Authorities are anxious not to see a repeat of the Michael McGarrity case, in which the three-year-old boy survived for six weeks alongside the body of his mother, after she died of a drug overdose in their flat in Edinburgh last October.
Dr Alison McCallum, NHS Lothian director of public health, said, 'Our systems for supervising vulnerable children are being further strengthened following the discovery of Michael McGarrity in a Leith flat after the death of his mother.
'One example is that named health visitors are being allocated to each nursery in the Edinburgh council area to provide an active link to the health service. Health visitors are being allocated to nurseries based on an assessment of the likely needs of the children attending the nursery.'
In addition, a shared database of information on nearly 37,000 children, called C-Me, was launched in West Lothian last week. People to be granted access to the C-Me system will be determined by Edinburgh City Council.
Dr McCallum said, 'The C-Me project allows online access to data from the child protection register for Edinburgh and the Lothians. Our partners in education are responsible for determining who in schools and local authority nurseries will get access to the system. The general principle is that access will only be granted to authorised staff on a need-to- know basis.'
Meanwhile, the Scottish Executive has published a report on protecting children whose parents are substance abusers, entitled Hidden Harm: Next Step - Supporting Children, Working with Parents.
The report highlights the risks that the effects on children neglected by drug-abusing parents will last for life. In a section on birth to five-year-oldsm it says there is 'a need for co-ordinated risk assessment and effective communications among all agencies working across both statutory and voluntary sector agencies'.
The report can be downloaded at www.scotland.gov.uk under 'Health and community care'.
