Child Protection Guidance 2021

Part 4: Specific support needs and concerns 215 National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 Version 1.0 September 2021 Child protection themes The themes that have been recurrent in this Guidance may be summarised as follows: 1. Attention to the child’s needs, rights, voice and experience is fundamental. This requires recognition of risk of harm to a child; risk of harm to others from a child; and recognition of the context in which such risks occur. 2. Recognition and engagement with family entails attention to the needs, strengths, perspective and experience of those family members who are key to the child’s safety and wellbeing. 3. Information sharing that is protective must be relevant, proportionate, accurate, timely, necessary, and lawful. 4. Multi-disciplinary assessment of risk and strength should be structured and formed in collaboration between professionals, child and family. It should include analysis of what needs to change to prevent harm to the child, through the consideration of the interaction of factors that may help or hinder change. 5. Co-ordinated and collaborative planning requires agreed steps, expectations, responsibilities, outcomes, supports and timescales. Strength-based approaches may assist in bringing professionals and family together in shared objectives. 6. Practical help that is responsive to need also involves qualities in professional relationship, including reliability, honesty, respect, care, accessibility and encouragement. 7. Workforce: effective child protection depends on sufficient training in core knowledge, skills and values applicable to role, the supervision, support and leadership that sustains ethical practice, and a learning culture that integrates learning from mistakes.