The Child Protection Committee is locally-based and has representatives from a range of agencies including social work, police, education, health, and housing as well as representatives from the voluntary sector. The Child Protection Committee works in partnership with Chief Officers and the Scottish Government to take forward child protection policy and practice across Scotland.

What do we do?

The work of the Child Protection Committee is reflected in local practice and meets local needs. The following describes in more detail the core business functions of Child Protection Committee.
Our role relates to the following key areas:

Continuous Improvement
We have a key role to play in the continuous improvement of child protection policy and practice that includes:

• Developing policies, procedures and protocols
• Promoting good practice
• Training and staff development

Strategic Planning
We are actively involved in planning child protection policy and practice. This includes:

• Promoting  effective communication, collaboration and co-operation between all agencies
• Making and maintaining links with other planning services

Public Information and Communication
We have a communications strategy in place promoting the ethos that "child protection is everyone’s job. The strategy includes:

• Raising public awareness and understanding of child protection issues within communities and about how members of the public can report concerns about a child and what could happen.
• Involving children and young people and their families in the design, development and implementation of our public information and communication strategies, to ensure that information is accessible and that children’s experiences and perspectives are properly reflected.

For further information on child protection committees please see page 39 of the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2010.