You have the right to be safe and healthy. You should be respected and included, nurtured and responsible. And you should get all the encouragement you need to be active, and to achieve things in your lives.
Wellbeing is about how things are going for children & young people and their lives.
GIRFEC uses 8 words that describe what it looks like when things are going well.
- Safe
- Healthy
- Achieving
- Nurtured
- Active
- Respected
- Responsible
- Included
The idea is to make sure that in these 8 words we cover every part of a young person’s life rather than just focusing on 1 or 2 things.

Different 4 everyone
The 8 words will mean different things for everybody. Achieving might be big, like winning the Olympics or it might be getting up at the right time and getting to school.
By encouraging everyone to think about wellbeing using these words the idea is that young people, parents, teachers and other people like health staff or sometimes social workers can see where there might be concerns and find ways to help get a child or young person back on track.
Head teachers or guidance teachers who have an important role to play in Girfec sometimes use a wellbeing wheel to help them discuss any concerns with the young person. It helps make sure nothing gets overlooked or forgotten about.