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We need to stop and consider the impact on children of accepting and promoting transgender explanations for children’s feelings
Paper by Maggie Mellon On the impact of poverty on Children and Families in Social Work system
Easterhouse is about 6 miles east of Glasgow city centre. Building began in the mid-1950s by Glasgow Corporation. The same age as I am roughly. The goal was to provide better housing for the people of the east end of Glasgow. It was built to house over 50,000 people – a town with no amenities, no centre, no theatre, few shops
Stand up for social work by joining BASW
Guest blog from Maggie Mellon, Vice Chair of The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Community Care has reported less than a tenth of the profession are involved in the debate following the College of Social Work’s closure announcement. I want as many people as possible to get involved in talking about social work, we must defend and promote our profession and not expect others to do it on our behalf. Here’s my case for why social...
‘Where’s Kilbrandon Now?’: reviewing child justice in Scotland
Maggie Mellon reports on 'Where's Kilbrandon Now?', the inquiry into the future of the Scottish children's hearing system. Child Justice in Scotland is based on a system of hearings held by panels .It was established in 1968, in response to a report by Lord Kilbrandon, a senior Scottish laws lord. In recent years the hearings system has come under criticism for being 'too soft', and there have been calls to take child justice back to the...
Named Person: National Caseworking
By Maggie Mellon Supporters of the Named Person (NP) scheme, who relied mainly on assurances given by the Government and NP’s architects and supporters, might have been surprised by the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that the law needed to be dropped or substantially revised. It was, however, not the assurances that were the subject of the challenge and the Supreme Court ruling. Why the Government and its supporters chose not to refer...
An Open Letter to John Swinney On Named Person
DEAR John Swinney, You have asked for engagement on the future of the Named Person following the ruling of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled the information sharing provisions unlawful and also cautioned that parental or child consent to share personal information should not be obtained by the threat of any possible consequences. Read more – Swinney defends Named Person scheme in wake of Supreme Court ruling Your decision to decline to...
Getting the balance right, achieving results with children and families
Maggie Mellon, Director of Children and Family Services with Children 1st. Maggie previously worked as Head of Public Policy for NCH Scotland and has written and edited a number of publications. Recorded at the Achieving Results with Children and Families conference. Source: Lriss
A time for change
In our second blog post reviewing the ‘Youth Justice in Scotland’ paper, Maggie Mellon, independent social work consultant and vice-chair of the British Association of Social Workers, makes the case for using this as an opportunity to bring about real change. CYCJ’s attempts to raise the need for reform in the treatment of children and young people who come to the attention of the authorities of offence grounds are welcome. However, it...
Baby boxes, universalism and higher taxes
In many ways the baby box provision can be understood as a heart-warming initiative here in Scotland at a time when the ‘nasty party’ in Westminster seems to be intent on destroying everything universal, and free and civic and kind. What’s not to like? Who is not a little proud of or even just simply relieved to have a government that seems to care? It seems curmudgeonly to cry ‘Bah Humbug’, or even to question whether the relatively few...
Presumption against prison – a game changer
It is perhaps the nature of things in Scotland today that two or more quite contrary views can be held by Government. The SNP is committed to independence as the solution to Scotland’s ills, but is far less unanimous about what kind of policy solutions are needed or about using the powers that ministers have to make a difference. More revenues from oil and fracking? Or leave the fossil fuel in the ground and go for green renewables? ...