Tam's diary

I provided the keynote speech at the Edinburgh Early Years’ Conference with 150 participants.  This provided further refinement on the a RIGHT wee blether presentation which was well received..  I was pleased to meet Claire Warden, an independent consultant and founder of Mindstretchers http://www.mindstretchers.co.uk/ .  Claire is also the author of a publication on the rights of babies from 10 years ago which I was handed on my recent visit to East Ayrshire.

Cathy Begley and I met with four pupils from George Heriot’s School and discussed with them how they might approach Rights Respecting Schools award and where they could seek further advice.

I met with Sir Peter Housden, Permanent Secretary of the Scottish Government with Tim Barraclough,  Deputy Director, Children and Families in attendance.  I was given sufficient time to outline our Strategic Plan and highlight the key issues to be addressed to improve the lives of children and young people in Scotland.  I highlighted the three top issues of; the impact of cutbacks; child poverty; and early years implementation. 

I met with Professor Jane Aldgate, now retired, but keeping up an active interest in the issues of kinship carers. 

I addressed and handed out the awards at the launch of Donaldson’s School  DVDs highlighting issues around securing employment for pupils from the school, in particular preparation for interviews.  Angela Constance, Minister for Youth Employment provided the main address to the audience of 70 people, including 15 young people.

I provided the opening address to Glasgow Education Services Children and Young Peoples’ conference.  There were 120 pupils in attendance with around 50 teaching staff.  I was inspired by the participatory workshops hosted through the event, particularly the pupils from St Albert’s  and Pollokshields  who have formed a schools parliament, and Swinton Primary  for their work in Rights Respecting Schools

I spoke at the Legal Services Agency launch of their specialist service for children and young people in the refugee and asylum processes.  This is a very welcome addition to the range of services required by young people and it has been recognised for some time that there was a gap in terms of good quality legal advice available.  I look forward to future engagement.  I had an interesting discussion about how we might consider the increased use of human rights legislation for children and young people.

Katie Brown and I met with Hamira Khan, Director, Scottish Youth Parliament .  It was good to share views on issues and identify common ground, for instance voting for 16/17 year olds.  I expect further joint work to be undertaken once we have had the opportunity to meet with the SYP team. 

Katie Brown and I met with the new Director of Who Cares? Scotland, Duncan Dunlop.  This was a useful introductory meeting.  Duncan was particularly pressing the case for advocacy services for children and young people in care to be prioritised in the response to the recent consultation.

I met with Susan McGinnis, one of the founding members of the University of Strathclyde Counselling Service.  Susan informed that the future of the counselling service is dependent on a bidding process initiated by Glasgow Integrated Children’s Services.  Susan also informed of her latest work with children who have additional learning needs and her interest in developing this area of work

Nico Juetten and I met with Aileen Campbell , Minister for Children and Young People, Tim Barraclough (Deputy Director, Children and Families) was also in attendance.  The meeting acknowledged the work generated through the large number of responses to the consultation on the Rights of Children and Young People bill.  Scottish Government expects to be in a position to respond by mid April.

I met with Liz Ritchie, Common Purpose.  I found this a useful update on the work and opportunities provide through Common Purpose, and I am better informed for future reference.

I provided the keynote input to a conference, Youth in Crisis and Community Interventions.  The audience was a mixture of academics and practitioners gathered for a two day event.  In response to my address one of the delegates offered the view that ‘all this early years stuff is complete mumbo-jumbo’ and then went on to ask a question.  I challenged the assertion, and I cannot know if the view was exceptional, but it did make me think how far we have to travel in terms of winning the argument on early years, far less witnessing the shift in resources. 

I attended the Early Years’ taskforce meeting.  It is encouraging the group has spawned working groups to speed up progress and I will be interested to see the sharper focus this brings to the work.  I am co-chairing a sub-group with Sue Palmer considering how we can influence a cultural change in the approach of parents to the rearing and nurturing of their children.

I attended the Glasgow seminar launch of Alan Sinclair’s latest report, ‘The Case for early years’ engagement’  there were around 20 invited guests to hear Alan and discuss the findings and recommendations from his comparative study of early years provision and approaches in the Netherlands and Finland.

Katie Brown and I filmed with 8 members of the Scottish Youth Theatre as part of the feedback for a RIGHT blether.  It took all day to film and the young people did well to maintain their energy and enthusiasm throughout.

