Church of Scotland relaunches children's services

One of Scotland’s largest voluntary care providers has relaunched its children’s services at the Scottish Parliament.

CrossReach, the Church of Scotland’s social care provider, recently restructured its operations with a focus on inclusiveness, and its “Include me in” initiative features an enterprising apprenticeship scheme.

The Geilsland LINKS programme was showcased, which provides real work experience in construction and horticulture for young people. The service is open to residential and day pupils, and is available outwith the campus too.

LINKS graduates are then offered full time employment in a supported situation, placed within a pool of specially selected and trained sub-contractors with a view to apprenticeships.

Chris McNaught, general and strategic manager of children’s services, feels this could make a huge difference to the lives of young people.

“It is one example of how our services are engaging young people who have not had positive experiences and shows how we are helping them to achieve.

“We aim to improve the wellbeing of children, support families within their communities, and improve the skill base and employability of those who have contact with CrossReach.”

He enthused about the idea of apprenticeships for young people.

“We see the increasing profile around apprenticeships as bringing considerable benefits to Scotland," he said.

“Working towards this, we are very active in addressing the Skills for Scotland Agenda across a number of our sites in order to improve the skill base and employability of those with whom we come in contact.

“We are delighted with the interest that the Scottish Parliament is demonstrating in promoting apprenticeships and are most grateful for John Park MSP for sponsoring this event.”

Service users are not the only benefactors of the re-launch. A group of mums have been attending the Microsoft-approved IT academy, also hosted at Geilsland, and they have been learning computer literacy skills to improve their own employment prospects.

Mothers were on hand to give a short presentation, along with members of the Threshold Service, and pupils from the LINKS programme.

CrossReach plans to hold a follow-up presentation event after Easter to celebrate the achievements of service users from this new scheme.