Consulting with our Youngest Children Toolkit

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The Highland Child Protection Committee, Keeping Children Safe and Care and Learning Alliance are delighted to be launching the ‘Consulting with our Youngest Children Toolkit’.

As part of Scotland’s commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) every child in Scotland has the right to have their views heard and taken into account in decisions affecting them (Article 12) and to be protected from harm (Article 19).

Consultation with young children is more than just asking their views, it is about really listening to and responding to them.   It’s also about facilitating their ability to influence things that affect them and help adults to know and understand their concerns or worries through the child’s eyes enabling adults to help protect them from harm.

Consultation with children under 5 years of age can be a little challenging!  However, it’s vital we take time to enable children to communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings in ways best suited to their age and stage to ensure that we keep the child at the centre of all that we do.

We know that children need to feel secure, confident and familiar with their physical and psychological environments. Having a consistent approach to consulting with young children is more likely to help us gain a true understanding of the child’s world enabling us to plan to meet their needs effectively. 

The strategies in this tool can be used by adults working on an individual basis with a young child for a specific purpose or by adults who have significant contact with young children on a frequent basis embedding meaningful consultation in daily practice.

This tool will support you to engage in a fun playful way to enable young children to:

  • share their ideas and make choices
  • share their thoughts, feelings, likes, dislikes and worries
  • recognise their views matter
  • know they are listened to
  • support their sense of belonging
  • develop confidence and self-worth
  • develop their communication skills

The tool is ‘free’ to everyone and is available from our Care and Learning Alliance Website, Highland Child Protection Website and Keeping Children Safe websites.

Click here to access.

An e-book guidance document is also available to support implementation and for those seeking some further guidance on using the toolkit.

Click here to access

For further ideas and resources for consulting and keeping children safe visit:

Highland Child Protection Committee

Safe Strong and Free

Child Sexual Exploitation/Child Exploitation Awareness Day 2021

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In line with the 18th of March having been Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)/Child Exploitation (CE) Awareness Day 2021, Highland Child Protection Committee will be uploading a range of RISE (Reducing the Impact of Sexual Exploitation) and CPC resources to help services and communities identify and respond to CSE and CE in Highland. CLICK HERE

RISE Highlands is a new multiagency initiative to proactively identify & disrupt perpetrators. For further information CLICK HERE

The Scottish Government has also launched a Child Sexual Exploitation campaign with a website for young people and parents – CLICK HERE to access 

Everyone has a role to play in protecting children and young people however the signs of CSE aren’t always obvious and this can be a barrier to identifying young people that are at risk of being exploited. If you would like to know more try the free online module’ Introduction to Child Exploitation’ – developed in partnership between HCPC and CALA – https://calaelearning.co.uk/

Cyber Resilience COVID-19 Bulletin

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The Scottish Government Cyber Resilience Unit has released a new Cyber Resilience COVID-19 Bulletin. The bulletin shares important cyber security information. The Cyber Resilience Unit state that there is a “significant rise in COVID-19 related scams” and they aim to update the bulletin regularly.

Keep up to date with the most relevant information from the Scottish Cyber Resilience Unit by clicking here

A CALA news roundup: 5th June 2020

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Think you know neglect?

Think you know neglect?

Highland Child Protection Committee in partnership with ourselves here at CALA was delighted to launch the latest free e-learning module ‘Think you know neglect?’, which,  since launch 5 days ago has been accessed by 235 users and counting. Encouraging to see everyone working together to keep children safe as now more than ever, Child Protection is everyone’s responsibility.

Access the module at www.calaelearning.co.uk

Child Protection News Bulletin for Keeping Children Safe

Issue 8 of the Child Protection News Bulletin is published and includes important updates including a COVID-19 Statement from Highland Child Protection Committee, online safety, Health and Wellbeing information and much more. Click here to access under KCS Newsletters.

Foundation Apprenticeship: Children and Young People

We were absolutely delighted to welcome new Children and Young People Foundation Apprentices this morning albeit an online virtual session first session. Candidates have got off to a great start with some tasks set for next week to help consolidate learning from today and sessions set from now until the summer holidays.

If you would like to know more about our Foundation Apprenticeship: Social Services – Children and Young People course click here

Volunteer Scotland week

It is #VolunteersWeekScot this week and we would like to take the opportunity to thank all our 26 volunteers who work across the CALA services for their outstanding support and all that they do. THANK YOU from all at #TeamCALA

Family Information Pages

We have all had many weeks of living through the COVID-19 pandemic as safely and as positively as we can. With restrictions beginning to lift we still find ourselves faced with a lot of new information to process and new ways of living to adapt to.

To make this easier for you in some small way we continue to collate the information we hope you will find most useful in the one place, to help you and your family navigate through these unprecedented times.

 You will find a wealth of information on looking after you and your child’s mental health, tips on sleep routines, behaviour and play for children of different ages on parentclub.scot as well as the raft of information on these CALA pages.

