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… Read More ›
Justice
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…. Read More ›
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… Read More ›
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…. Read More ›
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… Read More ›
The Stolen Children of England – Maggie Mellon’s Response
This is a guest post written by social worker Maggie Mellon, in response to blog posts by Sarah Phillimore previously published on this blog here and here. As with Sarah’s posts, this post is a comment piece and represents the… Read More ›
When it comes to sex offences against children, we need to condemn less and understand more
More heat than light has been generated by the media blitzkrieg around the future employment by Hearts of Craig Thomson, the young footballer convicted of sexual offences with underage girls.