ENGAGE

Introduction

Welcome to the June 2006 edition of the Scottish Executive’s Children, Young People and Social Care Group E:zine, Engage.

Services for children and young people, and for users of social care services more generally, are in the process of major modernisation. Whilst there is new legislation in progress and new policies in development that directly affect children's services, the changes we are working through, for example, to implement the recommendations of Changing Lives, the 21st century review of social work, will have an impact across Scottish communities. The work that we do has an influence on policies that affect all ages and a diverse range of service areas, as well as having a strong focus on children and young people. We are currently reviewing how we communicate across the Executive to reflect the wider agenda and make it easier to engage in appropriate ways both internally and externally.

Our priority for children's services is to steer legislation and policies to ensure that outcomes for children are improved and our vision for children is realised – and to do this in a way that is harmonious with what is already a very crowded change agenda. We have an identical priority in relation to the more broadly-focussed work we are embarking on to implement the recommendations of Changing Lives. This requires partnership and support both within the Executive and externally. Good communication is an essential component. When this e:zine was created just over a year ago, it was designed to be a single reference point for the latest news across the Children, Young People & Social Care Group and to give internal and external contacts latest information from every area of the Group, and to share information from outside the Group that is relevant to our work. We can only achieve this by encouraging contributions from within and outwith the Executive. Engage is a key communication tool – a means to engage with the Executive, please take full advantage of it.

In this issue we introduce a new section from a guest contributor – if you would be interested in doing this please contact Jackie Brock via email.

Our first guest contributor is James Cox, a Family Group Conference Co-ordinator for City of Edinburgh Council, who has just recently commenced a secondment at the Executive working with the Getting it right for every child team. James makes some interesting references to the sheer range of legal and policy developments in stream and injects a vital external perspective to his article and in his contribution to the team.

We have a contribution from Children in Scotland about a very interesting one-day conference they are organising entitled, An appetite for life? Young children, food and eating – a very topical event given the passage of the Schools (Nutrition and Health Promotion) Scotland Bill. As usual, the five Divisions within the Children, Young People and Social Care Group offer an update on their respective policy areas. Read more about the speech delivered by the Minister for Children and Young People, Peter Peacock at the ADSW Conference in May about the opportunities and challenges ahead for the people who deliver and use social work services in Scotland. You can find this in the Social Work Services Policy Division section. If you would like to have your views heard as part of a consultation on youth work to support the development of a national strategy for youth work, go to www.scotland.gov.uk/consultation to find out more.

The Scottish Executive is open to change and the opportunities this presents to engage widely and meaningfully with our colleagues and partners. This means hearing about the good, and the not so good consequences of this ambitious, far-reaching and comprehensive programme.

Colin MacLean
Head of Children, Young People and Social Care Group