Getting it Right for Every Child - GIRFEC

Getting it Right for Every Child ('GIRFEC' or 'Getting it Right') is Scotland's approach to supporting children and young people. It is intended as a framework that will allow organisations who work on behalf of Scotland’s children and their families to provide a consistent, supportive approach for all.

It requires that services aimed at children and young people – social work, health, education, police, housing and voluntary organisations – adapt and streamline their systems and practices and work together. The approach encourages earlier intervention by professionals to avoid crisis situations at a later date. GIRFEC is roughly equivalent to Every Child Matters in England.

The GIRFEC approach arose out of the review of the Children's Hearings System in 2004. The review recognised that in order to improve outcomes for vulnerable children, agencies need to intervene earlier, in a better and more integrated way in response to identified needs and risks, and not when a threshold is reached to trigger action. The origins of the approach can be traced back to the Kilbrandon Report (1964), reinforced by publications such as 'For Scotland's Children'.

Development and early implementation of this approach took place across Scotland. In Highland there were pathfinder projects that launched in September 2006 followed by an implementation phase that began in January 2008. The Lanarkshire pathfinder reported that GIRFEC had led to a sharper focus on the needs of the child and had also helped a culture of shared responsibility among education, health and social work.

Implementation of GIRFEC has included some change management elements, with a programme designed to achieve some consistency around meeting the needs of – and improving outcomes for – all children and young people in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has published a number of guides and resources. to support implementation.

In October 2012 a programme of visits was carried out by HM Inspectors to review the readiness of the education system in using GIRFEC approaches to help ensure that children and families get the right help at the right time.

...
Wikipedia