A NATIONAL POLICY aimed at helping children and young people grow, develop and reach their own potential has been adopted in Moray.
In the next few weeks children will be visiting their new nursery, school and classroom ahead of the new term in August – getting to know their new teachers and class mates.
The visits are part of the Getting it right for Every Child (GIRFEC) policy which aims to improve outcomes for children and their families based on a “shared understanding of their wellbeing”.
From August next year every child and young person will, until they reach the age of 18, have a “named person” to whom they can confide – that could be a health visitor, head teacher or guidance teacher.
Anyone who has a wellbeing concern about a child can also contact the named person who will work with the family to resolve their concerns.
Moray Council’s corporate director for education and social care, Laurence Findlay, said that the aim is effective partnership working with parents and carers: “We are committed to working with all parents and carers as well as our wider partners to ensure we all have a shared understanding of GIRFEC and the role and purpose of the Named Person service.
“Parents will be issued with information leaflets at key transition points to outline the purposes of the GIRFEC agenda and we hope this will raise everyone’s awareness of what we are hoping to achieve.”
The named person scheme was included in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act – but has brought controversy along the way, with a legal challenge to the plans lodged at the Court of Session last year.
Earlier this week a lawyer representing the Scottish Government conceded that there was no “opt-out” for the scheme – despite previous assurances that parents would be under no obligation to engage with the named person.
Further information on the Scottish Government plans can be found online.