Every child, every chance: tackling child poverty delivery plan 2018-2022

Chapter 5: Helping Families in Other Ways

"If your parents are stressed about money and argue a lot, it'll impact you and you feel like you can't do anything about it."
Member of the Children's Parliament, age 10

The Poverty and Inequality Commission said that while the Delivery Plan needed to focus on work and earnings, costs of living and social security, it shouldn't ignore other issues that could help families in poverty now.

They specifically mentioned quality of life - and within that, we'd include the importance of addressing adverse childhood experiences and working to ensure that children's home and community environments are safe and nurturing, and help all children to fulfil their potential.

There are clear links here with some of our existing strategies. For example, we remain committed to implementing the recommendations in Naomi Eisenstadt's 2017 report for the First Minister on The Life Chances of Young People in Scotland. We'll be taking these forward in Year of Young People 2018. Similarly, our New Scots Refugee Integration Strategy 2018-22 sets out a vision for a welcoming Scotland where refugees and asylum seekers are able to rebuild their lives from the day they arrive. Children and young people can arrive in Scotland with their families, through the UK's asylum dispersal process or refugee resettlement programmes, or they may arrive unaccompanied. Some of these children will have had traumatic experiences in their formative years and may also have missed significant amounts of education. The New Scots strategy recognises that these children and young people may require additional support to access the services they need and opportunities to participate in society.

As well as tackling the main immediate drivers of child poverty on work and earnings etc., our actions must help prevent children and young people now in poverty becoming parents in poverty by 2030. Improving health and well-being, quality of life, building children's resilience in the face of poverty and helping families cope with and address different adversities should improve long-term outcomes. We've set out a range of key actions here.

New Help for Children's Neighbourhoods

We will invest £2 million in the innovative Children's Neighbourhoods Scotland programme, expanding its reach in Glasgow and into another urban centre, a small town and a rural community.

Children's Neighbourhoods Scotland is a distinctive approach to improving outcomes for all children and young people in neighbourhoods with high levels of poverty. Based on experience and practice internationally, ^[11] the approach is place-based and has children, young people and communities at its core. It uses the power of collective action, joining up efforts and services within a neighbourhood to prevent and reduce child and family poverty.

In Scotland, the first Children's Neighbourhood has recently been established in the Bridgeton and Dalmarnock neighbourhood of Glasgow ^[12] .

The Scottish Government will extend our support in Glasgow, another urban centre, a small town and a rural community - so we understand how transferable the approach is to these settings where child poverty is also unacceptably high. We will invest £2 million in Children's Neighbourhoods Scotland over the course of this Delivery Plan (2018-22) to support this work.

The Children's Neighbourhoods approach involves a local co-ordinator in a child-friendly base - such as a nursery, library, community hub, or school, which is used and valued by the community. A management team looks after the programme locally, providing strategic direction, evaluation and evidence, and development and learning support across the sites. Vitally, children and families are at the heart of the approach - all the outcomes identified, and all the actions to meet them, are developed and agreed locally between families and partner organisations.

Our support for expansion will help us reduce child poverty in a range of ways, but for these new pilots, we will explicitly target economic development and entrepreneurship. This has not been a strong feature of the approach in neighbourhoods in other parts of the UK or internationally, but the Scottish policy context, with its emphasis on inclusive growth, provides an ideal opportunity to test this model.

Resources

£2 million invested between 2018-22.

Impact Summary

Aims to ensure children living in poverty now can fulfil their potential, which may help prevent them living in poverty in adulthood. Some elements, such as the focus on economic development and entrepreneurship, may have the potential to impact on all four targets between now and 2030.

Support for Students and Communities from Further and Higher Education

We are investing an additional £1.35 million over the course of the Delivery Plan in pilot projects based in further education settings and via the Student Awards Agency for Scotland ( SAAS). These will support or scale up preventative approaches, helping ensure young people who have grown up in poverty have sustainable routes to positive destinations and out of poverty. This work will also help young mothers and fathers in further education.

Equality of access to further and higher education can help overcome barriers to accessing fair work in terms of skills, training, education and childcare, particularly for young people and parents at highest risk of poverty.

