EDUCATION COMMITTEE CALLS FOR EVIDENCE ON THE JOINT INSPECTIONS OF CHILDREN'S SERVICES AND INSPECTION OF SOCIAL WORK SERVICES (SCOTLAND) BILL

CED006/2005 | 10 November 2005

The Scottish Parliament’s Education Committee is calling for evidence from all interested parties on the general principles of the Joint Inspections of Children’s Services and Inspection of Social Work Services (Scotland) Bill, which was introduced on 28 October 2005.

The purpose of Part 1 of the Bill is to provide inspectorates and agencies with the legal powers to inspect jointly children’s services. Part 2 of the Bill provides the Social Work Inspection Agency with explicit powers to inspect all social work services.

Respondents are invited to set out:

• whether they approve or disapprove of the general principles of the Bill;

• what the advantages and any disadvantages of the new legislation are;

• whether they consider that the Scottish Executive consulted effectively on the Bill before it was introduced to the Scottish Parliament;

• any concerns they may have about particular elements of the Bill and suggestions as to how the Bill might be improved;

and

• whether there are any specific issues that are not adequately addressed in the Bill.

The Joint Inspections of Children’s Services and Inspection of Social Work Services (Scotland) Bill is published as SP Bill 49 and is available from the Scottish Parliament website at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/bills/index.htm along with the Bill’s Policy Memorandum, Explanatory Notes and Financial Memorandum.

All written evidence received may be published by the Parliament and will be treated as a public document unless indicated otherwise. All written responses will be circulated to members of the Education Committee.

Written evidence should be submitted by Friday 18 November. There will be no extension to this deadline except by application in writing to the convener of the Committee.

NOTES

Since evidence submitted may be published, we would prefer responses to be sent by e-mail to education.committee@scottish.parliament.uk with the subject line of “Joint Inspections Bill”.

If you have a computer, but no email, you can post your response to us on a 3½" disk, preferably in Word. If you cannot use email or a disk, your submission must be typed. All responses become the property of the Scottish Parliament and we are unable to return documents.

Hard copy submissions should be sent to:

Paul Howell
Education Committee
Room T3.40
Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP

Ideally submissions should not exceed four sides of A4 paper.

For information on the legislative process, you may wish to consult the Guidance on Public Bills which is also available from http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/bills/billguidance/gpb-c.htm.

The contact for members of the media is:

Richard Holligan Tel: 0131 348 5605

RNID TypeTalk calls welcome

E-mail: richard.holligan@scottish.parliament.uk

Education Committee contact information

For public information enquiries, contact: 0131 348 5000 or 0845 278 1999 (local call rate)
Text phone: 0131 348 3415 RNID Typetalk calls welcome
email: sp.info@scottish.parliament.uk

Visit our website at: www.scottish.parliament.uk