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

Appendix C: Children, Young People and Families Outcomes Framework

The Children, Young People and Families Outcomes Framework (CYPF OF) was developed following a recommendation from the Scottish Government’s review of Children's Services Plans (2017-2020), and in response to stakeholder feedback. This identified the need to ‘embed a more joined-up strategic narrative on improving outcomes for children and young people across government, with improved use of data to support this’.

The CYPF Outcomes Framework aims to support greater policy cohesion in decision-making, as well as in the strategic planning and delivery of services, support, and improvement activity at both national and local level and provides a structured approach through which Scottish Government and public and third sector partners can take steps to enhance our collective accountability for improving outcomes for children, young people and families. This includes a greater focus on impact, not outputs, and development of a more outcomes-based approach to national and local reporting.

The CYPF Outcomes Framework was co-developed through an intense process of stakeholder collaboration and is based on the current evidence base of factors known to influence wellbeing. It has been substantially informed by what children, young people and families have told us matters most. As well as drawing on key messages from a review of existing engagements with children, young people and families, additional new engagement was undertaken via youth and parent/carer participation forums.

Stakeholders played a key role in the development of the framework to ensure its alignment with wider activity on outcomes and data This included Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads, The Promise Scotland, Public Health Scotland, COSLA, Children in Scotland, Local Government Improvement Service, CELCIS, ADES, and Scottish Government policy teams including the National Performance Framework and Children and Families Analysis.

The approach of the CYPF Outcomes Framework was endorsed by COSLA Children and Young People Board, the then COVID-19 Children and Families Collective Leadership Group (now Children and Families National Leadership Group) and the Scottish Government Directors’ Group on Improving Outcomes for Children and Families. It was made available for use as from 1 April 2022, with a ‘soft launch’ agreed in order to learn from embedding its application in practice over time.

The Children, Young People and Families Outcomes Framework consists of:

• 8 overarching Wellbeing Outcomes consistent with the definition of wellbeing set out in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act (2014) - Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included (SHANARRI).
• Underpinning Shared Aims which reflect at a high level the policies, service delivery and supports that impact on child wellbeing across the 3 sides of the ‘My World Triangle.’ This recognises children and young people’s individual growth and development takes place in the context of their caregiving environment, networks of family, care and protection, which in turn are influenced by community impacts and societal factors.
• A set of 21 Core Wellbeing Indicators – high-level, holistic measures which show what difference we are making, covering key aspects of wellbeing and based on data available at national and local level.
• The Transforming Outcomes Routemap – two high-level driver diagrams which set out areas of individual and collective delivery and improvement activity at strategic, operational, and frontline practice level. Essentially, this reflects ‘the what’ we need to deliver through policies, services and support to safeguard, support and promote the wellbeing of children, young people and families, as well as ‘the how’ we need to work together, at national and local level, to address key improvement themes and improve outcomes across Scotland.