We are investing around £1.7 billion in higher and further education in 2018-19, and around £800 million in student support. We are driving forward the recommendations of the Commission on Widening Access so that every child, no matter their background or circumstances, has an equal chance of going to university by 2030. We continue to work with colleges and universities to focus on improved retention and outcomes. Over the course of the next year, we will progress an improvement project to identify and share effective practice to better support young people across the college sector. At the heart of our efforts, the implementation of the Developing the Young Workforce programme, supported by a range of partners, and delivered in partnership with COSLA, is designed to transform young people's choices whilst at school and enable all young people to have access to the highest level skills and Scotland's best post school destinations.

Looking forward, we will take three key actions:

First, we're currently considering the recommendations made by the Independent Review of Student Support. At the forefront of our considerations are that those students in our most deprived communities and those in specific groups (such as disabled students, care-experienced young people, carers or student parents) are provided with the support they need to succeed.

Second, we will commit £150,000 from the Tackling Child Poverty Fund to expand the SAAS Outreach Programme. This programme proactively provides face-to-face, digital and published student information. It currently reaches, through its events, an estimated 30,000 young people and their parents/guardians, with a particular focus on widening access. The funding will help expand this successful model to reach children and young people from our priority families, making sure they can access the funding support available.

Third, we will support the further education sector to develop initiatives with colleges in local areas, investing £1.2 million over the course of the Delivery Plan. These will support or scale up preventative approaches, helping ensure young people who have grown up in poverty have, through further education, a sustainable route to positive destinations and a route out of poverty. This work will also take account of the needs of young mothers and fathers in further education, acknowledging the particular support they need and enabling them to build a future for themselves and their families.

We are also working to widen access to medical careers, which traditionally have attracted those from more affluent backgrounds. Since autumn 2017, the Scottish Government has funded two new pre-medical entry courses at Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities, supporting 40 places for pupils primarily from areas of multiple deprivation or rural areas to prepare them for undergraduate medical education. The aim is to give these students the experience and qualifications needed to meet the requirements to study medicine at university. We're also funding an increase of 50 medical undergraduate places across Scotland's medical schools, targeted at students from the most deprived areas.

Resources

£150,000 for the Student Awards Agency in 2018-19. In addition, we will provide £1.2 million over the course of the Delivery Plan for Further Education initiatives.

Impact Summary

Potential for impact on future earnings for parents who are more able to access further and higher education, and therefore will feed through to all four targets.

Addressing Adverse Childhood Experiences

We are focused on addressing all Adverse Childhood Experiences ( ACEs) as a route to tackling poverty, developing approaches that are more effective at preventing ACEs in the first place.

The Commission's advice included a recommendation to consider how families with complex needs can best be supported to manage and reduce the risks and impacts of child poverty. "These needs could include mental health conditions, homelessness, domestic abuse, substance abuse, ACEs or involvement in the criminal justice system." The Health and Sport Committee were also clear that the Plan should set out steps to address this problem.

ACEs are stressful and traumatic events in childhood that can have significant impacts on children's development and long-term outcomes into adulthood. They include abuse, neglect, parental separation, alcohol and drug problems, mental health difficulties, domestic violence, and parental imprisonment.

Although ACEs can be seen across income groups, living in a low income household is associated with higher levels of ACEs. Children growing up in poverty also have less access to resources that help reduce the negative impacts of ACEs - for example, sports clubs, leisure activities, and good quality housing and neighbourhoods. The stress associated with growing up in poverty is often considered an ACE in itself, along with other stressful experiences that can be associated with poverty, such as homelessness and area deprivation.

In the 2017-18 Programme for Government, the Scottish Government committed to embed a focus across all public services on preventing ACEs and reducing the negative impact of ACEs where they occur. This is part of our on-going approach of Getting it Right for Every Child, and better understanding how the early-life experiences of adults impact on health, wellbeing and parenting. The Scottish Government is also working with the Scottish Adverse Childhood Experience ( ACE) Hub, established and co-ordinated by NHS Health Scotland, to learn how parents and families, schools, wider services (for example; health, housing, justice), third sector and communities can be better supported to address ACEs. We're also considering how to support the Scottish workforce with the knowledge and skills they need to help people with ACEs and other experiences of trauma, building on the National Trauma Training Framework developed by NHS Education for Scotland.

The Scottish Government is focused on addressing child poverty and ACEs, as we know that these childhood adversities present significant risks to health and wellbeing, attainment and economic participation. Over the coming years, we will embed approaches that are more effective at preventing ACEs in the first place and, where they've already happened, to support children and adults to better overcome them and fulfil their potential.

