Wellbeing is at the heart of the GIRFEC approach. It is recognised that a child  or young person’s wellbeing is influenced by everything around them and the different experiences and needs they have at different times in their lives.

Wellbeing Indicators

Every child or young person should be safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included. Wellbeing is described by these eight indicators to help make sure everyone (children, parents and the people who work with them, such as teachers and health visitors) has a common understanding of what wellbeing means.

The GIRFEC approach ensures every child or young person will have a designated Named Person available to them. Their job is to be a first point of contact for the child and family or anyone who has a concern about the child or young person’s wellbeing.

Named Person

From birth, colleagues from health presume the role of Named Person and when a child enters primary school (including specialist provision) education assume responsibility for the role.

The Named Person has a responsibility to help promote, safeguard and support a child or young person’s wellbeing. Wellbeing is defined within the eight indicators mentioned above: safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included. 

The Named Person’s role is to help ensure a child or young person’s wellbeing is fully supported and developed, by:

• Being the main point of contact for children, young people and their families
• Providing advice, information or support to the child, young person or parent or carer
• Helping the child or young person access relevant and appropriate support or a service
• Ensuring any support is proportionate and informed by the child or young person’s views
• Supporting assessment, planning and the development of chronology for the child or young person as required. 

Lead Professional

Where it has been agreed that a child plan should be prepared there will be a Lead Professional to make sure the Child's plan is managed properly and coordinated to support decisions within the plan.

The Lead Professional is the professional whose agency has the greatest responsibility to the child. They may or may not also be the, ‘Named Person’. Who will take on the role is agreed at the relevant meeting, for example at a multi-agency  planning meeting.

For Looked-After Children and Children on the Child Protection Register the Lead professional would typically be the Social Worker.

The Lead Professional will:

• Make sure the child and their family understand what is happening so that they can all be involved in all the decisions that affect the child
• Will co-ordinate the plan and check whether all the things that people said they would do are being done
• Ensure the information in the Child’s Plan is accurate and up-to-date and is being shared with the child and all the people involved in the Child’s Plan
• Ensure that the plan is regularly reviewed to make sure it is continuing to support the child’s needs

• Always be the child’s social worker when the child is on the Child Protection register or is on a Care Order.

The Team Around the Child (TAC) focuses on early help and interventions. It delivers a more effective early support service to children and their families in line with the GIRFEC principles. A TAC identifies additional needs and vulnerabilities. It looks at the actions required to meet those needs.

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) is the national approach in Scotland to help improve outcomes and support the wellbeing of all children and young people by offering the right help at the right time from the right people for any child or young person who needs it. Its focus is to improve outcomes for children and their families based on a shared understanding of their wellbeing a guide to promote the welfare of children. It talks about the importance of assessing need and providing early help:

‘Providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later. Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life, from the foundation years through to the teenage years.

Effective early help relies upon local agencies working together to:

• Identify children and families who would benefit from early help
• Make an assessment of the need for early help
• Provide targeted early help services to address the assessed needs of a child and their family.
• Help focuses on activity to significantly improve the outcomes for the child.

Who completes the TAC assessment?

TAC is everybody’s business. All professionals working with children and their families in East Dunbartonshire are responsible for completing TACs.

When to complete a TAC?

When a professional identifies that a family needs the services of more than one agency. A number of interventions may be needed from an organisation. The aim is to support anyone within the family to address unmet needs.

What is a TAC meeting?

This is an effective method of partner working. It is a good opportunity for all practitioners, along with parents, children and young people to discuss the situation. This can include strengths, needs, issues, options for resolutions, plans for support and services. Discussions will also include how to progress with these.

Three likely TAC outcomes:

• No worries/concerns
• Support can be met by a single agency
• Support requires a multi-agency response. In this case a TAC meeting is arranged. This will include the child, young person and parents.

The GIRFEC National Practice Model provides a framework for practitioners in all services to gather, structure and analyse information in a consistent way. The framework helps staff to identify and understand the strengths and pressures for children and their parents, the child or young person’s needs and any risks. The model promotes the participation of children, young people and families as central to assessment and planning. 

Find out more

National Protection Guidance for Child Protection

Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) 

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) - Statutory Guidance - Assessment of Wellbeing 2022 – Part 18 (section 96) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) Practice Guidance 2 – The role of the named person - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) Practice Guidance 3 – The role of the lead professional - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) Practice Guidance 4 - Information sharing - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)