Working out what your child needs support with
It can be hard to know what your child needs support with. This can be even harder to do if you are not sure what support is available.
The advice on this page will take you through steps you can take, to work out what your child needs support with. This will help you prepare for an assessment of their needs.
Step one: Speak to a professional your child is involved with
It is important to discuss what you think your child needs with either their doctor, health visitor, nursery teacher or school teacher. They can help confirm what you are seeing, share their views, hold meetings to discuss a plan and link you up with any other professionals that need to be involved.
It can be useful to keep a diary, to help you keep track of things that are difficult for your child and how they feel at certain times of the day or week.
This will help when you come to discuss things at a meeting and provide specific examples. Talk it over with anyone else that is involved with your child informally too.
At this stage it is helpful to become more familiar with what is generally expected of children’s development at certain ages. This will help you communicate with your child’s doctor, health visitor, nursery or school and discuss what you are seeing.
Working with you, they can provide a starting point to identify what your child might need support with. Once involved, they should be able to help you decide if other professions should be contacted.
These other professionals could be a range of people, and might include:
- social work
- physiotherapy
- occupational therapy
- speech and language therapy
- educational psychology
- vison support
- assistive technology professionals.
Step two: Get help thinking about what your child needs support with through Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC)
Ask any professionals you are involved with about Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC). Try not to be put off by the language used!
Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) is the national policy in Scotland aimed at supporting the wellbeing of children and young people. It is designed to help you work with professionals to identify what your child needs and put support in place.
GIRFEC provides a structure which includes meeting and discussing things with relevant people to look at what your child needs. It looks at seven indicators of a child’s wellbeing:
- Safe
- Healthy
- Achieving
- Nurtured
- Active
- Respected
- Responsible
- Included.
These seven areas are sometimes called SHANARRI. Looking at each of these areas with those involved with your child will help you decide what your child needs support with.
The GIRFEC structure provides an opportunity through regular meetings in nursery or school to look at:
- things that can influence how your child grows and develops
- what they need from those that look after them
- what they need to access the wider world.
Every child is different, so the support your child needs will be unique to them. It is important to think about what will make a difference to your lives.
Do not worry if what you think your child needs support with has not been done before. Sometimes the nursery or school will not have worked with any children that need what your child needs. It can be new for you all.
It is important to learn about how things work with GIRFEC and get familiar with terms such as:
- Lead Professional (the main person you will work with when it comes to support for your child)
- Child’s Plan (the plan that sets out what your child needs support with).
If you can, take time to read the resources on this page, so that you are knowledgeable and ready to work with the professionals. This will help you make sure all professionals are accountable to you and your child.
You can also contact your child’s nursery or school, or your council’s social work department to say you would like GIRFEC explained. You can ask if they think a Child’s Plan meeting should be in place, as you feel your child has additional support needs.
Step three: Find local activities and organisations designed for your child’s needs
Searching online for different local support groups and activities which your child can become involved with is a great opportunity to meet other parents in the same situation.
You can also ask at the Child’s Plan meeting about activities and organisations that can support you and your child in your local area.
Getting involved with these groups and activities can also help you learn more about what your child might need support with and what other support is available.
Next steps
Take a look at the Resources section below for more information and advice to help you work out what your child needs support with.
Read the next page: Your Child’s Plan
If things are going well, your Lead Professional will be organising the meetings. This includes making sure everyone attends, contacting people who are not attending, and making sure everyone completes any action they are supposed to take.
If things are going well, your child will be accessing the support they need and be able to develop to their full potential.
Many people have this experience.
We also know that some common issues come up for people.
Here is what do to if any of these things happen to you.
I do not feel confident or comfortable in meetings about my child’s support
Many parents can feel like this, especially when they are first having conversations about their child’s support.
It may help to ask someone else to come with you to meetings.
You can take another family member or someone you trust.
You can also get more formal support through advocacy organisations.
It is important that you and your child’s views are clear, and you may need someone to help you navigate the meetings.
Learning as a parent to work with professionals and understand their role and their boundaries is essential to working out what can be best provided for your child.
