Definition of Key Workers & Vulnerable Children (Dec 2020)
The definition of key workers is as per Scottish Government guidance as follows:
Category 1 – Health and Care workers directly supporting COVID response, and associated staff; Health and Care workers supporting life threatening emergency work, as well as critical primary and community care provision; Energy suppliers (small numbers identified as top priority already); staff providing childcare/learning for other category 1 staff.
Category 2 – All other Health and Care workers, and wider public sector workers providing emergency/critical welfare services (for example: Fire, police, prisons, social workers), as well as those supporting our Critical National Infrastructure, without whom serious damage to the welfare of the people of Scotland could be caused.
Category 3 – All workers (private, public or third sector) without whom there could be a significant impact on Scotland (but where the response to COVID-19, or the ability to perform essential tasks to keep the country running, would not be severely compromised).
The definition of Vulnerable children and young people is as per Scottish Government guidance as follows:
Children and young people may be vulnerable because of factors related to their personal development, features of their family life, or because of wider influences that impact on them within their community.
Those children who were considered to be vulnerable prior to the pandemic should have been known to services and are likely to have had a child’s plan.
Where a child requires co-ordinated support from more than one agency, this is likely to suggest greater vulnerability, and the plan would be co-ordinated by a lead professional. This would include a range of children and young people, such as those:
Category 1 – Health and Care workers directly supporting COVID response, and associated staff; Health and Care workers supporting life threatening emergency work, as well as critical primary and community care provision; Energy suppliers (small numbers identified as top priority already); staff providing childcare/learning for other category 1 staff.
Category 2 – All other Health and Care workers, and wider public sector workers providing emergency/critical welfare services (for example: Fire, police, prisons, social workers), as well as those supporting our Critical National Infrastructure, without whom serious damage to the welfare of the people of Scotland could be caused.
Category 3 – All workers (private, public or third sector) without whom there could be a significant impact on Scotland (but where the response to COVID-19, or the ability to perform essential tasks to keep the country running, would not be severely compromised).
The definition of Vulnerable children and young people is as per Scottish Government guidance as follows:
Children and young people may be vulnerable because of factors related to their personal development, features of their family life, or because of wider influences that impact on them within their community.
Those children who were considered to be vulnerable prior to the pandemic should have been known to services and are likely to have had a child’s plan.
Where a child requires co-ordinated support from more than one agency, this is likely to suggest greater vulnerability, and the plan would be co-ordinated by a lead professional. This would include a range of children and young people, such as those:
- at risk of significant harm, with a child protection plan
- looked after at home, or away from home including kinship care
- ‘on the edge of care’, where families would benefit from additional support
- with additional support needs, where there are one or more factors which require significant or co-ordinated support
- affected by disability
- where they and/or their parents are experiencing poor physical or mental health
- experiencing adversities including domestic abuse and bereavement
- requiring support when they are involved in making transitions at critical stages in their lives.
