Central Scotland Support

Charlie has recently taken on a contract with Stirling Council to support the development and embedding of the learning and development frameworks for child protection and adult support and protection.

The council, who recently joined their Social Care and Education services with Clackmannanshire Council, are working to build on a positive follow thorugh inspection report from Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCSWIS, now the Care Inspectorate), published in August 2011.

Charlie will be working with colleagues across social work, education, the police and health services. He will also have a role in the implementation of the GIRFEC programme.

The Scottish Organisation for Practice Teaching (ScOPT) is the national membership grouping for Social Work Practice Teachers in Scotland, developing practice, energising the national debates on this area of social work and ensuring that the key role played by practice teachers continues to be developed.

Charlie Gracie attended the Annual Conference for ScOPT in Glasgow on 10 November 2010. You can read about this event by following the link.

At the AGM after the conference, Charlie joined the National Committee of ScOPT and will play an active role in the organisation over the next year.

Charlie has carried out a survey of the views of asylum seeker service users in Glasgow who are accommodated by YMCA Glasgow. We will be able to report on the outcomes in the near future.

Charlie carried out the work with Sheila Arthur from Community InfoSource, whose work supporting asylum seekers is wide-ranging.

YMCA Glasgow provides accommodation to over one thousand people from more than thirty countries in the city.

Central Scotland Support is delighted to offer a range of training events for foster carers that will meet their development needs and the aims of fostering agencies.

The training programmes for foster carers outlines the range of training on offer: from introductory Child Protection to Safer Caring and the Participative Training Events – our innovative Child Protection updates.

Have a look at the outline of these events and other learning opportunities in the training development and delivery section of the site.

For further information or a chat about our services, please feel free to contact Charlie Gracie by phone on 07846 296832

Training delivered to local authority Housing and Homelessness Services and RSLs

Central Scotland Support is working with Clackmannanshire Council and Falkirk Council to establish procedures and structures to ensure the ongoing successful implementaion of the National Accommodation Strategy for Sex Offenders.

Charlie Gracie has developed, with Central Scotland Police Offender Management Unit, a training day for all staff who may be involved in offering accommodation or support to Registered Sex Offenders.

These training workshops were delivered to a range of staff including those from:

• Housing Service involved in housing allocation, maintenance and estate management
• Homelessness service
• Housing Support and Money Advice
• Housing Associations working in the Clackmannanshire area
• Social Services

This training workshop can be tailored for delivery in other local authority areas.

NASSO is vital as part of the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) which were set up in line with the Management of Offenders etc. (Scotland) Act 2005. MAPPA is an essential process to improve the monitoring and support of registered sex offenders in the community; something that can improve safety through risk management and good communication between all the agencies involved in this essential work.

The role that housing plays is crucial. Research shows that where an offender has stable accommodaton and the right support if necessary, they are more likely to comply with monitoring arragements and complete the programmes of work designed to address their offending behaviour; this is what NASSO aims to promote.

Charlie is involved in the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) project  . This is based on the Flanders Moss, described by SNH as “a relic of what must have been one of the largest lowland bog areas in Britain. ”

Charlie worked with Kippen Primary School and Kippen Playgroup, with other poets and artists working with schools and groups from the four village communities around the Moss: Kippen, Port of Menteith, Arnprior and Charlie’s home village of Thornhill.

Why is SNH doing this? This is what they say about the Moss: “situated in the Carse of Stirling, it’s a bogland of great beauty with its colourful sphagnum mosses and varied birdlife.” SNH is keen for the local community to engage with this beautiful place.

The project was led and co-ordinated by Jessica Langford, a Buchlyvie based animator and film maker who has a wide experience of using creativity in work with children.

The work is now complete and the first of a rotating series of poewms from all the groups is now in place on te boardwalk at the Flanders Moss visiting area between Thornhill and Kippen (B822).

The final documentary and publications are in progress. More to come on this as the project develops…….

In the meantime, you can read Charlie’s poem February on the Moss, published in April 2009 in Poetry Scotland.