We now look at the specific ACE of parental imprisonment, and then consider child and adolescent mental health more broadly.

Action on parental imprisonment

We are taking a range of action, including preventative steps, to reduce the negative effects of parental imprisonment in Scotland.

Over 20,000 children each year in Scotland face parental imprisonment, a recognised ACE. Evidence shows that children experiencing parental imprisonment have worse educational outcomes, poorer health and long-term negative effects to their life chances. Parental imprisonment can also lead to an increase in family breakdown, stigmatisation and bullying and also has an immediate impact on economic wellbeing.

Scotland has a high rate of imprisonment compared with equivalent countries. Short-term sentences and remand disrupt housing, employment and family connections. We are taking forward a range of measures to reduce the use of short-term imprisonment and the inappropriate use of remand, including expanding access to robust community sentences; electronic monitoring and bail supervision. Specific measures are being targeted at women who offend, who are more likely to have dependent children.

Working in a prison setting affords a unique opportunity to influence parents while they have space to reflect. For younger parents this may be more challenging where they may have had poor experiences of being parented or cared for, or are experiencing a difficult transition to adulthood. They may also experience difficulties in their relationship with the mother of their children, and their extended family.

In recognition of this, the Scottish Prison Service ( SPS) is delivering a number of parenting programmes across the estate. This includes the Parenting Matters Programme delivered in Polmont Young Offenders Institution to young men and women, in partnership with Barnardo's. This programme focuses on enabling participants to:

• consider their own childhood and experiences of being parented/cared for;
• consider their role as a parent and the impact this can have on their children and other relationships; and
• develop practical skills that will increase confidence and understanding

SPS also works with Early Years Scotland ( EYS) to deliver 'Our Fathers programme' for parents of 0-5 year olds across a number of establishments. This programme concentrates on how children learn and develop. EYS also deliver learning through play and baby massage to some establishments.

Aberlour Family Support Services deliver 'Positive Parenting' and provide support and assistance to women within HMPYOI Cornton Vale, in particular:

• women who are pregnant;
• women who have care of their baby in custody;
• women who have children aged 0-18 years; and
• in addition, Seasons of Growth delivery for Bereavement Care and Loss.

We are also funding the development of a network of prison visitor centres which provide practical and emotional support to people visiting prisoners, with the aim of lessening the negative impacts of parental imprisonment (with particular attention paid to supporting children), and helping individuals engage successfully with other support services ( i.e. health, welfare, family services etc.). We supported the opening of new centres at four prisons in 2017-18, and plans are underway for another new centre in 2018-19.

The Scottish Prison Service's Family Strategy 2017-22 sets out a framework for working with individuals in SPS's care as well as supporting their families and wider support networks. This includes, as a priority action, the active promotion of the wellbeing and positive life outcomes for children affected by parental imprisonment.

Better alignment and co-ordination of support for families affected by parental imprisonment offers the opportunity to both prevent and mitigate the impact of ACEs and enhances the potential for significant immediate and longer-term benefits for an especially vulnerable group of children.

Resources

Parenting programmes in prison - These programmes are funded from the Scottish Prison Service's wider operating expenditure. In 2017-18 this was £345 million.

Prison Visitor Centres - Investment of £550,000 in 2017-18.

Impact Summary

This scheme aims to prevent and mitigate the impact of parental imprisonment to improve long-term prospects for children in families affected. May help to prevent future poverty when these children become adults and parents themselves.

Increased funding for mental health

Mental ill health is an important issue for the wellbeing of children and young people - one where we are taking strong action.

We want everyone to be able to talk about mental health. Reducing stigma and promoting discussion and early action are vital to ensuring that Scotland is the best place to grow up for our children and young people, especially in 2018 - the Year of Young People.

Our 10-year Mental Health Strategy sets out our vision to improve mental health in Scotland. There are a number of actions in the Strategy aimed at ensuring that children and young people have good mental health, and that agencies act early enough when issues emerge and impact young lives.

Early intervention and prevention are the cornerstone of our approach, and are a core area of focus in our Strategy. We're committed to improving services for mothers with mental health problems, particularly during pregnancy and after the birth of their child, and we're funding a perinatal Managed Clinical Network to support early identification and treatment of mental health problems occurring during pregnancy and birth. This will play an important role in reducing ACEs related to mother's mental health.

