GIRFEC Groups – Terms of reference

Local GIRFEC Groups – Terms of Reference

1. Context – Children’s Services Planning Arrangements

Local GIRFEC Groups (LGGs) are a multi-agency practitioner forum who work together to support children, young people and families. They were established to ensure that partners came together naturally to embed GIRFEC practice and principles with colleagues who have a real understanding of the local issues facing communities. As such LGGs have a key role in the development and delivery of services for children and young people.

• Purpose  

• Local GIRFEC Groups (LGGs) are responsible to the GIRFEC Coordination and Support Hub (The Hub) for the ongoing improvement of GIRFEC focused multi-agency practice in their area.
• To support the local delivery of Aberdeenshire Children and Young People’s Services Plan priorities within the context of local need.

• Key Tasks

1. Supporting practitioners in their area to embed GIRFEC practice and principles.
2. Supporting the local delivery of GIRFEC Thematic Group priorities as they relate to local needs.
3. To establish, implement, review, and report annually to the Hub, on a workplan for their respective LGG.
4. To undertake and report on self-evaluation and improvement activity in their area within the framework provided by The Hub.
5. To identify and consider any local needs requiring a multi-agency response and develop/deliver solutions with relevant local partners.
6. Sharing of best practice examples to the CSH to inform multi-agency improvement activity across Aberdeenshire.
7. To highlight local needs and trends to the CSH to inform strategic planning.

• LGG Composition

The LGG will comprise of the following members, all of whom should work in the local area:

• 1 x HV Team Health Visitor/ School Nurse/Family Nurse
• 1 x Early Years representative
• 1 x Community Learning and Development Worker
• 1 x Depute Principal/Educational Psychologist
• 1 or more Voluntary Organisation representative – representation will be unique to each LGG depending on active voluntary organisations in their area
• 1 x Primary School Head Teacher/Depute Head Teacher
• 1 x Secondary School Rector/Depute Head Teacher
• 1 x Social Work Team Manager/Senior Practitioner/Social Worker
• 1 x Community Policing Team Inspector – may be delegated to Sergeant or PC if needed on date of meeting.
• 1x Public Health Coordinator – as and when required (1 named PHC aligned to each LGG)

This list is the minimum core membership and should not restrict additional organisation or service representation e.g. Principal Guidance Teacher, Family Support Worker, Midwifery, Speech and Language Therapy etc. should attend to best meet the needs of particular areas.

5.      Operation of the LGG

Chairs/Vice Chairs

A Chair and Vice Chair will be identified by the LGG from its members (usually but not limited to Health, Education and Social Work). Where possible these roles should not fall to one service. The Chair’s tenure will, ordinarily, last 2 years and then pass to an alternate service. To ensure a balance of agencies across all LGGs, final decisions on Chairs will be made in agreement with the Hub.

Should the Chair/Vice Chair position become vacant, their respective line managers will seek to ensure continuity of service tenure of the role, notifying any change to the LGG members and The Hub. Any difficulties should be raised with the relevant service representative on the Hub to address in the first instance.

The Chair will attend joint Hub and LGG Chair meetings on a quarterly basis.

Meetings

A full year for LGGs will run from August to July for fall in line with school year to ensure all representatives are available to join meetings.

LGGs will meet bi-monthly – the schedule of meetings for the year will be set by the Chair at the start of their tenure.

One meeting per year will be focused on a self-evaluation of the LGG, and one meeting per year will be focussed on facilitating a GIRFEC Discussion Workshop.

The agreed agenda, record of meeting and reporting formats must be used. Records of meetings should be stored along with workplan, membership list and other LGG documentation on the Local GIRFEC Group Chairs teams space.  This will ensure communication from LGG to Hub in relation to LGGs operation and activity and will reduce the need for Hub requests to LGGs and Chairs.

Administrative support is provided via the Chair’s service, with additional support negotiated with LGG colleagues in the first instance. If required Chairs should highlight any significant issues to Line Managers to access support from their wider service.

It is acknowledged Police Scotland representation is impacted by shift patterns and the unpredictable nature of public protection work. Email correspondence will be used to support their connectivity with Local GIRFEC Groups.

Each service has resources which, with the agreement of respective Line Management, can be collectively utilised to support multi-agency work identified by LGGs.

Any significant issues impacting on meetings or representation which are unresolvable by the LGG/LGG Chair will be escalated to The Hub.

• Expectations of LGG members

• Regular attendance and active participation at LGG meetings and self-evaluation activities.
• To be a point of contact for advice, guidance and support to their local service colleagues.
• Reinforcement of the GIRFEC approach, National Practice Model and Aberdeenshire procedures at the operational level within their service.
• To actively contribute to the work of the LGG.
• Communication of key information from the LGG to their local teams.
• Collating data, information and feedback from their individual service and reporting on this as required to support the work of the LGG.
• Permanent changes to a service/organisation representative must be agreed by the representative’s Line Manager, and the Chair must be notified of new contact details at the earliest opportunity. 
• Where substitution/change is required, representatives will fully brief their deputy/replacement.