Services for children and young people in North Lanarkshire are performing well, inspectors have concluded.
It follows a joint inspection of services across the North Lanarkshire Community Planning Partnership by an expert team from the Care Inspectorate, Education Scotland, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland. Inspectors looked at a wide range of services in the area between October and November 2014.
Across ten quality indicators, inspectors found seven to be 'very good' while three were rated 'good.'
In their report, published today, inspectors noted: "As a result of the services being delivered by the Community Planning Partnership, the lives of many children and young people growing up in North Lanarkshire were improving.
"Where children and young people were potentially in need of protection, the risks to their safety and well-being were being identified in good time and suitable, proportionate action was taken to ensure they and their families received the help they needed."
Inspectors also said highlighted areas where continued improvements to vital services could be made.
They added: "We were confident that services recognised they could improve some processes further.
"They had already begun reviewing and taking effective action to ensure that decisions about child protection referrals were suitably shared across staff in health, police, social work and education."
Karen Anderson, chief executive of the Care Inspectorate said: "This is a very positive report.
"We found many examples of improving trends through approaches to prevention and early interventions and a strong and unified commitment by partners to tackling inequalities and closing outcome gaps.
"There was a wide range of flexible and responsive support services to ensure families get the kind of help they need without delays.
"Risks to children and young people were being identified in good time and suitable action taken to ensure they were kept safe.
"There had been notable improvements in the range of coordinated support services for young people leaving care."
The report of the joint inspection is available here: Services for children and young people in North Lanarkshire