If a child or young person does experience mental ill health, it is vital that they're able to access the support and help they need, when they need it - ask once, get help fast. That's why we are investing £150 million to 2021-22 on improving mental health and delivering the mental health strategy, including supporting better access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services ( CAMHS). Such investment has seen the CAMHS workforce increase by over 65%. We expect this investment to contribute to reducing waiting times and improve board performance on addressing mental ill health for these groups.

In addition, the Scottish budget 2018-19 secured an additional £5 million for CAMHS. We are developing plans to deliver whole systems transformational change across the spectrum of support that children and young people will access.

Resources

We are investing £150 million to 2021-22 on improving mental health and delivering the mental health strategy. In addition, the Scottish budget 2018-19 secured an additional £5 million for CAMHS.

Impact Summary

Poverty increases the risk of mental health problems. Prevention and early intervention for mental health problems among children and parents has the potential to improve children's current quality of life as well as their future outcomes.

New Action on Transitions

We will actively explore how to take forward the Commission's advice on a transitions fund.

The Commission included a recommendation to consider piloting a new 'transitions fund'. The aim would be to make support available to families at important risk points for entering poverty. These include life stage transitions, such as having a baby, a child starting primary or secondary school, or transitions to adulthood for young people; and other kinds of transitions which are less easy to predict, such as relationship break-down, losing a job, falling ill, or having your tenancy ended unexpectedly.

We are already offering or planning a range of support at key transitions - including the Baby Box, the Best Start Grant and the Education Maintenance Allowance. Building on what's already in place, we will examine the potential for further support at key transition points.

Possible options we want to consider include a capital endowment or a matched-savings plan for children in poverty, with a view to helping prevent their own future children growing up in poverty. One group we are particularly keen to help is young people aged 16 years or older who are leaving the care system. Other transitions mentioned by the Commission - relationship breakdown, move into/loss of employment, acquiring a health condition/impairment, or relocation - are arguably more difficult to target by grant giving. So while the Commission's transition fund idea is interesting and potentially valuable, it needs further, careful consideration.

Resources

Once options have been confirmed budget will be allocated.

Impact Summary

The aim of a transitions fund is to provide support to people experiencing life events that are risk points for entering poverty. Once options have been confirmed, the impact on those who receive support will be monitored and evaluated.

Making Sure Young People Receive EMA Payments

The Scottish Government is committed to maintaining the Education Maintenance Allowance ( EMA) programme, which provides financial support to eligible young people from low income households at a crucial time in their education. Recipients receive £30 per week paid fortnightly in arrears. Latest statistics show that 31,735 school pupils and college students received EMA payments in Scotland in the academic year 2015-16. The eligibility criteria was expanded in January 2016, increasing the household income thresholds and including part-time college students undertaking non-advanced courses for the first time.

We are aware of the Poverty and Inequality Commission's advice that we should consider how best to address any delays in the application process of EMAs and of course want the system to work as effectively as possible. Our initial checks with local authority partners have not identified any systemic concerns with the process, but of course there can occasionally be challenges with any grant system.

Administrators, both Local Authorities and Colleges, have the option to, and are encouraged to make use of provisional awards where appropriate so that young people are not penalised. Provisional awards may be made for applicants with parent(s) who are unable to provide the correct income documentation at the time of application. This mainly, although not wholly, applies to those applicants whose parent(s) are self-employed and young people awaiting a decision on residency status from the Home Office.

But we're not complacent - we will consider what else we can do to strengthen the system and report back on this in the 2019 progress report.

Resources

£25 million for Education Maintenance Allowance in 2018-19.

Impact Summary

Educational Maintenance Allowance directly counts towards household income, so ensuring the system is functioning as well as possible for all eligible children will help with progress towards the targets.

Action on Transport Strategy, Policies and Programmes

Over the next year, we'll develop plans with stakeholders for how all areas of transport policy - including major projects, networks and travel concession schemes - can best support the delivery of the child poverty targets.

Transport policy has an important role to play in addressing child poverty, through its impact on both household income - improving access to employment, education, goods and services for parents and carers - and living costs - direct and indirect transport costs are a significant component of many households' expenditure.

As part of the development of the Delivery Plan, we consulted parents, groups of children and young people, and third sector organisations representing them. A key issue fed back to us consistently was a lack of affordable transport in disadvantaged communities to connect children and families directly with vital services such as Jobcentres, after-school provision and employment opportunities. Particular challenges were faced by parents of disabled children, who highlighted the prohibitive cost of taxi travel to attend hospital appointments where public transport was not available or accessible. Asylum seekers/refugees often experienced social isolation due to living on remote housing estates with limited options to travel into the heart of cities due to prohibitive costs and a lack of direct routes.

