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
Procedural The Acting Chairman (Mr Speaker): Good afternoon everyone. Can I welcome everyone to this meeting of the Social Affairs Policy Review Committee. We are taking evidence in public this afternoon and can I ask as a matter of housekeeping if people would kindly switch off their mobile phones so this does not interfere with the recording equipment. My name is Steve Rodan. I am acting as Chair of the Committee in the absence of the...
Keywords Named Person, Getting It Right For Every Child, Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, parents. Corresponding author: Maggie Mellon,Independent consultant on social work practice and public policy. My four main reasons for opposing the Named Person Firstly, there is no evidence to support introducing Named Persons in legislation. Secondly, the legislation does not say what it claims that it does. Thirdly, this is neither early...
Maggie Mellon asks why we have children and what makes a parent. Drawing on her own experience of motherhood, she suggests what the national parenting strategy should do. Just over 22 years ago, at nearly midnight on 21 December 1989, I had my first child by caesarean section in the Whittington Hospital in north London. I was 36 years old, had a full-time job, nearly a year's paid maternity leave to look forward to, a three-bedroom house with a...
why we are in danger of creating a surveillance and not a support system for children and famiies? Debate Thanks to Jackie and Children in Scotland for organising the debate. The idea came out from a workshop proposal that I made for the conference. My aim was to promote discussion about what I think are problems in the direction of travel of policy on children and families. I think that this is a very necessary discussion – and so I am very...
Feminist campaigner and social worker Maggie Mellon makes the case against the Scottish Government's 'Named Person' scheme SCOTLAND, like the rest of the UK and much of Europe, is an increasingly unequal society. Poverty and inequality are what stunt children's lives and these things cannot be tackled by caseworking the entire population of children. Instead, housing, jobs, income, education, health services and the environment are the...
Feminist campaigner Maggie Mellon explains why she believes short term prison sentences are unhelpful - even in domestic abuse cases SCOTLAND may be poised to take a big step away from having one of the highest rates of imprisonment in Europe. Eighty-four per cent of respondents in a recent government consultation favoured a presumption against short prison sentences - which basically means encouraging the courts not to hand down short jail...
Maggie Mellon (CQSW, MSc, Dip Child Protection) is a social worker with many years’ experience in both Scotland and England. She has been vice chair of the British Association of Social Workers since 2014, and also chairs the Association’s Ethics and Human Rights Committee. She was formerly Director of Services for Children 1st and Head of Public Policy for NCH Action for Children in Scotland. Chair of the Scottish Child Law Centre from 2009 -12. Currently non–executive Director of NHS Health Scotland and a member of the editorial Board of Scottish Justice Matters. Maggie now works independently as a consultant on social work practice and public policy.