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

7. Services offered and activities planned

This chapter covers children’s services and related services described in Children’s Services Plans and considers the extent to which CSPs demonstrated a collaborative and comprehensive approach to supporting local families through strategic planning of services and improvement activity.

Children’s services and related services (Criterion 6)

Children’s Services Plans should provide a narrative of local services offered and action to be taken over each 3-year period to safeguard, support and promote the wellbeing of children, young people and families through a whole systems approach. Provision across a broad range of services that fulfil a continuum of need, spanning prevention, early intervention and targeted/intensive support, should be discussed. Reference should be made to local services which fall into the categories of both ‘children’s services’ and ‘related services’.

Children’s services are those which are provided wholly or mainly to, or for the benefit of, children.

Related services are those which do not fall into the definition of a ‘children’s service’ but still have a significant effect on the wellbeing of children and young people. Examples of this include community-based services such as welfare rights, libraries or sports centres, and services for adults which address a parent or carer’s needs in their own right, such as support for mental health, disability, drug and alcohol use, or involvement with the justice system.

As with previous reviews, analysis of Criterion 6 was split into two components, with Children’s Services Plans coverage of children’s services and related services assessed separately.

Children’s Services (Criterion 6a)

This criterion was fully achieved by 22 CSPs and partially achieved by 8. This was similar to the previous review (Figure 7.2).

Children’s Services Plans which fully achieved this criterion provided a comprehensive description of local children’s services spanning a range of universal, targeted and intensive support. Some provided detailed case studies or descriptions of particular services available in the local area, and others used diagrams to map out services available.

CSPs which partially met this criterion gave some high-level examples of individual services, but did not provide a comprehensive description with sufficient detail to fully achieve this criterion.

Related Services (Criterion 6b)

Children’s Services Plans should also include information on local provision of related services, which include both community-based supports which improve quality of life for children and families, and support provided to families by adult services to meet individual needs of parents/carers, and/or care experienced young people up to the age of 26. It is important that CSPs demonstrate how partners across the Children’s Services Planning Partnership are working in a joined-up way to make sure young people have positive experiences in the transition between children’s and adult services.

This criterion was fully achieved by 19 CSPs and partially achieved by 9. Two CSPs did not achieve this criterion. These are similar results to the previous review (Figure 7.3).

The CSPs which fully achieved this criterion provided a comprehensive description of adult and community-based services spanning a range of universal, targeted and intensive support. The remaining CSPs gave some high-level examples of individual services, but did not provide sufficient detail to fully achieve this criterion, with two providing very little references to related services at all.

As with previous reviews, related services were discussed in less detail than children’s services in the majority of CSPs.

The majority of Children’s Services Plans discussed financial inclusion services, and half discussed some aspect of housing or homelessness services (including references to Registered Social Landlords). Services for parental drug and alcohol use and domestic violence supports were also referenced in many CSPs. Other less frequently mentioned related services included support for adult carers, adult learning and adult social work.

Transitions support

Transitions support was mentioned in two thirds of Children’s Services Plans (20 out of 30). The nature of the transitions support varied depending on the focus given to transitions in the CSP. For example, there was a focus on improving transitions to Early Learning and Childcare in Tayside, where process maps were used to identify gaps in transition processes and develop a pathway. More commonly however, transition support focused on the stage of young people moving into adulthood, with support offered covering both universal and targeted provision. Some CSPs described supports to promote positive destinations for all children and young people, while others discussed more targeted support provided to young people with additional support needs to achieve a positive destination or transition from children’s services into adult services. For example:

• East Lothian offers an employability service which works closely with schools and other partners to support young people leaving school;
• Argyll and Bute’s CSP describes a focus on enabling a smooth transition into adult services for young people with neurodevelopmental conditions; and
• Aberdeenshire’s transition support included support for young carers transitioning into adult carer services.

Examples of good practice

Glasgow City: The Children’s Services Plan refers to a broad range of children’s and related services across areas including physical and mental health, housing, employability and domestic abuse, covering both universal and targeted provision. Specific examples include: school nursing; the Health and Social Care Connect Service; the Weigh To Go weight management programme; support for young and adult carers; and LGBTQIA+ support. Various forms of transitions support for young people moving from children’s to adult services are also discussed.