The Scottish Government supports the existing transport network in various ways, including the national franchises for ScotRail and the strategic Clyde and Hebrides and Northern Isles ferry services and distance-based operating subsidies for bus services (complementing the funding provided by local authorities to secure socially necessary but non-commercial services). Most operators offer reduced fares for children, in addition to which we fund free or discounted travel schemes on bus, rail and ferries for older and disabled people and young adults, and there are a number of supplementary local concession schemes funded by local authorities and regional transport partnerships. Our Accessible Travel Framework aims to make journeys easier for disabled people and those with accessibility issues whether temporary or permanent by ensuring concession information is easily available in order that we maximise concession take up. We have already committed to provide additional concessions on bus services for Modern Apprentices, young carers and recipients of the planned new Job Grant. Through our proposed Transport Bill, we will strengthen the tools available to local and regional transport authorities to improve local public transport services.

Over the next year the Scottish Government will work with stakeholders including local authorities and regional transport partnerships to develop plans for how all areas of transport policy - including major projects, networks and travel concession schemes - can best support the delivery of the child poverty targets set out in the Child Poverty Act and assist in addressing inequality. A working group on 'Tackling Inequality' is meeting as part of the National Transport Strategy Review and has a strong focus on socio-economic factors linked to transport affordability and accessibility. Policy options emerging from the working group will be tested with stakeholders and through formal consultation, and the new National Transport Strategy will be published in 2019.

Resources

Dependent on content of plans to be developed during 2018-19 and National Transport Strategy Review.

Impact Summary

Policies in this area have the potential to impact on all four targets through making travel more accessible and affordable. Bus travel in particular is important in allowing people on low incomes to access local services and employment.

Tailored Learning Support for Gypsy/Traveller Families with Children

We will invest an initial £500,000 on a tailored community education programme for Gypsy/Traveller families.

In her 2017 report, 'Addressing Race Equality in Scotland: The Way Forward', the Independent Race Adviser noted that 'on every indicator of what is required to live a happy, productive and fulfilled life, Gypsy/Travellers are worse off than any other community in Scotland'. What's more, Gypsy/Travellers face very high levels of discrimination which in turn impacts on their trust in - and use of - public services.

As a relatively young population (40% aged under 25 years compared to 29% of the whole population), and characterised by larger families, this is a community with a high incidence of children living in poverty. It is crucial that our attempts to eradicate child poverty explicitly include actions that will directly support the Gypsy/Traveller community.

We know that education is key to avoiding and moving out of poverty, but uptake amongst this community is relatively low, particularly in the early years. To address this, we will invest an initial £500,000 over the lifetime of this Plan to work directly with Gypsy/Traveller families and other partners as part of a tailored children and families community education programme.

There are three parts to the programme. The first is to provide specially tailored play and early learning opportunities for pre-school children and their parents living on Gypsy/Traveller sites. This will encourage parents and their young children to enjoy early learning together in community spaces, which over time should lead to increased uptake of funded nursery places in mainstream education settings.

The second element of the programme will deliver on site adult learning opportunities to parents and carers, to improve their own literacy and numeracy and enable them to support their children as they progress through their learning journey.

The third element of the programme will work with older siblings who are of secondary school age but not attending school, providing a route into community based learning, which in turn should enable them to access a range of different training opportunities and employment options, in line with the aspirations of Developing our Young Workforce.

Over the longer-term, we will build on the higher levels of engagement, trust and confidence generated through this programme. We want to ensure that Gypsy/Travellers are able to access information, advice and support across a variety of issues, and encouraged and enabled to access a range of services and opportunities that meet their needs and aspirations.

Crucially, this will be a flexible approach which maximises the benefits to the whole family. It will be developed and delivered with the full involvement of the community. And we will carefully monitor and evaluate the programme to learn lessons as we move to develop and/or expand it further over the later years of this plan.

Resources

£500,000 investment from the Tackling Child Poverty Fund over the course of the Delivery Plan.

Impact Summary

Over the long term, this programme should help to improve learning and work outcomes for children from the Gypsy/Traveller community.

