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Welcome to the latest update from the Public Protection Partnership. This month we’re sharing highlights from the Missing Person Protocol launch, a wellbeing postcard project for young people, updates from our child protection self-evaluation and news from the Recovery Community of Practice.
As always, if there’s something you’d like to learn more about or contribute to a future edition, we’d love to hear from you, just get in touch using the contact details at the end of the newsletter.
Launch of the Missing Person Protocol
On 2 September, over 80 people came together at the Bridge to launch Dumfries and Galloway’s new Missing Person Protocol. The event brought together partners from Police Scotland, social work, NHS, education and third sector organisations.
Detective Inspector Scott Wilson led the work to develop the local Missing Person's Protocol and was involved in presenting the protocol at the event.
Hamish McGhie, Chair of the Public Protection Committee, and Superintendent Nicola Robison from Police Scotland opened the event. Emma Wynack from the Missing People charity spoke about the national picture and the importance of return discussions.
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Cheryl Copeland from the Public Protection Team shared resources from the Public Protection website, while Rosie Black and Charlene Cruickshank represented the Out of Hours Social Work team. Rosie retired on the day of the event – thank you, Rosie, for your dedicated service.
Wendy Chambers from NHS Dumfries and Galloway shared information about the Herbert Protocol and the new Safe Connect device from Alzheimer Scotland.
Hannah Stewart and Caitlin Little from the Adult Support and Protection MASH Team also attended.
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Wellbeing Postcards Competition
Dumfries and Galloway Council worked with NHS CAMHS and the Cameron Grant Memorial Trust to run a wellbeing postcard competition for young people aged 12 to 18. Over 130 entries were received from across the region.
Judges met on 19 February and chose four winning designs. These were printed on postcards and distributed to all secondary schools in June. Each postcard includes a design on the front and local mental health support information on the back.
Young people were encouraged to take a postcard for themselves and for anyone they thought might benefit. A launch event was held at Dumfries High School on 2 June to celebrate the winners. Prizes included certificates, Youth Beatz tickets, a £50 Amazon voucher and artwork donated by mental health campaigner Frank Ritchie.
The winning designs were also displayed at Youth Beatz, in the DGRI Atrium and other locations throughout the year.
Thank you to the Cameron Grant Memorial Trust for supporting this project.
Child Protection Self-Evaluation
Earlier in 2025 the Dumfries and Galloway Public Protection Partnership completed a targeted Child Protection self-evaluation. This followed a larger evaluation in 2022 and focused on a smaller sample of cases and staff survey responses.
Staff from social work, Police Scotland, health and education services worked together to review 60 files. They agreed the following gradings for how well services support children, young people and families:
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Quality indicator
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Grading
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Recognition and response to initial concerns.
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Good
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Assessing risk and need.
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Good
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Care planning, managing risk and effective intervention.
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Good
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Involving individual children, young people and families.
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Good
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The Public Protection Committee and Chief Officers Group have approved the final report and improvement plan. These actions will be monitored quarterly by the Performance, Quality and Improvement Sub-Committee.
If you’d like to be involved in future self-evaluation work, please email publicprotection@dumgal.gov.uk or karen.brown@dumgal.gov.uk.
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Recovery Community of Practice
The Alcohol and Drug Partnership has set up a Recovery Community of Practice for staff working in substance use recovery. This includes paid and unpaid workers.
The group shares knowledge, builds peer support and raises awareness of recovery services across Dumfries and Galloway. It has created a support booklet for people leaving prison and is working to expand recovery services in the west of the region.
Plans include a podcast and a cocaine awareness campaign for the festive season. The group also runs a newsletter every two months to share updates and mark awareness days.
On 31 August, services across the region marked International Overdose Awareness Day. September was Recovery Month, with a local recovery walk at HMP Dumfries on 16 September and a national walk in Stirling on 27 September 2025.
To learn more, contact Barbara Zaman or Renata Siftova at dg.adp@nhs.scot.
Celebrating Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month
To mark Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month 2025, Scottish Traveller Education Programme (STEP ) launched its annual art challenge in May. This year’s theme was ‘home and belonging’.
The Gypsy Traveller Service worked with pupils across Dumfries and Galloway to explore what ‘home and belonging’ means to them through art.
We’re proud to share that Shirrell Forrest, a P6 pupil at Gretna Primary, won the national competition for her age group. Shirrell received a tablet as her prize at last week’s school assembly.
Congratulations to Shirrell for creating the winning artwork shown below.
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