Aberdeenshire: A comprehensive description of children’s services spanning prevention, early intervention and targeted support in Aberdeenshire is provided in the Children’s Services Plan. Examples include: children’s health services (including health visiting and school nursing), Kooth Digital Mental Health Services and Infant Formula Pathway Pilot.

East Ayrshire: East Ayrshire’s Children’s Services Plan demonstrates that services for children and families are provided through a range of organisations across East Ayrshire Council, East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, as well as the private and third sectors. A range of such services are described in the CSP; these refer to both universal and targeted provision and reflect both children’s services and related services. Specific examples include: a school-based technology enabled care pathfinder project, outdoors learning opportunities, parental support sessions, the Early Years Financial Inclusion (FIT) Team, practitioner training on Talking Mats to support children with additional support needs, the Buddy Language & Communication Programme to support the transition process between early learning establishments and primary school, with 23 education practitioners now trained to deliver this programme and an Occupational Therapy post focused on early intervention, support and advice. Transitions support is also discussed in their Children’s Services Plan.

Additional Policy and Engagement Context

Details of policy and service delivery which have been a focus for the Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads Network are detailed in Appendix D. A number of developments focussed on improving outcomes for children and families through the services offered across Scotland, have taken place since the last review of Children’s Services Plans.

Independent research undertaken by CELCIS on Children’s Services Reform was underpinned by the following question: “What is needed to ensure that children, young people and families get the help they need, when they need it?” A key finding from this research was to highlight the importance of adult and children’s services being better joined up. This recognises the need for holistic whole family support, with an impact on child wellbeing through the adult services provided to a parent or carer; as well as highlighting the gaps in service provision which are particularly experienced by young people at the point of transitions. The Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads Network provided feedback to inform the development of the Scottish Government’s first National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy for disabled young people. This aims to deliver a joined up approach so that all disabled young people and their families can experience a supported and positive transition into adult life.

The Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 set the framework for integration of health and social care, by establishing integration authorities. In 2023, the Scottish Government brought together a working group of partners from across health and social care, to refresh integration joint board strategic planning and performance reporting guidance. This included strengthened reference to Children’s Services Planning duties and highlighting opportunities to better align local health and social care strategic planning activity with that of Children’s Services Planning. Changes emphasised the crucial role of adult services in supporting smooth transitions for young people, as well as being fundamental to local availability of holistic whole family support and the provision of services to parents and carers, which has an impact on child wellbeing. Further views were sought through a consultation on proposed revisions in autumn 2023.

The Covid-19 Pandemic saw a number of impacts on children and young people’s mental health and mental wellbeing. This was reflected as a strategic priority in most Children’s Services Plans for 2020-2023 and remains a common strategic priority in the Children’s Services Plans for 2023-2026.

Over 2023, the Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads Network co-developed a supplementary briefing note on mental health and mental wellbeing, working with mental health policy colleagues and other stakeholders, including COSLA. This work was progressed as part of development activity overseen by the Children and Young People Mental Health and Wellbeing Joint Delivery Board, to deliver on recommendations made by the Mental Health Taskforce on priority reforms to Scotland’s approach to children and young people’s mental health. By reflecting local planning which spans the continuum of mental health and mental wellbeing service provision takes place as an integrated part of Children’s Services Plans, the briefing note builds in more detail on existing Part 3 (Children’s Services Planning) duties and statutory guidance. This emphasises mental health and mental wellbeing as a key consideration within wider wellbeing, and to improving outcomes for children, young people and families through Children’s Services Planning. This approach has avoided the creation of additional planning/reporting requirements, and will inform proposed updates to the statutory guidance for Children’s Services Planning.

Prevention and early intervention (Criterion 7)

Key within the overarching aims of Children’s Services Plans is a shift of resource towards early intervention and prevention. The Guidance advises that CSPs should describe services which can fulfil both primary prevention and early intervention across all aspects of wellbeing.

Effective primary prevention is usually characterised as:

• Support and help available to all parents, carers and families, as well as directly to children.
• Support provided in the first few years of child’s life (pre-birth to pre-school).
• Access to wider community supports/services to improve families’ quality of life.
• Public communications and campaigns

Early intervention means:

• A workforce able to respond to the needs of families in a safe, effective, person-centred and trauma informed way, as soon as there are signs of difficulty.
• Recognising wellbeing needs may emerge at any age, without warning, and that the speed/nature of response from services significantly impacts on the success of addressing those needs.

