An outline proposal for the revised model of joint inspection of services for children and young people has been agreed by Scottish Ministers. The revised model of scrutiny will focus on the most vulnerable children and young people and will be in place for community planning partnerships by April 2018.

This new model focuses on the experiences of and outcomes for children in need of protection and those subject to corporate parenting, within the context of GIRFEC (Getting it Right for Every Child). This includes those who are looked after at home, those in residential and secure care, those in kinship care and those using through care and aftercare services.

This new model for joint inspections will be led by the Care Inspectorate in co-operation with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland, Education Scotland and Healthcare Improvement Scotland.　 We propose to carry out a minimum of five joint inspections across the country each year.

Inspection will be designed around the experiences individual children and young people have of the services that support them. This puts their perspective, and their journey, at the heart of quality assurance and will support continuous improvement in the way we plan and deliver care and protection for them. It strongly reflects the views and advice of care experienced young people, who we have consulted in developing the model.

We will use our existing methodology of selecting a sample of children to follow their journey through services with a view of identifying key points for intervention. This case tracking will be used to ensure that inspections can provide assurance on a core aim of GIRFEC: the extent to which children, young people and their families are benefiting from getting the right help at the right time from the right people.

In this way, inspections will ensure they maintain a focus on prevention and early intervention, accurate assessment of risk and need, and effective planning. We will tie in with other scrutiny carried out by partners, including scrutiny of registered care services provided or commissioned by the partnership.

We will report to the public on findings in each community planning partnership area, with more detailed reporting to each partnership with the aim of supporting improvement.

In addition, each year we will identify a maximum of two thematic areas for particular focus and provide a national report at the end of that year. This will facilitate shared learning that will have relevance more widely and will support focused self-evaluation by partnerships across the country.

We are committed to continue working with a wide range of stakeholders to develop the model further, ahead of 2018/19.