Some of the key findings of Susan Deacon's Joining the Dots
- Policy makers need to spend less time analysing a child's formative years and more time acting to safeguard the youngest generation
- Authorities to act earlier in cases where children were at risk
- There needs to be a bias for action when dealing with issues that could prevent a child reaching their potential
- Where these efforts have been made and it is clear that the child is at risk of continued abuse or neglect, or where their home environment and parental relationship is such that the child's social and emotional development will be severely impaired, we need to act and act far more quickly than is often the case
- A new generation of children and family centres to be established across the country and for Scotland to be more child-friendly
- Intensive support is needed to break the cycle of poor parenting that is blighting the lives of many of our children
- Much greater collaboration between sectors public, private and voluntary to help give parents and families and the support and services they need, as well as much greater partnership with parents themselves to involve them in helping to make Scotland a more child-friendly place