Support to Tackle Bullying

We know that bullying impacts on self-esteem and quality of life and is a serious concern for any child or young person affected. The Scottish Government has fully funded respectme, Scotland's Anti-Bullying Service, since its inception and will provide over £298,000 for the service in 2018-19. Respectme provides support to all adults working with children and young people to give them the practical skills and confidence to deal with all types of bullying behaviour.

Some children and young people are more at risk of bullying. For example, we are funding LGBT Youth Scotland to provide a programme of work that aims to reduce the discrimination experienced by LGBTI young people - addressing bullying is part of this, as is tackling prejudice and discrimination, hate crime and promoting the LGBT Charter Mark to help schools with inclusion for LGBT pupils and staff. Previous LGBT Youth funding has supported the development of a resource and practice seminars to address homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. We are also working with the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights to deliver information and guidance to school staff on addressing racist bullying in Scottish schools.

In addition, we will provide £313,000 funding support to NSPCC (Childline) Scotland in 2018-19 to provide a range of services to those children and young people who need it, including confidential advice and information.

Resources

£298,000 for respectme in 2018-19.

£313,000 for NSPCC (Childline) Scotland in 2018-19.

Impact Summary

Bullying can have both long and short term effects on the physical and mental health of children and young people and can directly and indirectly affect childhood development and future potential. Taking action to stop bullying, and ensuring that children and young people have the support they need, will help improve longer term prospects for those at risk of bullying.

Facilitating Access to Music Education

We're investing a further £9 million to make sure every pupil in Scotland is offered a year's free music tuition by the time they leave primary school.

Participating in the arts provides children and young people with opportunities to be creative, imaginative and curious and to experience inspiration and enjoyment, contributing greatly to children and young people's mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing.

Ensuring that all children and young people have opportunities to engage in music, which is crucial for building young people's confidence, self-esteem and personal skills, is an important aspect of this and it's often children from low income homes (or children experiencing disadvantage) who miss out.

The Scottish Government is working to ensure that no young person's background is a barrier to taking part in the arts. Long-standing Scottish Government investment of £109 million since 2007 in the Youth Music Initiative ( YMI) has made a huge impact helping children and young people across Scotland access music making opportunities and develop their wider skills and learning. In 2018-19, the Scottish Government is investing a further £9 million in the YMI, ensuring every school pupil in Scotland is offered a year of free music tuition by the time they leave primary school and enabling access to music making opportunities for thousands of children and young people across Scotland.

In addition, the Scottish Government will strengthen engagement with key stakeholders, including COSLA, the Royal Conservatoire, and other members of the Music Education Partnership Group. We will review existing evidence and consider what further research is required to ensure together we positively shape the future direction of the music education sector for the benefit of children and young people.

Resources

In 2018-19 we are investing £9 million in the Youth Music Initiative.

Impact Summary

This intervention is aimed at contributing to children and young people's mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing and to help build their confidence and self-esteem. It may have benefits for future careers and aspirations.

A New Resource for Disabled Children, Young People and Their Families

As we've noted before in this Plan, families with a disabled adult or child are more likely to be living in child poverty, so actions aimed at disabled people are particularly important. We'll be consulting on a new resource - Supporting Disabled Children, Young People and their Families - from April. The final version will highlight good practice, share information and will be based around three priority strands:

• Rights and Information. Disabled children and young people will be able to participate as active citizens in all aspects of daily and public life in Scotland. Children, young people and their parents will be more aware of the support that's available to them nationally and locally, and will understand their rights and entitlements and how to realise them.
• Accessibility of Support. Access to support and services will be easier and more efficient as families are more aware of what their entitlements are and what support is available to them. Providers will work with children, young people and parents to ensure their needs are identified quickly and they receive the support that is right for them at the right time from birth into young adulthood.
• Transitions. Children, young people and their families will be at the heart of decision making from the very start of the transitions process. Support and services for children and young people at key points of transition will be better aligned and more responsive to their evolving needs to ensure all young people reach their potential. Services available and transition processes will be more clearly understood by young people and their families.

Our resource will empower families to better understand their rights and entitlements, to both financial and other forms of support. Following analysis of the consultation, work will start on developing the resource further into an accessible website and app, which we aim to launch in winter 2018.

Resources

Investment is still to be finalised and will be updated in our first progress report.

Impact Summary

Disabled children are at higher risk of poverty. Actions to help signpost them to support services, including financial support, could impact on all the targets.