Tam's diary

I met with David Hunter, Scottish Government.  The purpose of the meeting was to discuss upper the age range for GIRFEC proposals.  I offered the view that it should be more firmly embedded in children’s services before considering a reach of potentially up to 25 years.

I visited Linwood High School.  I spoke to a group of 35 pupils on issues of my role, children’s rights and education.  I was invited to speak as a result of addressing senior pupils in Renfrewshire at an event organised by the Provost.  Linwood High is one of the schools I attended as a pupil, so it was an unusually personal visit for me.

Máire McCormack and I met with the Fife Health Board, chaired by James McGoldrick.  I was introduced to the meeting by Susan Manion, Child Health Commissioner with NHS Fife.  This was a special development meeting of the Board and it was an excellent opportunity to address 30 senior members of the Board, outline the key elements of the Strategic plan and to discuss issues of mutual interest with the Board members. 

 I attended the first meeting of the Early Years Taskforce Delivery Group, chaired by Mike Foulis, Scottish Government.  This group is meant to have an overarching responsibility to ensure the work of the Taskforce is on track and progressing on what it set out to achieve. 

I met with Stephen McCrossan, EIS to prepare for my input to the Fringe event at the annual conference of EIS in Dundee.

I met with Tim Barraclough for further discussion on the approach to legislation on children and young people, considering the future role of the Commissioner.

I provided a keynote input to the launch of Realising Ambition - a BIG lottery national funding stream in London.  There are some recipients of the award in Scotland who were present at the event ,for instance the Children’s Parliament.  I was pleased to be invited to this national event and able to give examples from my previous experience relevant to the occasion and the theme of rising to the challenge of realising young people’s hopes and aspirations.

I provided the opening address to the MedicaCPD Mental Health Conference, attended by 250 delegates from a wide range of professions, with an encouraging proportion from education.  I focussed my input on the collective messages from a RIGHT blether and a RIGHT wee blether.  There was a very interesting question enquiring as to the potential follow up to a RIGHT wee blether by focussing on 0-2 year olds  and my response was that I am interested in exploring this further.

Nico Juetten and I met with Mike Russell (Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning), Aileen Campbell (Minister for Children and Young People), Tim Barraclough and Scott Wood. The meeting confirmed the government intentions to amalgamate the Rights of Children and Young People Bill and the proposed Children’s Services Bill into a single Children and Young People’s Bill.   The stated intention remains strengthening children’s rights in legislation and there is still some way to go to establish the most effective way to achieve this. 

I visited Shetland to meet with key NHS Shetland personnel, including Ralph Roberts (Chief Executive), Sarah Taylor (Child Health Commissioner), Kathleen Carolan (Director of Nursing, Midwifery and AHPs), Sheila Fraser (PHN Development Manager), Kate Kenmure (Consultant Midwife), Elizabeth Robinson (Health Improvement Manager), Marc Beswick (Children’s Occupational Therapist), Clare Stiles (Team Leader, Child Health), Julie Kidson (CAMHs nurse), Gemma Passmore (Children’s Physiotherapist).  I outlined my Strategic Plan covering all areas of work.  The following points were discussed: concerns over identifying children living with domestic abuse; the nature of rural poverty; concerns around home educated children; issues of bullying for children; and a local initiative focussed on children with disabilities.  There was a useful discussion on the Early Years work, covering health visitors, parenting programmes (Triple P,and Mellow Parenting), the limitations of applying Family Nurse Partnership in rural communities, and the challenges of Family Centres/Playbus in island communities.  It is clear that while there are advantages in working in small communities, the challenges of rural sparsely populated areas are significant and can even rule out specific models as evidenced by the exclusion of Family Nurse Partnership in Shetland.

I was the keynote speaker at the annual conference child minders in North, East and South Ayrshire with a total of 150 delegates attending.  I had an excellent time covering the early years key points and a chance to thank participants for promoting a RIGHT wee blether.  I gave some feedback through the delightful images and things children told us during a RIGHT wee blether.

