Scotland's children's services plans 2023-2026 review: improving outcomes for children, young people and families

9. Alignment with national outcomes and policies

Alignment with national outcomes and policies

This chapter discusses the extent to which the 2023-2026 Children’s Services Plans reflect national outcomes, strategies, and action plans.

National Performance Framework (Criterion 2)

The Guidance states, “It is expected that all actions, activity and initiatives are aligned with, and seek to deliver the ambitions contained in the National Performance Framework”. Approximately two-thirds of Children’s Services Plans (21 out of 30) demonstrated links between local activity and the National Performance Framework (NPF); 13 showed clear enough links to fully achieve this criterion, and the remaining 8 partially met the criterion.

Nine did not reference the NPF or its outcomes directly, and therefore did not achieve this criterion. This represents a decline since the previous review, in which 16 CSPs fully met Criterion 2 and 3 did not (Figure 9.1).

2023-2026 Children’s Services Plans which fully met this criterion demonstrated clear and explicit links between the CSPP’s vision, actions and strategic priorities and specific aspects of the NPF framework. Often, this was through a dedicated section providing background information about the NPF and its outcomes alongside an explanation of the relevance and influence of the NPF on Children’s Services Planning. A number of CSPs also included the Scottish Government’s NPF diagram as a visual aid.

A few CSPPs integrated the NPF Children and Young People Outcome (“we grow up loved, safe and respected so that we realise our full potential”) into a vision statement. Others mapped strategic priorities against relevant NPF outcomes, demonstrating clear alignment and overlap through tables or diagrams.

As would be expected, NPF Outcomes relevant to supporting children and families, such as Education, Health, Poverty and Children and Young People, were most commonly reflected in CSPs. NPF Outcomes relating to international links, fair work and business, economy, and culture were less likely to be reflected or discussed.

Other national outcomes

CSPs are also expected to demonstrate clear links within local delivery to a range of other national outcomes. All CSPs clearly reflected at least one other national outcome or priority Scottish Government policy, including child poverty, attainment, and mental health across strategic priorities, aims, actions, deliverables, and service provision. It was evident that other national-level strategies relevant to children and families influenced the development of content in many Children’s Services Plans, particularly Getting it right for every child, Corporate Parenting and The Promise.

Tackling child poverty, another key policy objective, was also frequently mentioned, and often contextualised in reference to the current cost-of-living crisis. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was referenced in all but one CSP.

Examples of good practice

Stirling: Appendix 2 provides a useful, concise table which clearly links the CSP’s priorities and outcomes to relevant NPF Outcomes and UNCRC Articles, along with delivery arrangements.

Tayside: ‘Key Statutory Drivers’ is allocated a dedicated page with a helpful chart that includes reference to the NPF Outcomes, other national strategies and the strategic priorities of their Children’s Services Plan. This is followed by a page that covers ‘Key Policies and Strategies’ including the UNCRC, GIRFEC, National Improvement Framework, Scottish Attainment Challenge, Child Protection, Independent Care Review, and information about working with partners in the public and third sectors.

Glasgow City: The CSP clearly lists relevant NPF Outcomes under its priorities.

Additional Policy and Engagement Context

Ministers are required by statute to review the National Performance Framework (NPF) Outcomes within five years of their previous publication, with the last review taking place during 2023. A report setting out the activity undertaken as part of the Review of National Outcomes, and the proposed changes to the National Outcomes arising from it, was laid in the Scottish Parliament on 1 May 2024. It is expected that the revised National Outcomes will be published in early 2025.

The National Performance Framework continues to help us understand the progress we are making as a nation towards our long-term vision for Scotland. Children’s services Planning should continue to align around this common set of outcomes, supporting partnership working, collaboration and emphasising prevention. Future development activity to support NPF Implementation will consider opportunities to respond to clear stakeholder feedback on the need to articulate how different tiers of national-level outcomes intersect and are complementary. This may include development of resources to support achievement of NPF outcomes which considers their application across a range of delivery contexts and consideration of any update to indicators.

