Agencies in Fife work well together to keep children safe according to the most recent report by the Care Inspectorate.

“The joint inspection of services to protect children and young people in the Fife Council area” has highlighted key strengths within Fife which include joint approaches to keeping children safe on the internet, the improvements made to services and the way the different services work together.

A number of projects were singled out as examples of good practice in the protection of children and young people.

John Myles, Independent Chair of the Child Protection Committee explains: “The partner agencies in Fife have been working hard together for a number of years, to make sure we continue to improve services for vulnerable children. It is good that the Care Inspectorate has recognised this joint working and the benefits it is having for the children and young people of Fife.

“There have been real improvements made in recent years and the way the partner agencies work together to share information and good practice has been recognised throughout this report.”

Inspectors found that there was a consistently “improved culture of information sharing and joint working” between different services, and staff are alert to signs that a child needs immediate help.

The progress made by Chief Officers in improving services to protect children was also seen by inspectors as a key strength. They said: ”Chief Officers recognise the importance of reviewing their work to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families. They have made this a high priority for themselves, their managers and staff.”

“Chief officers’ strong vision of keeping children safe is shared by staff at all levels across services. They take their responsibilities to protect children very seriously giving effective strategic direction to public protection work in Fife.”

While inspectors will not make any follow up visits regarding this report they have left some recommendations for improvement which are:

• Strengthen the response to child protection concerns
• Strengthen arrangements to ensure children’s needs, including health needs, are met well
• Improve the quality and consistency of assessments of risk and needs

Mr Myles continued: “While we are proud of what we have achieved we know that we still have improvements to make and there is a real commitment within Fife to keep pushing forward to improve our services. We will continue to find new ways of working across the agencies to keep children safe.”