Edinburgh Network of Organisations working with
Children, Young People and Families
Network Meeting Minutes
5th November 2015
Present
Joan Fraser
Sarah Wade
Sean Bryne
Kate Fennell
Kate Polson
Leanne Nicholson
Brock Lueck
Anna Chrystal
Seonaid Cooke
Marilyn Keilloh
Margo Irvine
Sheena Smith
Julie King
Rhona Hunter
Andy Thomas
Margaret Murphy
Sharon Guest
Graham McCulloch
Sarah Wardrop
Chair
EVOC
City of Edinburgh Council
City of Edinburgh Council
The Rock Trust
Streetwork
One Parent Families Scotland
Stepping Stones North Edinburgh
TalkTime Edinburgh
Stepping Stones North Edinburgh
Aberlour
Homelink Family Support
Circle
Circle
Citadel
Edinburgh Young Carers Project
Barnardos
LAYC
EVOC
Action
1
Network Meeting – apologies and introductions
Apologies received from Niki Powers, Margot McKenzie, Paula Swanston, Bev
Read, Rebecca Mitchel and Gary Dewar.
2
Adult and Child Protection Arrangements in Edinburgh
Kate Fennell and Sean Byrne (City of Edinburgh Council)
We were joined by KF (lead officer adult protection) and SB (lead officer
child protection) from City of Edinburgh Council for this meeting. Their
presentation is available here and it contains information on the structure
and role of the Adult and Child Protection arrangements in Edinburgh.
Public Protection in Edinburgh is organised under a multi-agency governance
structure, with groups of strategic committees covering violence against
women, child protection, adult support and protection (any vulnerable
adult), offender management and the alcohol and drugs partnership. Under
each of these partnerships and committees there are a number of sub
groups which undertake work on behalf of the committee.
The Quality Assurance subgroups of the Child Protection Committee and the
joint QA subgroup of the Adult Protection Committee and the Offender
Management Committee consider trends within Edinburgh, looking
particularly at situations where there is a rise in a specific type of case and
considering how to address the issue. The Network Rep on the QA subgroup
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of the Child Protection Committee is MM. These subgroups use information
from research, audits and inspections, as well as from self-evaluation to
develop and improve practice. There are also a Learning and Development
subgroups for child and adult protection. SG is the Network’s Rep on the
L&D subgroup for child protection.
KF and SB highlighted With Scotland, a national resource for child and adult
protection, as a useful resource for the Third Sector to be aware of. The
Speak Up, Speak Out website is also a useful resource, run by the City of
Edinburgh Council. There are a number of mini campaigns which take place
under this banner, many of which the Network should be involved with and
aware of. The next theme to be focused on is sexual exploitation. SG has
been involved with work on guidance around child sexual exploitation which
will be shared with the Network.
From 2016, there will be monthly public protection awareness training
available. There is also going to be a focus on FGM with local guidance and
free multi-agency training launched at the end of 2015/early 2016. SW has
been working with the Network Reps to identify organisations who should be
involved in and aware of this work.
KF highlighted the valuable role of the Third Sector in attending the
Committees, not just to bring additional knowledge, but also to question
the Public Sector on their approach to topics and issues, something which
she felt is a real strength of the Third Sector.
Following KF & SB’s presentation, there was discussion around the lack of
statistics and monitoring of children who have several wellbeing concern
forms completed but do not reach the child protection register. These cases
often have a chronic nature but it was felt amongst the Network that little
is done to monitor them. SB agreed that this is something the Network Reps
could raise at the next CPC meeting.
SB highlighted that reporting of FGM has historically been considered a
breach of confidentiality by some, but it has been made clear that with a
measured approach, this is a public protection concern.
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Minutes of Network Meeting Thursday 8th October
Minutes of the last meeting agreed as correct.
4
Matters Arising
 Outcomes Framework Working Group
The area coordinators are now involved with this work and the framework
will be piloted within some school clusters. Coordinators are looking at
other settings in which it could be tested. We’ll provide updates as we get
more information.
 Grants Programme
JF gave a summary of the process



New system
o 3 year funding
o Open to all organisations, not just those that are currently
funded
Concerns about process expressed by EVOC and LAYC
As a consequence, some changes made
2
PS/SW




o Director of C&F with support from COG to oversee process
o But decisions are for Director of Children and Families
o Part funding can be given i.e. not “ all or nothing”
o Teams of assessors with relevant knowledge
Robust process
o 30 assessors with a range of knowledge including some from
NHS
o Organised and moderated by Commissioning Team
o All assessors had to sign confidentiality and conflict of interest
statements
o Assessors couldn’t assess applications from their own locality
or where the applicant has been known to them personally in
the last 2 years
o Assessment took 2.5 days including half a day’s training (which
included trial scoring)
o Individual and group assessment against published criteria
o Moderation process to look as consensus issues in the group
of three
o All applications given an individual score and ranked
accordingly
100+ applications totalling about £6.5m. Grant budget about £2.5m
COG met on 4 November to discuss process and outcomes
o Look at match with strategic objectives and localities
o Consider consequences of decisions
o EIA to be completed
o Some issues to be followed up by officials
Next steps
o Paper to be written for Education Children and Families
Committee
o Committee meets on 8 December
There was significant discussion of the arrangements. Network members
were re-assured by the robustness of the process but some individual
organisations were concerned about the particular impact on them.

