Scottish Parliament seeks to establish a universal surveillance system

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The Children and Young People Bill which has recently been introduced to the Scottish Parliament seeks to establish a universal surveillance system in respect of every child and associated adult in Scotland.

Known as GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child), it is already being used, and in some cases abused, by professionals within universal services and other agencies who have been routinely gathering, storing, assessing and sharing sensitive personal data on every child and every associated adult without express informed consent and in the absence of any enabling statutory framework.

Disguised as a child protection measure but nothing of the kind, GIRFEC has spawned a series of ‘wellbeing’ indicators known as SHANARRI which represent a universal prescription for a state approved childhood. It has essentially shifted the threshhold for intervention in family life on child ‘protection’ grounds from “at risk of significant harm” to “at risk of not meeting state dictated ‘wellbeing’ outcomes”. Every parent in Scotland is now routinely assessed on his/her “parental capacity to provide wellbeing”, based on government defined criteria which, according to its own ‘National Risk Framework to Support the Assessment of Children and Young People’ places every child under five, and most older children and young people, in the ‘vulnerable’ category (thus liable to ‘early intervention’).

The Bill further seeks to impose a ‘named person’ on every child in Scotland (whose function, it is specifically stated, may not be undertaken by the child or young person’s parent), which is a gross intrusion into family life and completely unwarrated on a universal basis. The fact that every child will be subject to this intrusion by a stranger without opt-out, regardless of his or her wishes (or those of his or her parents in the case of a young child) renders it a disproportionate measure in that most children have no need of state ‘intervention’, compulsory or otherwise, in their family lives.

Schoolhouse Home Education Association

 

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A Bill to make provision about the rights of children and young people; to make provision about investigations by the Commissioner for Children and Young People in Scotland; to make provision for and about the provision of services and support for or in relation to children and young people; to make provision for an adoption register; to make provision about children’s hearings, detention in secure accommodation and consultation on certain proposals in relation to schools; and for connected purposes. Current Status of the Bill

The Bill was introduced on 17 April 2013.

Home : Scottish Parliament


to make provision for and about the provision of services and support for or in relation to children and young people
to make provision for an adoption register
to make provision about children’s hearings
detention in secure accommodation
consultation on certain proposals in relation to schools
and for connected purposes

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[psychomom]

A Bill to essentially remove children from the "dangerous" influence of parents and family.
A Bill to further the gov't. control of the next generation.

 

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Scotland - every kid to have a state-appointed overseer

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"...last week the Scottish Government’s plan to give every child a state guardian from birth was launched. This state-appointed overseer will be a specific, named individual, and every child will have one, from birth. The responsibility for creating this named guardian will fall on the heads of the health boards for the first five years of a child’s life, before being transferred to councils. Perhaps the most worrying aspect of this development is that it clearly comes in large part as a mechanism to target and prevent child abuse.

Concerns about this new statutory initiative built into the Children and Young People Bill have been raised by some MSPs, but largely on technical grounds: Can the state afford to have a “supporter” for every child? How will the child get to know this person and how will they develop a trusting relationship with them?

Children’s minister Aileen Campbell has said the approach would be useful in that a specific individual will have the responsibility of overseeing the wellbeing of specific children. As she put it, this will “make sure there is someone having an overview of what is happening to that child, to make sure that early indicators of anything that would pose a threat or risk to that child are flagged up”.

Part of the plan is that professionals increasingly share information with one another so as to nip problems in the bud. Like the “every child matters” approach in England and Wales, “safeguarding” children is now the priority of anyone working with children, be that a teacher, a dentist, a youth worker, a swimming instructor and so on. And at one level this sounds OK – anything that stops child abuse…

On the other hand, it can be seen as having little to do with the problem of abused kids and more to do with our culture of suspicion. It is not the case that families are more abusive today. What has changed is that our faith in one another, and our belief in the importance of privacy, has diminished. We have also lost a coherent sense of public duty and subsequently “child safety” has become a new, off-the-shelf, framework that attempts to offer coherence to people running public services and professional bodies.

It is arguable to what extent “every child” can really be protected by our new guardians, or indeed that these named professionals will take seriously the need to keep an eye on “nice” families. However, as the meaning of abuse and harm expands to include things like being bullied, or even being shouted at, the potential for professional intervention into family life is growing.

