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

14. Summary and reflections

Overall, the Children’s Services Plans (CSPs) for 2023-2026, are ambitious, well-presented and informative. They clearly demonstrate ongoing commitment from Children’s Services Planning Partnerships to work collaboratively to improve outcomes for children and families. Examples of good practice are highlighted throughout this report, and further examples of innovative approaches can be found in individual Children’s Services Plans.^[8]

A key aim of the report was to set out the extent to which CSP partners met the criteria set in Part 3 (Children’s Services Planning) Statutory Guidance, and to identify areas of strength, as well as those areas where improvements are most needed. Figure 14.1 summarises these findings.

Areas of strength

Seven criteria were fully satisfied by over two thirds of CSPPs. These were:

• Clear links and alignment with a range of other national and local plans, reports and strategies (fully achieved by 29 CSPs)
• A clear and shared vision across partners (fully achieved by 28 CSPs)
• Evidence of a comprehensive range of local services with a focus on prevention and early intervention (fully achieved by 27 CSPs)
• A clear local strategy for whole family support (fully achieved by 24 CSPs)
• Consideration of children’s rights, participation and the UNCRC (fully achieved by 24 CSPs)
• Incorporation of the GIRFEC practice approach (fully achieved by 23 CSPs)
• Clear description of the range of local children’s services offered (fully achieved by 22 CSPs)

Areas for development

Five criteria from Part 3 of the Guidance were fully achieved by less than half of the CSPs, and were consequently identified as areas for development across the Plans. These were:

• Budget and resourcing information: This was fully achieved by eight CSPs. The remainder would have benefited from more detail about how budgets across statutory and third sector partners are being allocated to different types of support and service provision over the 3-year period of the CSP.
• Measurable and Time-related aspects of the SMART criterion: This was fully achieved by 10 CSPs. While the majority of CSPs provided information and actions that were clear, specific, achievable and relevant, many did not specify monitoring indicators or timescales for strategic priorities or improvement actions. It should be noted that while this remains an area for development, there has been an improvement since the previous review, with 10 of the 2023-26 CSPSs fully achieving this criterion compared with 5 in the previous review.
• Reflection of the National Performance Framework: 13 CSPs fully achieved this criterion. The remainder required clearer links between the CSP’s vision, actions and strategic priorities and specific aspects of the NPF framework.
• Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA): This was fully achieved by 13 CSPs. This represents a significant decline from the previous review, where 18 CSPs fully achieved this criterion. Those that did not achieve this required more detail on the process of carrying out a JSNA and further explanation of how findings from the JSNA shaped the CSP’s priorities.
• Manageable and measurable strategic priorities. 12 CSPs fully achieved this criterion. Some required more explicit links between the strategic priorities identified and findings from the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and others lacked clear monitoring indicators to measure progress.

Change since previous Children’s Services Plan review

Overall, there was relatively little change in terms of the number of Children’s Services Plans that fully achieved each of the statutory criteria. The areas of strength across plans remained consistent between review of the 2020-2023 and 2023-2026 CSP’s, and areas for development were very similar.

Criteria that saw slight increases in the number of CSPs fully achieving them included analysis of data; family support; and SMART priorities and actions. Criteria that saw slight decreases included Joint Strategic Needs Assessments; GIRFEC; Children’s Rights; and the National Performance Framework.

Together with the learning from policy developments and feedback from strategic engagement, the findings from review of Children’s Services Plans and strategic engagement, will inform recommendations on development and delivery of a wide range of improvement activity which relates to improving outcomes for babies, children, young people and families, highlighting the key role of Children’s Services Planning within wider public service reform.

Next steps

The findings of this review provide an evidence-base which is intended to support Children’s Services Planning partners in their annual reporting, development of Children’s Services Plans for 2026-2029, and evaluation of the local CSPP approach.

As well as informing policy development and improvement activity at national and local level with a focus on wellbeing of babies, children, young people and families, the review findings will also help shape any changes needed to the Statutory Guidance, so this remains useful and supports the effective delivery of Children’s Services Planning arrangements across Scotland.