Click here to access

Keeping Safe Online

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With many children and young people spending more time online, it’s comforting for parents/carers to know that you’re doing everything you can to help ensure they do so safely. Have a look at these useful guides providing helpful information to help you keep children and young people of all ages safe online:

Internet matters 0 – 5 years,

Internet matters 6 – 10 years,

Internet matters 11 – 13 years and 14+ 

Parent guide

Click here to access the resources on our ‘Child Protection Useful Publications’ page under ONLINE SAFETY

Keeping children safe – Child Protection

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The protection of children is still a KEY priority and RESPONSIBILITY of everyone through the changing landscape of services necessary to address the COVID-19 spread.

As always, if you are concerned about a child or young person it is important to speak to a professional as soon as possible using the following:

  1. If you are worried that a child is at immediate risk of harm, phone the Police on 999 without delay
  2. If you are worried that a child may be at risk of harm, please visit http://hcpc.scot/professionals  for a local contact number
  3. If you are worried that a child may be at risk of harm and it is out with office hours, phone 08457 697284

Where can I get further information on keeping children safe?

  • Care and Learning Alliance website – Child Protection – useful information tab and websites and video tab – quick and easy access to information, guidance and tools.
  • Highland Child Protection Committee – help and advice, resources and training.
  • calaelearning.co.uk – access to FREE short format certificated e-learning modules in partnership with the Highland Child Protection Committee to keep children safe
    • Introduction to Child Protection
    • Children Affected by Parental Substance Misuse
    • An Introduction to Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)
    • Understanding the Child’s Plan
    • What Makes a Good Chronology?

Child Protection – policy and practice fit for purpose?

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Are you involved in a Community Group or Third Sector Organisation and keen to ensure your Child Protection Policy is appropriate and robust to help keep children safe? Then the Highland Child Protection Committee’s Child Protection Policy and Toolkit for Community Groups and Third Sector Organisations is for you!

The toolkit contains a range of helpful guidance and templates including a Safeguarding self-evaluation tool. The policy and guidance are free to access and can be downloaded from www.hcpc.scot or https://www.careandlearningalliance.co.uk/useful-publications/

CALA members can access the CALA Child Protection Policy and Safe Recruitment Policy via the CALA memberzone https://www.careandlearningalliance.co.uk/membership/

Highland Child Protection Committee – Seminar Event

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Seminar – What does ‘mental health’ mean for children and families?

30th January 2020

Smithton-Culloden Free Church, 1 Murray Road, Inverness

10am-4pm 

This free one-day seminar being offered by Highland Child Protection Committee aims to bring together knowledge and experience in relation to mental health issues affecting adults and children/young people. The event aims to help practitioners better understand different mental health issues and disorders and the impact these can have on families and individuals. Practitioners will have an opportunity to consider their responses and how we can work most effectively in partnership with children, young people and parents/carers.

The event will be beneficial for:

  • Social Workers
  • Police
  • Health Visitors
  • Early Years Practitioners
  • Family Nurse Practitioners
  • Children’s Service Workers
  • Youth Action Team
  • Head Teachers/Deputes/Guidance Staff
  • Housing Staff
  • Third Sector

Click here for full details and how to apply

Child Sexual Exploitation

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The ‘Upstream Project ‘by Stop it Now (UK & Ireland) was launched yesterday in Scotland. ‘Stop it Now UK & Ireland!’ is a project solely to tackle child sexual abuse. Their new ‘Upstream Project’ has been set up in Scotland to provide practical advice to anyone worried about the abuse of a young person and also includes help for anyone “worried about their own thoughts, feelings or behaviour towards children”.

Visit the ‘STOP IT NOW  – Upstream Project’ to learn more.

Sadly, CSE is a significant issue for children and young people in the UK and is more prevalent and widespread than you may think. This is in part due to the ever-growing use of technology in our communications. If you would like to be better informed about the subject of Child Sexual Exploitation, you may find our ‘Introduction to Child Sexual Exploitation’ e-learning module useful.

The ‘free’ module is therefore highly relevant for anyone working with children, young people and families and will provide a comprehensive introduction to this challenging subject

Click here to access ‘Introduction to Child Sexual Exploitation’

Safety Concerns are raised about the ‘Tik Tok App’

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TikTok (formerly called Musical.ly) is a social media platform that lets you create, share and discover 15-second videos. You can use music and effects to enhance your videos and you can also browse other people’s videos and interact with them.

This app has recently been a focus in the news, highlighting some safety concerns about ‘users’ privacy’ etc.

Read the article from BBC News, published 7/11/19

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50319690

Further information about app can be found on the NSPCC Net Aware website

CHILDREN’S HEARINGS: PRIVACY, CONFIDENTIALITY & PARTICIPATION

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Who Cares? Scotland- Children’s Hearings: privacy, confidentiality & participation

Take control: Make your voice 

 

Who Cares? Scotland has been commissioned by The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration to find out how privacy affects young people and their parents and carers’ participation in the Children’s Hearings System.

They aim to:

  • understand the impact of privacy and confidentiality on participation in the Children’s Hearings System
  • understand the relationship between advocacy and privacy and confidentiality 
  • find out how to improve communication in the Children’s Hearings System

Whether you have attended a children’s hearing as a child, young person or a parent, carer or foster carer, they would like to hear from you.

You can choose to take part by either: 

SCRA Workshop – information & consent