We launched the feedback for a  RIGHT wee blether  through a GLOW meet hosted in Eyemouth Primary School Nursery.  There were 12 children taking part with 10 nurseries participating around Scotland.  At least 120 children were involved,  it was great fun and as always, grateful to Jen at Education Scotland for the support.

I provided the closing comments at the launch of the latest publication of the Growing Up in Scotland surveys with an audience of 120 participants.  This data adds important information to our understanding of early years in Scotland and it was a pleasure to be invited to contribute.

I visited the North East Prisoners After Care Society (NEPACS) based in Durham.  I was invited to deliver their annual lecture and they hosted a series of meeting and discussions on our common interest in children of prisoners and improvements in service responses for them.  As a result I visited the family visitors centres in YOI Low Newton, Frankland and Durham prisons.  The model has been developed over a long period of time and the organisation is well integrated to the management of the prisons.  120 people attended the lecture on the topic of children of prisoners, followed by an informal reception.

I met with John Burns (Chief Executive), Jim Carle (Child Health Commissioner), Dr Carol Davidson (Director of Public Health) and Joanne Sharp (Healthcare Manager), all NHS Ayrshire and Arran.  The meeting initially focussed on issues of potential legislative changes and the need for more streamline funding of children’s services, whilst avoiding prescriptive structural changes.  There was an acknowledgement of the importance of the role of health visitors and the need to implement evidence based practice for early years developments,  they are currently funding  the use of the Solihull approach and Mellow Bumps.  There was also an illuminating discussion around school toilets, confirmation of the significance of the issue.

Katie Brown and I met with Ian Munro, Joan Parr and David McDonald, all of Creative Scotland.  The meeting provided the opportunity for us to exchange information on our strategic aims and explore opportunities for joint ventures.   

I met with John Turner (Chief Executive), Eunice Muir (Executive Nurse Director) and Gwen Proctor (Nurse Consultant Safeguarding Children and Young People), all at NHS 24.  I learnt a lot about the operation of NHS 24 – for instance they have 1000 FTE staff, deal with 1.5M calls per year, 4500 per day, with around 10% in day time hours.  Children are the second largest category of call with around one in three calls (500,000) relating to children, of which there are around 2000 child protection referrals as a result.  There are a number of services managed by NHS 24 and it is clear it operates as an early warning system in many instances.  I was invited to spend a shift with the organisation and I am interested in following up this offer.  It was encouraging to hear their perspective on the proposed Children and Young people's legislation.  They are very supportive on maximising the reach of the proposals in respect of children’s rights.

I provided the closing comments at the international launch of the Health and Behaviour of School Aged Children report, in Edinburgh.  This is longitudinal research providing a richness of data across 39 countries of changing patterns of behaviour of adolescents, with particular information on gender and socio-economic differences.  In my view this is under-utilised material in terms of shaping policy and practice responses.

I co-chaired the Early Years Taskforce Sub-group on culture change.  I share this with Sue Palmer and I am encouraged by the lively and enthusiastic contributions from the members of the group.  The challenge is immense, although there is already a growing consensus of the areas where we should be targeting our energies and I look forward to the group reporting its recommendations to the Taskforce.

I met with Petra Biberbach and Lynn Wilson, both of Planning Aid.  They provided background information on the work of Planning Aid, including the 11 staff and the 300 volunteer planners who contribute to the work of the organisation.  They informed of work in Glasgow involving 12 schools promoting children and young people’s involvement in planning issues.  There is a common agenda in terms of listening to children and young people, promoting citizenship and potential synergy with awareness raising and understanding of UNCRC.  I agreed to speak at a national event currently in the process of being organised by Planning Aid.

I met with Deirdre McCormack, Scottish Government Nursing Officer with responsibility for Children, Early Years and Vulnerable Families.  Deirdre is involved in supporting the development of a framework for Public Health Nurses (PHN) which includes health visitors and school nurses.  This is intended to assist NHS Boards in the provision of high quality, sustainable public health nursing in the community.