NRCCI seeks Higher Aspirations, Brighter Futures!

The extensive work of the National Residential Child Care Initiative, led by SIRCC, has culminated in a series of four reports entitled Higher Aspirations, Brighter Futures which are being launched by Adam Ingram, Minister for Early Years and Children, in Edinburgh on 2nd December. The reports call on elected members, government, professionals, inspection and regulatory bodies and agencies working with and for children and young people to consider the key messages and recommendations arising from three working groups which were set up to undertake a strategic review of residential child care services in Scotland and develop a blueprint for their future development.

The body of evidence and breadth of issues raised and debated throughout the NRCCI, together with the extensive engagement of stakeholders has resulted in a wide agreement on the recommendations which are aimed at improving the matching of resources to needs, raising the status, value and quality of the workforce and ensuring there are effective commissioning arrangements for residential child care services. Each of the three Working Group reports provide detailed recommendations while the Overview report highlights overarching messages about assessment and care planning; a much more strategic role for residential care within children’s services; better management information; effective collaboration across all agencies and the central role of the workforce.

The most consistent message to emerge from all the work of the NRCCI was the need for a change in the culture in which residential child care is delivered. There is tremendous potential for residential child care to develop and provide flexible and responsive services to children and young people of all ages and with a variety of needs but there is still a widespread negative perceptions about residential care which is all too often seen as being the last resort. The NRCCI is calling for a change in culture whereby properly resourced residential child care would be recognised as an important, valued and integral part of children’s services which can offer the best possible care and protection for children and young people and which builds their resilience and prepares them for the future challenges they will face. To ensure the needs of children who require residential care are fully met the commissioning of residential child care must be a collaborative activity based on effective and meaningful engagement of all stakeholders including children and young people, their parents and carers, independent providers, and agencies with responsibility for looked after children and young people. The NRCCI fully recognises that the workforce is the most important resource in residential child care and the status, skills and training of the workforce, as well as the support they are offered, has to be commensurate with the increasingly demanding and challenging task expected of them.

A key aspect of the NRCCI has been the extensive engagement of stakeholders and in particular the input from children and young people. A report on the views of over 100 children and young people, prepared by Who Cares? Scotland, helped to inform the NRCCI working groups and a young people’s version of the key messages and recommendations will also be launched at the conference in Edinburgh on 2nd December.

Adam Ingram, on behalf of the Scottish Government, and Isobel Hutton on behalf of COSLA, will be responding to the NRCCI key messages and recommendations at the conference in Edinburgh on 2nd December.

SIRCC is wholeheartedly committed to ensuring our residential services and more importantly the children they care for, do have Higher Aspirations, Brighter Futures and looks forward to contributing to the implementation of the NRCCI recommendations.

The reports will shortly be available on the SIRCC website.