As with the previous review, this was an area of strength across CSPPs, with 27 Children’s Services Plans fully achieving this criterion (Figure 7.4).

Children’s Services Plans which fully met this criterion described the ways in which the principles of primary prevention and early intervention have been embedded into children’s and related services, and provided comprehensive examples of multi-agency preventative work. These included services and programmes aimed at:

• Encouraging healthy lifestyles, e.g. promoting exercise and healthy eating, reducing alcohol and drug use.
• Tackling the root causes of poverty and building people’s capabilities through income maximisation, employability and enabling children and young people to reach their full potential through moving on to positive destinations.
• Reducing the impact of trauma by ensuring staff across all services are trauma informed. For example, Dumfries & Galloway’s CSP sets out the following improvement aim: “Our workforce across Dumfries and Galloway Council and our multi-agency partners will have a consistency of approach, values and understanding, demonstrating embedded trauma-informed practice in supporting our children and families.” In addition, East Dunbartonshire commits to increasing the number of staff attending multi agency training including trauma informed workforce training.
• Decreasing stress levels in pregnant women and promoting understanding of the benefits of social interaction and importance of early interaction on brain development from birth.

Children’s Services Plans which did not fully meet this criterion did not provide enough detail about how CSPP partners were taking a joined-up approach to prevention and early intervention or give examples of the types of preventative work being undertaken.

Many CSPs described prevention and early intervention as key foundations of the approach to Children’s Services Planning, and some dedicated a specific section to detailing the approach to primary prevention and early intervention. Some reflected on the need to deliver the right support at the right time in their vision statements, linking to GIRFEC.

Some Children’s Services Plans made commitments to improving information sharing between partners to better support prevention and early intervention measures. For example, Midlothian’s CSP sets out plans to strengthen information sharing, which will create a more co-ordinated approach, help to identify patterns and trends in the needs of children and families, and improve early and preventative action.

Examples of good practice

Moray: A commitment to prioritising prevention and early intervention approaches is clear throughout the Children’s Services Plan. Several actions, initiatives and goals are set out which focus on prevention and early help, including plans to increase the uptake of a sexual violence prevention programme (p. 37), recruit a Virtual Headteacher to understand better barriers to attendance, engagement and achievement (p. 57), and a planned outcome to address the needs of children and families early through the implementation of effective child planning processes (pp. 48-49). The CSP also discusses plans to identify young people who may be vulnerable to extremist and terrorist ideologies to ensure they are given appropriate advice and support at an early stage.

Inverclyde: There are several examples of Inverclyde’s commitment to prevention and early intervention throughout the Children’s Services Plan. Examples include: development of a multi-agency Whole Family Wellbeing model to provide targeted interventions that reduce risk of harm and build and strengthen family capacity, collaboration with statutory, independent and voluntary sector partners to develop innovative early help and family support services and the delivery of targeted prevention work with young people at risk of harm from substance misuse.

East Lothian: An overarching principle of the Children’s Services Plan is to prioritise early intervention and prevention: “Our aim is to provide an environment that supports good health and wellbeing, as well as ensuring issues are addressed as quickly as possible, thereby allowing our resources to be used more effectively. When need is identified, we will act quickly and provide the right services at the right time, with the knowledge that early intervention and support leads to better outcomes. Our services and partners will put measures in place to help us better understand how well we are improving outcomes and intervening at an earlier stage”. An example of activity towards this end is the establishment of an integrated Early Intervention Support Team that provides outreach teaching and family support to children at risk of disengaging from learning.

Western Isles: The Children’s Services Plan describes services and supports focused on primary prevention and early intervention, covering all aspects of wellbeing (across SHANARRI). For instance, there are plans to recruit a ‘prevention of reception into care’ worker, to use a single of access for mental health and wellbeing services in order to identify emerging mental health needs as early as possible, and to implement systems that support children in the early years with emotional self-regulation.

Additional Policy and Engagement Context

The Scottish Government’s Early Child Development Programme is renewing a focus and emphasis on the importance of pre-birth and early years, as a cross-portfolio priority, recognising this period of time as a key window of opportunity for prevention and early intervention.