I provided introductory comments at the launch of the pilot for the Glasgow Children’s and Health and Wellbeing Indicators.  There were around 40 people in attendance, including 20 young people who were engaged in using the indicators and providing feedback to the Glasgow Centre for Population Health which has established the indicators. 

I addressed an audience of 120 nursery staff from East Ayrshire as part of their annual training programme.  This was the first outing of the initial results of a RIGHT wee blether  and the slides went down really well.  It will be interesting to develop this presentation as there is a real richness of material to report back.specially so when we have been able to more closely analyse the themes emerging from the returns.

I met with the Grampian NHS, chaired by Chief Executive, Richard Carey and Lorraine Currie, Child Health Commissioner was also in attendance.  I spent some time detailing the work of my office and the development of work areas; this was a useful and engaging session.  It was particularly useful in establishing links with the whole group and developing a better understanding of the work of the Child Health Commissioner.

I met with representatives of Relationship Scotland; Stuart Valentine (Chief Executive), Jim Steven (Board member), Isobel Bilsland (Scottish Borders Manager).  It was really useful to hear of the range of work of Relationship Scotland and their priority issues.  I was particularly interested in their work with Contact Centres and the link to the domestic abuse work stream.  It is worth noting that Relationship Scotland is keen to promote the development of their programme, Parenting Apart.   I was also able to inform them of my Strategic Plan and main work areas.

I chaired the UNCRC Incorporation Group.  The group noted the healthy response to the Scottish Government consultation on the proposed Rights of Children and Young People Bill.  There were a high number of responses, 123 in total; many were in support of incorporation of UNCRC, including several public bodies.  The group was aware that the Scottish Government is considering its response to the consultation.  While the implementation of the legislation will inevitably be a focus of attention’ it was agreed that the group will continue to take a wide perspective of incorporation beyond the bill proposals.

I attended the Helping Families Change Conference in Glasgow.  This event was attended by over 550 participants, consisting of 130 from overseas, and 120 from Glasgow.  This is an annual event hosted by a Triple P provider, offering an opportunity to learn from developments and exchange ideas. The workshops I attended provided inspirational feedback on developments of the implementation of Triple P in Glasgow with collaboration involving NHS, Education, Libraries and Glasgow Housing Association as well as the universities evaluating the work.

I visited the Royal High School, Edinburgh  to witness filming of children’s interaction with their teacher.  This will be used in two speaking engagements in Edinburgh to the Early Years Taskforce.  I will be interested to see the results and possibly return to the school.

I attended a Scottish Association for the Study of Offending (SASO) event focussing on knife crime – delivered by Keith Hardie, Lothian and Borders Police.  The event is one of a series of lectures and it was useful to hear of developments in this policy area in Edinburgh.

I spoke at an NSPCC event focussing on the rights of babies.  I shared a platform with Melanie Gill, Mindful Policy Group and Penelope Leach (publisher).  There was an audience of around 40 professionals involved in the field.  I received positive feedback and there was a most interesting discussion.

I visited Orkney NHS where I met with Marie O’Sullivan (Head of Children’s Services).  Marie and I had met previously although this was an opportunity for her to explain the organisation of children’s service in Orkney and how responsibilities are allocated.  Marie has responsibility for Children and Family Services, Criminal Justice Services and Primary Care.  The managers responsible to her are in the process of being re-organised.  Marie’s view was that children’s services had not been significantly affected by the cutbacks.

I later met with Sue Atkinson (Health Visitor), Vicki (School Nurse), Penny Martin (Paediatric physiotherapist) and Jackie Hirst (Maternity and Occupational Therapist).  We discussed a wide range issues, which included a useful suggestion with regard to how a Children’s Centre could be provided in a rural setting – a tour bus, apparently used elsewhere with some success.  We also discussed the implementation of Triple P in Orkney.

Cathy Begley and I visited Broughton High School.  I spoke to an assembly consisting of at least 170 pupils in 1st Year, who had been working on a theme of children’s rights.  This work involved all aspects of the curriculum – for instance, science, drama, English, history and more.  This was a really engaging visit and encouraging to see how adaptable application of rights are across the curriculum.

I met with Jim Martin, Scottish Public Service Ombudsperson.  Jim and I exchanged an update on relevant matters.  It was agreed that Stephen Grounds and I would meet further with members of the HR team at SPSO to progress more formal working relationship.