Parents & Carers

Family is Important

One of the essential principles behind the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 is that, so far as is consistent with safeguarding and promoting the child’s welfare, the local authority must promote the upbringing of children by their families. This includes extended families.

Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights states that:

  1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.
  2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic wellbeing of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Many families who experience difficulties are able to resolve them with help from the extended family, their friends and in some cases with help from professionals.

In Highland, we believe in working in partnership with parents and carers to help protect children and ensure that families get the right help if and when they need it.

There are some excellent resources available for children and families to access and talk about important safety issues.

Locally, the Safe, Strong and Free project works with nursery and primary schools to discuss how children can keep themselves safe using age appropriate tools and language. They focus on issues such as bullying, strangers and secrets.

“Safe Strong and Free believes that every child has the right to grow up safe, strong & free and that preventing sexual assault and exploitation of children is the responsibility of the whole community”

For further information, visit: http://safestrongandfree.org.uk/

Online Safety

Online Safety is often a concern for parents.  CEOP provides parents & carers with lots of helpful information about keeping children safe online, and how to report concerns about online incidents: https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/

Added 29/11/18 – This document provides a range of resources to help you keep children safe online. There are also Top Tips for keeping children safe – Online Safety Links

Worried about child sexual abuse?

https://www.stopitnow.org.uk/scotland/ provides advice and guidance for parents/carers, professionals and communities in relation to child sexual abuse.

Neurodevelopmental Info (The Pines)

The Pines launched their new website in February 2021 with lots of information for supporting children with neurodevelopmental conditions. 

This includes:

  • online training and workshops.
  • Advice for parents on supporting their child.
  • Resources for using at home and in school

You can visit the website at: https://www.thepineshighland.com/

 

Understanding your child  – Solihull Online courses are now available free to all families in Scotland

The Scottish Government has announced that all families in Scotland will have free access to the full Solihull Online resource for parents and carers.  Solihull Online is a universal resource for parents and carers from the antenatal period to 19 years. It offers a series of modules containing interactive activities, quizzes and video clips. The online resource focusses on developing nurturing and supportive relationships between children and their carers. It aims to help parents understand their child’s behaviour in the context of their child’s development and the parent-child relationship.

The following courses are available free for parents/carers in Scotland

  *   Understanding pregnancy, labour, birth and your baby
  *   Understanding your baby
  *   Understanding your child
  *   Understanding your teenager’s brain

To access these courses for free, families need to use the access code TARTAN. Please further information, visit:

Online Course for parents – Solihull Approach | Parenting (solihullapproachparenting.com)