The Children and Young People’s Improvement Collaborative (CYPIC) National Conference was held in Glasgow in November 2023, as an in-person opportunity for practitioners to connect on the most important themes impacting on outcomes for babies, children and young people. Thematic workshops provided attendees with an opportunity to explore how to apply a joined-up systematic approach to improvement to have greatest impact for families across Scotland, to Keep the Promise and deliver holistic whole family support.

As part of this event, ‘Improving Futures Through Children’s Services Planning: Learning Together’ was offered as a workshop for senior strategic leaders at national and local level, focussed on improving early child development outcomes. The workshop included health, local authority, and third sector representatives to reflect Scotland's multi-agency partnership approach to Children Services Planning. It took a deep-dive into how best partners can collaborate, at national and local level, to create the strategic conditions which support maximum impact through joined-up quality service planning, quality delivery, quality assurance, and quality improvement. The workshop shared practical frameworks and resources with participants as well as being an opportunity for participants to share learning and hear about the experiences of attendees in strategic planning of support for children and their families.

The Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads Network has had a key role in development of the Early Child Development Programme. A dedicated in-person pop-up workshop was held in May 2024 with network members and colleagues from local CSPP areas, to build further on some of the ideas shared at the CYPIC Conference. This session also included feedback on opportunities to strengthen the focus on Early Child Development as part of updating Part 3 (Children’s Services Planning) Statutory Guidance.

Family Support (Criterion 11)

The Statutory Guidance states that a Children’s Services Plan should set out a comprehensive strategy across partners for supporting families living in the local area, covering a continuum across universal services, early help, and targeted or intensive support.

This criterion saw on overall improvement since the previous review, with 24 CSPs fully achieving this criterion, compared with 21 previously (Figure 7.5).

Children’s Services Plans which fully met this criterion provided a comprehensive description of holistic whole family support available within the local area across different stages of life, for example pre-birth, early years, school age and young adulthood. The main types of family support activities mentioned included: parenting support, support with finances, family learning, mental health support, and intensive support for families in crisis. Some described a commitment to building more integrated whole family approaches in the future.

CSPs which partially met this criterion required further detail on the provision of whole family support across different stages of life.

Eleven Children’s Services Plans included a strategic priority focussed on whole family support. Most (25 out of 30) referenced Whole Family Wellbeing Funding and 4 referenced the National Framework Principles of Holistic Whole Family Support.

A few CSPs discussed having a dedicated multi-agency strategic group leading on whole family support within the CSPP area.

Examples of good practice

Moray: Page 11 confirms that the 10 principles of holistic family support are reflected in the principles and values underpinning the Children’s Services Plan. Strengthening family support is a priority (pp. 46-50), with objectives that span pre-birth to adulthood and across preventative to intensive support. These include developing a clear pathway of non-stigmatised support to families and supporting parents effectively. There are plans to use the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund to recruit a skilled manager to coordinate the development of holistic family support in Moray.

Aberdeenshire: One of the Children’s Services Plan’s strategic priorities is: “Whole Family Wellbeing is promoted and improved by enabling families to get the right support early and effectively”, and there are a number of actions and services which support this, described throughout the CSP. Among the services aimed at family wellbeing are those that support healthy and active lives, family learning opportunities, financial inclusion, and support for young carers.

Midlothian: Whole family wellbeing is one of the priorities identified in the Children’s Services Plan, with an ambition to deliver more holistic support to help improve outcomes for children, young people and families. One of the planned actions under this priority is to “implement our whole family wellbeing approach and make best use of the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund”. Examples of work related to this priority include: utilising a whole system approach to type 2 diabetes prevention in Mayfield and Easthouses; the development of a Transitions Framework to support local services and processes; and implementing and delivering on the actions set out in the Local Child Poverty Action Plan.

Additional Policy and Engagement Context

The Children’s Services Planning Strategic Leads Network and the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Learning into Action Network continue to work closely together to share learning from planning and delivery approaches, discuss key implementation issues, and provide opportunities for peer support, with a focus on improvement.

The Scottish Government’s future approach to Whole Family Wellbeing Funding was published in September 2024.