Paisley charity aims to do more for young people in care after inaugural conference

Scotland’s children and young people’s commissioner has called for more to be done to protect people in care.

It comes after the inaugural Kibble conference – which was held on Monday, November 11 and brought together professionals from a range of disciplines related to care for children and young people.

Those from backgrounds in social work, mental health services, education and the justice system all arrived with a view to highlighting how better synergies and more effective care for young people can be achieved through better working practices.

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The theme of the conference was ‘Transforming Lives’ and was inspired by charity Kibble’s commitment to achieve the Scottish Government’s ‘The Promise’ – ensuring children grow up in loved, safe and respected environments.

In order to achieve this, Kibble is recognising more cross-discipline working, learning and best practice is required for the benefit of children and young people and to truly affect change in their lives.

Jim Gillespie, chief executive officer at Kibble, said: “It was good to see that professionals from across the range of sectors who impact and influence the lives of young people were inspired to attend our first Kibble conference.

“It shows me there is an appetite to do better as a whole, to really impact positively on the lives of young people and to work more collaboratively as a sector to achieve positive outcomes for some of our most vulnerable children in Scotland and more broadly in the UK.

“Through the range of speakers and workshops we saw throughout the day, it was clear that each and every attendee at the conference was leaving with a renewed sense of passion to review their own approach to the care of children and young people they work with – ensuring cross-party collaboration is front of mind for those children who need it most.”

The conference was hailed as a success by those who attended as the collaboration allowed those to strive for a better service for young people.

Speaking at the conference, Nicola Killean, Scotland’s children and young people’s commissioner, warned that much more needs to be done to keep The Promise and that all professionals connecting with children and young people have a part to play in ensuring goals set out in the pledge are achieved.

“The children who come into contact with services provided by Kibble and by other organisations that are here are there because their rights have already been breached,” she said.

“The mission, for all of us, is to ensure that their rights are not further breached while they are in care; that they are supported to recover from what they have experienced and that children are properly protected from harm and prevention is prioritised.

“Children in residential care, and particularly in secure care, are children who have experienced serious vulnerability in their lives. The services provided to them must be of the highest quality, the best we can do, because they deserve nothing less.”

For further information about Kibble, visit https://www.kibble.org/

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