You can find a local Advocacy organisation here.
It is hard to set meeting dates to move things along
Once a meeting about a Child’s Plan is established, dates should be set out for the next meetings for the rest of the year. You can remind people of this in the meeting to make sure it happens.
The professionals cannot attend the meetings or are busy
If for some reason a professional cannot attend, and this is known in advance, they should email an update on their progress so it does not delay further progress.
If they are absent from work they should be contacted by the Lead Professional on their return and updated on progress and their input.
If someone is repeatedly not attending, their manager should be contacted. You may also have contact with them and can get updates.
Do not be shy to contact those that should be involved.
It is a good idea if you can be aware of what everyone is supposed to be doing and feed this back at meetings.
You can also contact professionals to help them progress their support for your child.
I find the Child’s Plan hard to understand, or do not agree with it
The Child’s Plan should be written in such a way that you and your child can understand it.
It should also reflect what you want in it and have agreed to – it is your plan.
You can ask for things to be taken out, amended and rewritten.
Speak to your Lead Professional if you do not understand the plan, or do not agree with what is in it.
It feels like nothing is getting done
You can encourage aims and goals to have a date set against them to be reviewed, so progress can be clearly seen.
Professionals involved with your child’s support can be held accountable and explain why things are not happening.
You may find it helpful to speak with an Independent Support Organisation or advocacy service if you feel like things are not moving and you need support.
You can find your local Independent Support Organisation using the Find Help search tool.
You can find a local Advocacy organisation here.
I feel like my child’s views are not being taken into account
It is vital that your child’s views and opinions are clear within their plan, so they can help design and choose what they need help with and how this can be met for them.
The actual Child’s Plan meeting might not be a suitable environment for your child to attend due to the number of adults and language used. Sometimes there are difficult conversations that your child does not and should not need to hear. Your child does not have to attend.
Equally, your child’s opinions are essential. It is important for you to discuss with your child before and after the meetings, what they want and what is important to them.
It is important that your child’s wishes are communicated to the wider group, and that they understand what it all means to them.
The professionals disagree about who should do what
Sometimes professionals may not know who is responsible for what and this may be debated in a meeting.
This may be uncomfortable for the parent (and child if attending). The Lead Professional can work with you to find out who is supposed to do what.
The professionals have decided something I do not agree with
It is your role to challenge and remind them of what your child needs and wants, and be able to explain why.
You might find it helpful to speak with an Independent Support Organisation or Advocacy service who can help you and your child have your opinions heard.
You can find your local Independent Support Organisation using the Find Help search tool.
You can find a local Advocacy organisation here.
The Scottish Government have published information on how GIRFEC should work in practice.
This says:
- If your child requires additional support your social worker, nursery contact or school contact should organise Child’s Plan meetings.
- The Child’s Plan should offer a simple planning, assessment and decision-making process which leads to the right help, at the right time.
- The Child’s Plan should reflect the voice of the child or young person at every stage. It should include a clear explanation of why the plan has been created, the personalised actions to be taken and the expected improvement for the child or young person.
- The Lead Professional should work with children, young people and their families, and all of those involved in the Child’s Plan. They should ensure that the support provided is regularly reviewed and evaluated for its effectiveness in the improvement of outcomes for the child or young person.
It says the Child’s Plan should be clear on:
- which services or people will provide support
- who is accountable for that support
- the way in which that support will be provided.
You can read the information from the Scottish Government here.
The law around support for children and young people is called the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.
This is the law that embeds the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) approach in Scotland.
The law says that professionals working with your child should ensure that GIRFEC happens for your child.
This involves having a Lead Professional to take things forward, and regular Child’s Plan meetings to progress support. All relevant professionals should attend and be held accountable through these meetings.
You can find the full text of the law here.
Some children and young people with complex additional support needs may also have a Coordinated Support Plan (CSP) in place, if they meet the criteria for one. This law enables professionals from several agencies to plan together to meet a child’s needs and to coordinate their support towards agreed learning targets.
The law that talks about this is called the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004. You can find the part of the law that talks about this here.