Child Protection Committee – Two issues were raised: (1)FMG and
(2)monitoring of those children not on the Child Protection Register but
which have multiple wellbeing concern forms
As discussed at the previous meeting, SW has put a call out to the Network
to identify organisations who support or may support clients affected by
FGM. SW has had a good response and will give this information to the reps
ahead of the Committee Meeting.
The Network had discussed ideas with Sean about monitoring those children
who aren’t on the Child Protection Register (see Section 2).
5
Network Development

Vacancies Update
Rachel Mathers (The Yard) has taken on the role of Network Rep with the
Play Strategy Steering Group and SO1. Rhona Hunter (Circle) is now the
Network Rep on SO3 and one of the Reps on the Children’s Partnership.
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AC, SG,
MM &
NP
There are still vacancies on SO2 and the PoPP Strategic Advisory Group.
Graham McCulloch asked for information about EYC workstream 4.

SW
Future Meeting Topics
December: GIRFEC (Ronnie Hill, Third Sector representative on the Scottish
Government’s GIRFEC Team))
January: Year of the Dad 2016 (Douglas, Fathers Network Scotland)
2016: EYC, Children and Young People (Scotland) Act, CSMGs and localities.
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Child Protection Update
AC made a correction on information provided about the evaluation exercise
at the last meeting – this is a self-evaluation exercise which AC will be
involved with.
The rest of the update and discussion is covered in Section 2.
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Voluntary Sector News

TalkTime Edinburgh
Seonaid informed everyone that TalkTime have lowered their minimum age
to 12 from 16 and OSCR have accepted this change, so TalkTime will now
accept referrals for younger clients.
8
Partnership Working: Feedback over the last few meetings
9
Total Craigroyston Management Group – 13th October – Morag Wilson Meeting cancelled
 SO3 In Need – 22nd October – Celine Sinclair – Meeting cancelled
 CSMG North – 27th October – Marilyn Keilloh – Meeting cancelled
 Early Years Collaborative Leadership Group – Kate Kasprowicz
Feedback from this meeting available here.
 SO3 Disability sub group – 29th October - Anne Brown, Celine Sinclair,
Fiona Hird, Roo Phillips & Joan Fraser
Joan gave feedback. At the next meeting, they will be reviewing the
disability sub group’s workplan
 PoPP Strategic Advisory Group – 29th October - Kate Kasprowicz
Feedback from this meeting available here.
 Child Protection Committee Quality Assurance Sub Group – 2nd November
– Margaret Murphy
 Chief Officer’s Group – 4th November – Joan Fraser
Shulah Allan has joined the Integrated Children’s Services Board.
GIRFEC

The December meeting will be GIRFEC themed.
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Any Other Business

Year of the Dad
SW suggested that we start 2016 with input from Fathers Network Scotland
on Year of the Dad. It was agreed this would be a good input for January or
February. If members have any other topics they would like the Network to
cover in 2016, they should let SW know.

Peer Led Training
The first session is on Fuel Poverty led by Home Energy Scotland on Friday
13th November. There is also a session run by Craigmillar Books for Babies on
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SW
26th November on developing Rhymetimes. SW asked the group if they would
be interested in a session run by the Recovery Essentials project on
benefits, and members agreed this would be useful.
JF also flagged the Energy People Trust as a source of support for
organisations working with those experiencing fuel poverty:
www.energypeopletrust.com/content

Emotional wellbeing and mental health review stakeholder event
This stakeholder dialogue event run by the City of Edinburgh Council and
NHS Lothian will be held on 10th December at 9:30am. The aim of the event
is to provide an opportunity for organisations to feed into the review of
emotional wellbeing and mental health services in the City that is ongoing.
More information is available here:
www.evoc.org.uk/noticeboard/notices/emotional-wellbeing-and-mentalhealth-review-stakeholder-event

EVOC AGM
SW reminded everyone that EVOC’s AGM is on Tuesday 10th November.

Compact Voice
This survey has been launched for 2015, and members are asked to
complete it if possible. The survey is available here:
www.surveymonkey.com/r/Compactvoice2015

Rivers PSP
RH highlighted that if the Rivers PSP managers to secure Fountainbridge
Library as their premises, there will be group space available, which could
be a valuable resource to some organisations.
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Date of Future Meetings at EVOC – please note time of 2-4pm
3 December 2015
2016 Meetings: 7th January, 4th February, 3rd March, 14th April, 5th May, 2nd
June, 7th July, 4th August, 8th September, 6th October, 3rd November & 8th
December
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