Barnardo`s defends the GIRFEC bill

Barnardo`s Scotland has addressed the criticisms of the Children and Young People Bill made by Mel Kelly in OurKingdom last week. They feel that Mel Kelly has misunderstood the role of universal services and preventative work.

According to Barnardo`s the Bill will generate a legal framework to allow the various public bodies who provide services to children to co-ordinate their effort in order to work with children and families at an earlier stage. The named person will all ready be known to the child and will be the first point of contact. Barnardo`s goes on to say:

Mel sets out two main pillars for her case against these proposals, and in particular the named person. Firstly she argues that "no state government is fit to be the over-riding guardian of every child in any country" and secondly that while "when children are identified as at risk and social work departments are involved it is vital there is a "named person", but that checking on all our children's wellbeing will lead to a system that is "overzealous and overburdened by tracking every child in Scotland – whether they are at risk or not". [Barnardo`s muddle]

However, children are not born with an ‘at risk’ label on their forehead. If it was this easy to spot the children who were in danger social work would be a much easier job.  [Barnardo`s is saying: Let`s make the job of social work easier, by targetting EVERYBODY. That is, `Be overzealous.`]

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/mark-ballard/why-we-must-get-it-right-for-every-child-in-scotland

Here is Government and state sponsored political charities

See also Engage for Scotland and the comments which are very negative about the GIRFEC bill.

http://engageforeducation.org/2013/12/alan-mcniven-blog-ambition-can-share/