communication
The Committee operates within the framework of the original guidance on the operation of child protection committees in Scotland (Scottish Executive, 2005), and as revised in the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2014).
To enable the committee to fulfil these responsibilities, the following specific responsibilities have been agreed:
- to ensure there is effective collaboration, communication and co-operation between members of the Child Protection Committee, its Sub Groups and other groups involved in protecting people
- to identify opportunities for sharing knowledge, skills and learning across agencies and with other Protection Committees both locally and nationally
- to ensure member agencies develop, implement, disseminate and regularly review and monitor policies, procedures and guidance, which enhance child protector practice
- to ensure effective performance management, quality assurance and self-evaluation processes are maintained and given due regard to: maximise learning; improve processes; promote best practice; inform strategic planning and create better outcomes for children
- to ensure multi-agency learning and development opportunities are relevant, current, fit for purpose, providing child protection training opportunities for all staff who may be able to impact positively on the protection of children
- to identify the need for Significant Case Reviews, to undertake them, to learn from them and to disseminate learning from them across agencies
- to ensure the work of the Committee is promoted in local media, providing a useful signposting service to benefit children, young people and their families/carers
- to produce an Annual Report, outlining achievements; progress against key priorities and performance
- to ensure Child Protection Committee Plans and priorities are based on analysis and evidence, whilst reflecting local needs and national priorities
- to actively seek the views and engagement of children, young people and families to inform the work of the Committee in respect of strategy, services, guidance, procedures and publications.
The Child Protection Committee is an inter-agency strategic partnership between:
The Partnership is responsible for the design, development, publication, distribution, dissemination, implementation, embedding and evaluation of all child protection policy and practice across the public, private and wider voluntary/third sectors.
Children and Young People’s Service Planning
East Ayrshire produce a Children and Young People's Service Plan in accordance with the statutory guidance issued by the Scottish Government on Part 3 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.
Full information and our current Plan for Children and Young People can be found on our Children and Young People’s Plan 2020-23 pages.
The Promise
Since 2020, Scotland has committed to a promise to care experienced children and young people that they will grow up loved, safe, and respected.
It follows an independent care review that concluded with a report called The Promise and a plan for 2021-2024.
Find out more about how we are working with our care experienced community to keep ‘The Promise’ in East Ayrshire at East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership: Our promise to children and young people.