Education Committee supports Bill aiming to improve children's and social work services

CED007/2005 | 1 December 2005

The Education Committee has recommended that the general principles of the Joint Inspections of Children's Services and Inspection of Social Work Services (Scotland) Bill are supported during the Stage 1 debate, which is expected to take place next week.

Although the Committee supports the general principles of the Scottish Executive's Bill, its report outlines how the Bill could be amended to address concerns expressed to the Committee by professionals from the health and children's sectors, particularly regarding the proposed joint inspections regime and access to health records.

Convener of the Education Committee Iain Smith MSP, said:

"Our Committee has been pushing the Executive to progress its child protection reform programme and this Bill is a necessary legislative step in that programme. We must ensure that all services that support children are operating effectively.

"Although short, the Bill presented a challenge to the Committee to balance the need to ensure that all children's services are working effectively together while ensuring that the vital confidential relationship between patients and health professionals is not compromised. We ask the Executive to address the areas we have identified in the report and ease some of the concerns raised about the extent of the powers this legislation would make available to Ministers.

Background

The Joint Inspections of Children's Services and Inspection of Social Work Services (Scotland) Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 28 October 2005. It enables access, sharing, discussion and holding of information between education, social work, justice and health professionals in support of joint inspections of children's and social work services.

The Committee report

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