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

Appendix D: Collective Leadership of Children’s Services Planning

The Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads Network aims to improve wellbeing outcomes for all children, young people and families across Scotland.^[9]

The Network does this by promoting collaboration between and across Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPP’s), Scottish Government and key stakeholders, with an aim of strengthening the development, delivery and accountability of Children’s Services Planning (CSP) arrangements.

The Network facilitates a supportive forum through which network members:

• Connect to share knowledge, resources and reflect on learning;
• Showcase and share good practice to support scale and spread;
• Influence and inform national policy, legislation and priority action;
• Identify need, and progress local/national action to address policy priorities and respond to emergent needs of children, young people and families;
• Embed approaches which support prevention and early intervention and in line with the statutory aims of Children’s Services Planning;
• Identify and contribute to improvement activity as this relates to Children’s Services Planning, working collaboratively to find solutions;
• Proactively contribute and provide constructive challenge to the development of national/local strategic approaches to improve outcomes for children, young people and families;
• Play a key role supporting post-pandemic recovery arrangements, highlighting relevant information which informs national/local action required to address the needs of children, young people and families in vulnerable situations.

The Network is co-Chaired by the Director for Children and Families, Scottish Government together with a representative from the CSP SLN (currently Head of Support, The Promise Scotland). Secretariat support is provided by the Children’s Services Planning Team, Care Experience, Children’s Services Reform and The Promise Division, Directorate for Children & Families, Scottish Government.

Membership includes:

• Strategic Lead representation from all 30 Children’s Services Planning Partnerships;
• Representatives on behalf of key sectors and/or public bodies^[10];
• Scottish Government policy leads.

Network members are expected to:

• Promote ongoing development of the network through contributing to agendas, sharing good practice and learning and engagement with network members.
• Ensure regular attendance and proactive participation in the network.
• Have sufficient authority to deliver the aims and agreed network tasks with local/national partners and colleagues, to support implementation of
• required policy or resource commitments as these relate to Children’s Services Planning.
• Appoint an alternate attendee where unable to attend (alternate attendees for Strategic Leads will preferably be another agency/Third Sector representative who is a member of the local strategic/leadership group with responsibility for Children’s Services Planning).
• Share network minutes with relevant colleagues, and where a strategic lead, with membership of the local CSP strategic partnership.
• Support agenda setting within their own partnership/team/organisation which ensures colleagues are cited on the strategic network’s activity and focus.
• Coordinate responses and progress action on behalf of their partnership, organisation or policy area, as agreed by the Network, or requested by the Collective Leadership Group.

Network members have individual and collective responsibility to progress implementation of UNCRC, GIRFEC and The Promise as fundamental aspects of Children’s Services Planning. The Network will support and contribute to this through co-development of approaches and collaboration with relevant governance, delivery, and stakeholder groups.

Additional local or national stakeholders are invited to additional specific network meetings where this widens engagement on specific topics.

The meaningful participation of children and young people is supported via local partnership arrangements and the network of children/young people’s forums engaged with national policy and strategic development work. Additional engagement and/or consultation will be proactively considered by the network.

Governance and Accountability

Children’s Services Planning legislation sets out statutory duties with direct accountability to Scottish Government Ministers mandated through a 3-year planning cycle and annual reporting. Updates from network meetings will be shared, where appropriate, with the relevant Cabinet Secretary and Minister through portfolio meetings.

The Network may, where required, escalate issues for resolution or make recommendations to inform decision-making by the Children and Families National Leadership Group (C&F NLG). The Network is accountable for responding to requests from the C&F NLG as well as from Ministers, where action is identified as necessary to to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families.

Ultimate accountability of the Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads Network is to Scotland’s children, young people and families.

Network Developments: 2022-2024

Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads, as well as organisational and sector representatives, emphasise the value of the Network as a key national forum for CSPPs and stakeholders to influence the development of national initiatives. Its members have welcomed further opportunities to shape national policy and promote greater cohesion across delivery activity with an impact on wellbeing of children and families.