Add to this the emphasis being placed on all child-related professionals to watch out for abuse, and the suspicious and indeed corrosive nature of this approach is all too clear. Essentially, the idea of a specific person looking after the interests of a child coming with the name of “father” or “mother” has been lost from Scottish society – or at least lost within the corridors of power.....

newscotsman.com

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Personal details of eight million children are on secret databases without their parents’ knowledge
The databases contain information such as the child's age, sex and academic and behavioural records
Capita's One system can potentially share the information to external agencies such as social services and youth offending teams
The majority of parents are unaware that the information is being gathered or how it is used
By STEVE NOLAN
PUBLISHED: 09:45 GMT, 11 November 2012 | UPDATED: 13:21 GMT, 15 November 2012



Teachers are said to be uploading information on their pupils up to six times a day onto a council database (file picture)
A huge 'Big Brother' style database containing details of around eight million schoolchildren is being compiled without the knowledge of their parents.

IT systems specialists are creating the database - including such information as a child's age, sex, and academic records - which can be shared among officials from other agencies such as the police, NHS and charities.

Teachers are uploading information on pupils as often as six times a day to the database, created by Capita, one of the UK's largest contractors to both central and local government.


Read more: Personal details of eight million children are on secret database without their parents¿ knowledge | Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

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Technology and Services for Local Authorities | capita-one.co.uk < click

Creepy Captia

 

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Local government plays critical role in early intervention
Councils play an important part in making sure children and families get the help they need sooner rather than later

Phil Neal
Guardian Professional, Wednesday 15 May 2013 14.00 BST


The Early Intervention Foundation supports children in the critical early years. Photograph: Cultura/Alamy
Early intervention will need to become the golden thread that runs through the provision of all public services in the years ahead in order to tackle the root cause of social problems.

The launch of the Early Intervention Foundation last month has been one of the most significant moves in the government's attempts to deal with difficulties in the lives of vulnerable children, young people and families in the critical early years.

The foundation, set up to champion and support early intervention measures to support a child's growth, is a consortium of organisations including 4Children, Achievement for All and the Local Government Association. Its chair, Graham Allen, Labour MP for Nottingham North, recently spoke at an annual children's event hosted by Capita One, underlining the critical role of local government in prioritising early intervention.

The event provided an opportunity for children's services staff to find out about some of the initiatives being implemented across the UK that are already cutting crime, boosting achievement in schools and improving the health and wellbeing of at risk children.

Allen spoke about the successful schemes introduced in Nottingham, such as a programme that teaches primary school children about the social and emotional aspects of learning; an initiative to give secondary school children relationship skills, teaching them what it is like to have a baby and about decision making and a family nurse partnership providing teen mums and their babies with intensive social and emotional support from a health visitor.

Allen emphasised the need for examples of best practice to be championed and shared across the country through the foundation.

He said, "We are entering an exciting new phase in the early intervention journey and by working together we can achieve lasting savings in public expenditure and lasting gains for children, families, local communities and wider society."

The government commissioned Allen to write two reports on early intervention. One entitled Early intervention: the next steps and the other: Early intervention: smart investment, massive savings. These reports highlighted the economic and social benefits of making sure the right help is in place early on in children's lives.

Allen called on council staff to support the fledgling Early Intervention Foundation in breaking down the barriers that prevent the easy flow of important data on children between agencies and help to drive the early intervention agenda.

There is a wealth of data being gathered, such as details of attendance and achievement information from schools as well as data released by social care and health agencies; and making good use of this information is vital to understanding the issues children and families are facing.

We are working closely with the Early Intervention Foundation to make sure that the local authorities that use our software can get the data needed to identify and help troubled families into the hands of the people who need it.

Children's services teams are under more pressure than ever before to focus their resources on delivering the right support at the right time to make a real difference.

Local government plays an important role in ensuring children and families get the help they need sooner rather than later, and that public money is spent on services that get results. Tackling deep-seated problems before they become more difficult to unravel will deliver considerable savings further down the line.

Phil Neal is managing director of Capita One

Local government plays critical role in early intervention | Local Government Network | Guardian Professional < click

Phil Neal, managing director of Capita One writes "NEWS" story for Guardian????

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"Early intervention will need to become the golden thread that runs through the provision of all public services in the years ahead in order to tackle the root cause of social problems."

this appears to be a newspeak buzzword - golden thread - watch for it