As part of development activity for the Children, Young People and Families Outcomes Framework, a comprehensive mapping exercise was undertaken in summer 2023. This aimed to better understand the wide range of underpinning outcomes and data relevant to wellbeing of children, young people and families. In addition to providing a more holistic understanding of the evidence-base for child and family wellbeing across national policies, strategies, and action or delivery plans, this work helps identify data gaps, inform prioritisation of future data improvement activity (such as data-development and data-linkage), as well as identifying opportunities to streamline the outcomes and data landscape.

Improvement activity agreed through the Children, Young People and Families Outcomes Framework will be taken forward in in the context of broader public service reforms, to ensure close alignment of this work. This includes delivery of shared priorities set out in the Verity House Agreement, opportunities to build on findings of the CELCIS independent research on Children’s Services Reform, and a focus on improved cohesion in addressing wellbeing of children, young people and families, as an identified area of focus for the Children and Families National Leadership Group.

Links to plans, strategies, and reports (Criterion 15)

Children’s Services Plans should illustrate clear links with other statutory plans, strategies and reports related to the delivery of national policies and local priorities. The statutory guidance sets out a number of opportunities for local authorities and health boards to plan and report jointly, as well as to combine and integrate plans, where this makes sense for local partners.

This was an area of shared strength across Children’s Services Plans; all but one fully met this criterion. This is a similar finding to the previous review, in which all CSPs fully met Criterion 15 (Figure 9.3).

Good practice in this area was to provide contextual information about aligned plans/strategies/reports throughout the Children’s Services Plan, demonstrating a joined up approach to improving outcomes for children and families in the local area. Many CSPs provided an explanation of how different plans, reports and strategies had been considered as part of the development of their CSP. Often a dedicated section was provided that listed relevant local and national plans or strategies, sometimes including a brief summary and key aspects relevant to the CSP. Another example of good practice was including diagrams or tables mapping relevant national and local strategic policy drivers, strategies and plans to specific priorities and actions of the Children’s Services Plan.

A few CSPP areas integrated a range of other statutory plans into the CSP and made clear links to action being coordinated through other local strategies. For example, Aberdeen City described improved alignment between plans and noted that improvement activity from the Children’s Services Plan will be transposed into the Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP) and “essentially become the children’s section of the LOIP”.

As with the last review findings , all 30 Children’s Services Plans referenced The Promise; many committed to work focused on achieving the objectives of The Promise, and referenced the Keeping the Promise Implementation Plan. A few CSPs included The Promise as a strategic priority or linked their strategic priorities to elements of Keeping The Promise.

The next most frequently mentioned plans or strategies were Child Poverty Local Action Reports (referenced in 26 CSPs) and the Local Outcomes Improvement Plans (also referenced in 26 CSPs). The majority of Children’s Services Plans mentioned Children’s Rights Reporting, and more than half referenced the Health and Social Care Partnership or Integration Joint Board Strategic Plan, National Improvement Framework Plan/Education Plan, Local Child Protection Plan, Alcohol and Drugs Partnership Action Plan, and a local Mental Health Strategy.

The least mentioned were a Child Health Strategy (4), Disability Strategy (5), a Youth Justice Strategy (7), a Social Work Plan (7) and a Carers or Young Carers Strategy (8). One Children’s Services Plan referenced the National Play Strategy.

The Children’s Services Plans which partially met this criterion referenced few other strategic plans and strategies; The Promise was the only major national plan discussed.

Examples of good practice

Moray: The front pages of various plans are included in the Children’s Services Plan such as Moray’s Local Outcome Plan, Community Safety Strategy and Early Years Strategy, along with a clarification that aligned plans which contribute to outcomes for children and families have been incorporated throughout the CSP. Broader national plans and legislation such as GIRFEC, UNCRC, and the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 were also considered. Individual members of its GIRFEC Leadership Group (which is made up of senior representatives from public and third sector organisations, and provides overall governance of Moray CSPP’s children’s services planning arrangements) are either chairs or members of other strategic partnership groups responsible for developing and implementing these related plans, with an explicit remit to ensure necessary linkages are made over the lifespan of the CSP to support an integrated whole systems approach.