Members views informed revision of the Network’s Terms of Reference in August 2023, to reflect the group’s remit and broad improvement intentions. This clarified the strategic role of members at national and local level to:

• Contribute to strategic improvement activity by ensuring local CSP stakeholders directly influence national strategy and decision-making.
• Reflect the unique multi-agency perspective aligned with collective leadership of Children’s Services Planning - through a collaborative approach to improving outcomes for children, young people and families and accountability for delivery of associated CSP functions and duties, strategic development activity, service planning and delivery, and local implementation of national policy and practice approaches.
• Reflect shared expectations that network representatives are the nominated liaison person acting on behalf of their local CSPP strategic governance forum; organisation; sectoral network; or policy area (with a role in gathering/representing wider views)

Network Members have continued to feedback positively on the opportunities for peer support and shared learning provided through the Network.

Topics explored by the Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads Network have enabled engagement and discussion on a wider range of policy, improvement and transformational change initiatives. This ensures the views and experiences of Children’s Services Planning partners inform delivery approaches at national and local level.

Since the previous review of Children’s Services Plans, the Network has focussed on:

• Children’s Services Plans (2023-2026) – Looking ahead
• Whole Family Wellbeing Funding
• National Care Service (NCS)
• The Promise Scotland: Keeping the Promise
• Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Mental Wellbeing
• Scotland’s National Drugs Mission
• Transitions to Adulthood
• Children’s Hearings Redesign
• Early Child Development
• UNCRC
• Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children
• Midlothian CSPP: Children in conflict with the law
• East Ayrshire CSPP: Help Everyone At The Right Time (HEART)
• Renfrewshire CSPP & the Care Inspectorate: Data - evidencing the difference (held as a joint session with the WFWF Learning into Action Network)
• Third Sector and Children’s Services Planning
• Public Health Scotland: Improving Child Health through Children’s Services Planning

CSPP representatives have an opportunity to showcase emerging practice with other Network members. This shares learning from collaborative approaches by local CSP partners which support local improvements in strategic planning activity, service delivery, practice approaches, or evaluation of impact.

Connectivity and Collaboration

Connectivity between the CSP Strategic Leads Network and other stakeholder and governance forums has been strengthened over the period since the last review. This recognises the pivotal role of Children’s Services Planning duties in local delivery of all policies with an impact on outcomes for children and families, and acknowledges the collective leadership role of CSPP’s in driving forward delivery activity in local areas in a joined-up way.

This range of activity includes: improvement initiatives; transformational change programmes; pilots and tests of change, in addition to local approaches to implementation of national policy and practice. Network members have been represented through joint membership of aligned national advisory and decision-making groups, to support an approach across policy and stakeholder activity which is clearly connected with relevant Children’s Services Planning duties.

Children in Scotland’s Supporting the Third Sector Project has continued to facilitate engagement with third sector representative groups on issues relevant to Children’s Services Planning , and hosts the Children’s Services Third Sector Interface Network, as well as the Children’s Sector Policy and Strategic Forum.

Other national groups aligned with the CSP Strategic Leads Network, include:

• Children and Families National Leadership Group
• GIRFEC Learning Network
• WFWF: Family Support Advisory Group, Commissioning and Procurement Steering Group, and Learning into Action Network
• Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board
• Alcohol and Drugs: Early Intervention for Children and Young People Framework Development Short life Working Group
• The Promise Leads Network
• United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Implementation: Embedding in Public Services Group

The Children and Families National Leadership Group

The Children and Families National Leadership Group (C&F NLG) provides collective leadership and strategic oversight of key areas of transformational change aimed at improving outcomes for children, young people and families. This recognises the key role of Children’s Services Planning in collective leadership of local delivery activity.

This collaborative approach enables senior leaders from national and local government, children’s social work services, health, learning, justice, the third sector and other partners to work together, and at pace, to identify opportunities for better join up of major transformational change programmes and to address implementation gaps. This also helps to respond to workforce pressures, by making the best use of national and local resources to avoid any overlaps or duplication of activity.

In the time following the last review of Children’s Services Plans (2020-2023), the Children & Families National Leadership Group has undertaken a series of deep-dive sessions which considered the following cross-cutting issues:

• Support for the workforce (resilience, wellbeing and planning)
• Better connecting of funding streams at local and national level
• Strengthening holistic, outcomes-based approaches to all work aimed at improving the wellbeing of children, young people and families, including joined-up use of data
• Taking a more strategic approach to improve prioritisation of activity and build capacity to implement change
• Participation and engagement of children and young people.

The Group is now taking forward issues identified within the deep dive sessions in the context of improvement and learning from the findings of the CELCIS independent research on children’s services reform.

Further information and published notes of the meetings can be found on the Children and Families National Leadership Group’s website.