The National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland (2021) states that:

All agencies have a responsibility to recognise and actively consider potential risks to a child, irrespective of whether the child is the main focus of their involvement…Effective partnerships between organisations, professional bodies and the public are more likely if key roles and responsibilities are well defined and understood.”

These Child Protection Procedures reflect child protection arrangements set out in the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 - updated 2023 and should be read in conjunction with them. These procedures outline how all agencies should work together with parents, families and communities to prevent harm and to protect children from abuse and neglect.

Inter-agency procedures are for all staff working within North Lanarkshire. Child protection procedures will not in themselves keep children safe, everyone has an individual responsibility to protect children from harm and to work collaboratively ensuring good communication and joint working.

Practitioners have their own agencies child protection procedures and should ensure they are familiar with them.

Underpinning these Multi-Agency Child Protection Procedures is a significant and substantial policy context relating to wellbeing and child protection alongside general principles of participation. This can be found via the following hyperlinks:

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC)

#KeepThePromise

Trauma Informed Practice Toolkit

Domestic Abuse Informed