Aberdeen City: Aberdeen note that their Children’s Services Plan is one of a suite of Statutory Plans which support delivery of the Local Outcome Improvement Plan (LOIP). A number of relevant strategic plans for children are referenced, include Aberdeen’s Corporate Parenting Plan, Child Protection Improvement Plan, Children's Rights Report, Aberdeen City’s Health & Social Care Partnership Strategic Plan, the education National Improvement Framework Plan, Early Learning and Childcare Delivery Plan and Accessibility Plan, Community Learning and Development Plan, Community Justice Plan, Locality Plans and Child Poverty Plan.

North Lanarkshire: A dedicated page explains how the Children’s Services Partnership took account of strategic drivers and plans when devising the CSP. This also highlights that a separate detailed document has been created called ‘Strategic Drivers and Plans 2023’ that sits alongside the CSP with a link to the document on the Children’s Services page of the Council’s website.

Additional Policy and Engagement Context

Feedback from the Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads Network as well as other stakeholders, makes it clear that the current strategic planning and reporting landscape for children, young people and families is complex, difficult to navigate, and with overlapping legislative, policy and practice requirements. This is resulting in the system and the workforce feeling overwhelmed with the need for improved cohesion across different aspects of policy and service delivery with a shared aim of improving outcomes for children, young people and families. Getting it right for every child and children’s rights under the UNCRC were identified by stakeholders as the ‘golden thread’. The necessity of improvement activity which considers opportunities to streamline the service and strategic planning and reporting landscape has also been highlighted.

These views have been echoed within deep-dive discussions of the Children and Families National Leadership Group; highlighted in the CELCIS Children’s Services Reform research findings reports; identified as an area for improvement in The Promise Scotland’s Change Programme ONE, Plans 21-24, and 24-30; and agreed as a shared commitment in the Verity House Agreement (VHA). The VHA includes an intention to streamline and refine existing strategic and service level plans and associated reporting which, “will include but not be limited to Local Outcome Improvement Plans, Children’s Services Plans, Child Poverty Plans and Climate Change Plans.”

Children’s Services Planning Statutory Guidance Revision

Part 3 Children's Services Planning Statutory Guidance (second version) was published in January 2020, following a statutory consultation held in 2019. This made changes to:

• better reflect the evolving policy, delivery and legislative landscape across Scotland since the original publication of guidance in 2016; and
• provide greater clarity, where needed, on different aspects of Scotland’s Children’s Services Planning requirements over each 3-year period

Since 2020, a number of significant changes have taken place in Scotland’s legislative, policy and delivery landscape, with an impact on the context and approach to improving outcomes for babies, children, young people and families. Work will be undertaken to consider the revision of Part 3 (Children’s Services Planning) Statutory Guidance to reflect these changes and explore whether its content, format and scope remains helpful and fit for purpose.

The aim is to ensure Children’s Services Planning guidance continues to support the effective delivery of a cross-sector, multi-agency, and whole systems approach to strategic planning of services and supports, which improves outcomes for children and families by reflecting local priorities and national outcomes. This work will enable a clear articulation of the relationships between different local service and strategic planning and reporting duties, as well as highlighting existing opportunities to integrate plans and reports within the Children’s Services Plan, where this makes sense to local duty holders, organisational partners, and the children, young people and families who live in that area.

The Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads Network will be co-design partners in revising this guidance, with any proposed changes based on extensive policy and stakeholder engagement. This will take into account the continuum of services and supports set out in Children’s Services Plans to safeguard, support and promote the wellbeing of children and families through an approach which spans from prevention and community-based supports, through to public protection and services providing targeted, intensive, or crisis support. Ahead of publishing revised guidance, a statutory consultation will take place to gather wider stakeholder views.