For child support professionals

To support children, young people and their families throughout their journey to healthy relationships we collaborate with other professionals and experts.

We believe that children’s rights come first. That is why we work with a number of different organisatins to understand what are effective approaches and how we can work successfully together. Here are some of the resources and guidance that help us to adopt and share best practices.

Children’s rights first

Human rights make sure that all people, including children and young people, are treated fairly and can reach their full potential. Children have additional rights to adults as they need extra protection. These additional rights were set out by the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and include important things like:

• Children should not be discriminated against.

• Children have a right to life.
• Children have a right to education.
• Children have a right to play.
• Children can have a say in matters that affect them and their views should be taken into account.
• The decisions made about children should be in their best interests.

All our work is grounded in the principles and provisions in the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), as well as the Children (Scotland) Act 2020, the Promise and the Getting It Right for Every Child Framework (GIRFEC).

We use the SHANARRI ‘child wellbeing outcomes’ to help us identify goals and hopes for the children and young people we work with:

Once we have identified the child(ren)’s hopes and goals we review these outcomes approximately every 12 weeks with them. This helps us identify where things are getting better and sometimes where things are getting worse. It also helps us to reflect on all the positive steps that have been made and focus our support in the future.

If you’d like to find out more about Children’s rights, Parent Club have produced this useful booklet for parents, carers and family members: The UNCRC Rights of the Child Booklet: Your Guide to Children’s Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

All about me – the voice of the child

Family Journeys have developed a toolkit that is being used as therapeutic guidance for staff to support children through their family connections journey following separation or divorce.

The aim is to enable the practitioner to successfully gather and capture the voice of the child and where appropriate report back to sheriffs to ensure informed decision making and child’s rights are communicated on behalf of the child.

Download our guidance for All About Me and the toolbox ideas by clicking on the document:

Resources from other organisations

There are a lot of helpful resources for practioners. Here are a few that we regularly use and find helpful:

Relationship Scotland

We are proud to be a member of Relationship Scotland. They do fantastic work with people across Scotland and have produced some really useful resources such as this leaflet – Listening to Your Children’s Views:

Shared Parenting Scotland

Our friends at Shared Parenting Scotland have put together some helpful information for both parents and practitioners.

Relationships Australia

As a leading provider of relationship support services for individuals, families and communities, the team at Relationships Australia have put together this simple booklet for people going through separation: