Keeping The Promise to our children, young people and families: progress update 2024

Part 4 Whole Family Wellbeing Investment Approach

Where have we come from?

The Promise identified a clear need for early, holistic family support in helping families to stay together, where it is safe to do so. Together with partners from across the sector, the Scottish Government (SG) co-produced a Vision and National Principles for Family Support in Scotland, focussed on all families getting the right help, at the right time, for as long as they needed.

Programme for Government (PfG) 2021-22 committed to investing £500m over the lifetime of this Parliament to support the development of holistic, whole family support services in line with our Vision and National Principles. The PfG commitment recognised that a fundamental change in the system was required to deliver this vision for families. It also recognised that our vision should go further than preventing families from entering the care system. It was about supporting families with their broader wellbeing and ensuring availability of support that can wrap around each family’s individual needs. By doing so, we would be helping Scotland’s families to thrive and preventing them from reaching crisis.

The latest Programme for Government set out our approach to deliver person-centred, whole family support and over the year ahead, we will work with partners to introduce additional local flexibility in how existing budgets and services can be reconfigured. Working with local partners to pool budgets and streamline reporting requirements, where possible, with clear local plans in place for delivering shared outcomes.

The Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme (the Programme) was established with the purpose of driving the system change required at the local level, principally through existing Children’s Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs), to deliver family support in line with our National Principles. Recognising the varying circumstances of local areas, the Programme did not seek to mandate a specific delivery model that would be required everywhere. Instead, we asked CSPPs to assess their current delivery system and consider what the gaps and opportunities were for them in delivering holistic support for families.

What have we done?

Since 2022 we have invested over £110m in a programme of activity aimed at responding to what the sector told us was required to support local areas to deliver whole system change. This has included:

• £96m for CSPPs (Element 1) to build local service capacity for change and to transform family support services. Each CSPP is responsible for deciding how to spend their allocation, based on a local assessment of need.
• £1.6m National Support for Local Delivery (Element 2) – recognising the need for local partnerships to learn from each other to support change, we established a package of activity to support the development and sharing of learning across CSPPs and beyond and, where possible, to actively support a systematic approach to change. Funding has also supported external evaluations of Years 1 and 2 of the Programme and its impact.
• £13.1m for taking a cross Scottish Government approach to system change (Element 3) which is supporting 12 projects across Scottish Government policy areas to help progress the aims of the Programme. This includes delivery of two new mother and child units to be run by Aberlour Childcare Trust; funding towards the Dundee Pathfinder, which is taking a person-centred approach to tackling child poverty as part of a partnership approach between Dundee City Council, the Scottish Government and the Department for Work and Pensions and local partners; and funding for Inverclyde Transformation Initiative supporting approximately 100 young people, providing targeted intensive one to one provision, focusing on risk reduction, group work, peer mentoring and diversionary activities. A full list can be found on the online Knowledge Hub (K Hub).

CSPPs report progress of their Whole Family Wellbeing Funding activity and spend as part of their annual CSPP reports. These reports demonstrate a variety of activities across local areas that are beginning to transform family support systems. Some examples include several areas establishing or enhancing local groups to facilitate children and young people to co-produce and design services, such as ‘Champions Boards’. Some areas are scaling up previously piloted programmes, such as family support hubs or services to support pregnant women and parents with their mental health or substance use. Working towards improving whole systems approaches, some CSPPs are developing multi-agency working groups and systems to ensure better collaboration. Finally, several CSPPs are specifically focusing on recruiting more staff and activities that provide greater support for existing staff. Illustrative examples are included below, with fuller detail and case studies available in the Year 1 Evaluation Report.

What does this look like in practice?

CSPP Funding (Element 1)

In East Renfrewshire funding has been directed towards two key areas of activity: Learn Well and the Intensive Family Support Service. Learn Well is a programme for non-school attendance of pupils with care experience with significant mental wellbeing concerns. The service supports pupils (S1-S4) with their wellbeing and education while they are experiencing Emotionally Based School Absence (EBSA). Currently East Renfrewshire supports 22 young people through this approach.

The Intensive Family Support Service is for very vulnerable young parents and their small children. The team works alongside community social work, with families of children under the age of 12 years, where a need for more intensive support has been identified. A referral to the team is recommended when children have been, or are at risk of being, removed from the care of their family and if child protection registration is being considered, including at the pre-birth stage. The service strives to work in accordance with the 10 principles of family support outlined in The Promise. The creation of the health visitor post in November 2021, thanks to Whole Family Wellbeing Funding, has allowed the team to provide health advice, support, and guidance to the families they work with, when they need it and as often as they need it.

In West Lothian there has been an expansion of mental health support and coverage across the area. Previously, this support was only available for mental health referrals, and it has now been expanded to support all families in West Lothian who are feeling isolated or overwhelmed. As part of their Whole Family Wellbeing Funding, West Lothian have provided a place-based approach of bringing families together in a non-clinical environment, specifically families with a child or young person aged between 0-18 years old.

Mental health support is provided by trained volunteers who are supported by a Family Support Manager. Families involved self-score on mental health factors and undergo a review with the Family Support Manager every three months, while children and young people have interviews or discussions instead.

In South Lanarkshire the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding has supported a scale up of a family support programme called Pathfinders to seven schools. It is available for families on the edges of care, to reduce the need for more complex intervention at a later stage. The Pathfinders project is working with secondary schools and social workers to engage with families whose children are disengaged from school, with a focus on preventing the child or young person from being taken into care.

The programme promotes hubs in schools and discussion with families, following referrals from social work or the school. The multi-agency nature of this programme has enabled the hubs to make links with families more easily. For example, the Pathfinders project will give families a number to call for support or show them where to go to access support. This hub approach has minimised the need for formal referrals and reduced the time taken by families to identify the correct point of contact for their needs.

National Support for Local Delivery (Element 2)

East Lothian is one of three collaborative partnerships we have been working with to collaborate on the delivery of local outcomes, while collating in depth learning about what it takes to deliver change in a complex system with the intent of sharing this learning nationally.. East Lothian’s change and practice team have been working collaboratively with the WFWF National Support Team, comprising of improvement and implementation specialists from the Scottish Government and CELCIS, to develop their knowledge and skills in supporting their change work and to enable sustainable improvements to deliver the right changes for families, communities, and those delivering support. Support has included a variety of facilitation, teaching, mentoring and coaching around: the use of Quality Improvement thinking and tools; Active Implementation Science thinking and tools; data and social research supports; participation, co-design and community engagement; ways to capture and tell the stories of the work; and initial exploration of collective leadership to support individuals in leading and managing change.

The work is anchored by strategic alignment across the children’s partnership and within the East Lothian Childrens Services Plan 2023- 2026, with the intention of further supporting connectivity from practice learning through to strategic partnership decision making. There is also work underway to assess how data is used to support the measurement of preventative and early intervention focused work, as well as exploration of how learning data can support CSP decision making.

As well as funding to establish a change team, East Lothian have received additional funding to test their approaches to transformation and have used these funds to supplement a team of Family Outreach Workers practicing in Fa’side and Dunbar. The team provides tailored support to help families deal with some of the challenges that come with daily life through building strong relationships, built around families’ specific needs and circumstances. The team are working with families to understand what matters most to them and building on families’ skills and strengths to improve their confidence. Families have asked for support with the following: child and family life, understanding what support they can access locally, finance and budgeting and household issues. The practice team also have a focus on testing out the different ways families and partners can access support that is easy, timely and stigma free, offering support through a trauma informed lens.

The Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Element 2 support, underpinned by a quality improvement approach, has enabled East Lothian to build an understanding of what it takes to achieve change across the different levels – from strategic thinking to delivering services.

Learning into Action Network

In collaboration with the Improvement Service, we have established a Learning into Action (LiA) Network. The LiA Network enables members to collaborate, facilitate peer support, share learning and approaches from across the country, and to enable solution-focused discussions around the barriers to whole system change.

With the support of our LiA development group (comprising twelve self-nominated members from across several CSPP areas and partner agencies), we continue to co-design and co-produce a varied programme of work. LiA Link & Learn sessions are held every 6-8 weeks, covering themes such as Engagement with the third sector; Self-assessment; and Engagement and participation with families. LiA Monthly Mingles enable a more informal approach through providing an ‘open space’ to help foster richer conversations and meaningful relationships between different CSPPs.

Link & Learn sessions are well attended, with an average of 16 different CSPP areas (from a total of 30) represented at each one. CSPPs have told us that they welcome these sessions; with a recent poll showing that 97% of survey respondents strongly agreed or agreed that they found the session relevant to their WFWF work.

Our associated K Hub also provides further opportunity for members to connect and access a bank of useful resources, tools and materials to support their WFWF work as well as related policy activity.

“It’s good to have a central point that is easy to connect with”; “Good to have access to others who have experience/ learnings that they can share”; “…a space to follow up on discussions from break out rooms in Mingle/ Link & Learn sessions”.

Effective commissioning and procurement of family-based support services

Our Year 1 evaluation told us that commissioning and procurement activity is often viewed by CSPPs as being a barrier to effective working in holistic family support. A six-month project, in collaboration with Scotland Excel and wider partners, has commenced with the aim of providing a clear evidence base on what action is needed to support effective commissioning and procurement of family-based support services.

Taking a cross Scottish Government approach to system change (Element 3)

Aberlour Mother and Child Recovery Houses project aims to increase capacity for residential rehabilitation services for women impacted by alcohol and drugs at Aberlour Childcare Trust, through establishing two residential rehabilitation recovery houses. The houses are a transformational new residential recovery service designed specifically to support women and their children (up to age five) through treatment for substance use, before they reach a point of crisis in having their children removed from their care. This activity links to WFWF ambitions and aligns with the national priorities of The Promise and Getting it Right for Every Child, through its wraparound provision of childcare alongside residential rehabilitation. WFWF is providing full revenue funding of the project to 2025-26.

The first Mother and Child House in Cowan Grove Dundee, is a 4-bed residential recovery house, opened its doors in December 2022. This is a national service available to women throughout Scotland. The service provides community outreach support and assessment to each woman prior to entering the residential house, and during their stay. Women and their children can stay for as long as is needed for their recovery, and when the women leave the service, Aberlour’s outreach team continue to provide them with support within the community for as long as they require it. The second 4 bed house in Falkirk is now completed and will be officially opened by the Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy on 2 September. 2024.

Inverclyde Transformation Initiative – Serious Organised Crime (SOC) Early Intervention and Prevention for Families project adopts a collaborative, early intervention approach and supports the whole family to benefit at the right time, when and where it suits the families. It builds on the partner’s (Action for Children) expertise in supporting families where young people are at risk of criminal exploitation linked to SOC through a new transformational initiative with families being able to co-create support packages with a consistent key worker to navigate through services.

The project, building on an existing model developed and delivered in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, is adapted to the unique circumstances within Inverclyde. The overall aim of the project is to build wider understanding to normalise the consideration of Child Criminal Exploitation within the delivery of family support at a national level. Proposals will generate learning to shape policy and influence strategic direction while creating new ways of working and practice approaches that can be widely disseminated and shared across all 32 local authorities. WFWF is fully funding the project until 2025-26, helping to support approximately 100 young people, providing targeted intensive 1-1 provision, focusing on risk reduction, group work, peer mentoring and diversionary activities.

Where are we now?

Our Year 1 evaluation has told us that CSPPs have valued the opportunity to develop their family support offer and the autonomy they have been provided with to tailor their response to the needs of their local communities. In addition, the flexibility of the WFWF has enabled the scaling-up of successful support or creating new types of support where that need exists.

However, the evaluation of Year 1 activity and our engagement with partners has also told us that transforming the services in a way that sustains positive change over the longer-term is going to take more time. And that our partners need further support to deliver this change and embed it for the future.

The need for additional time and support has been a consistent and strong message from our partners against a backdrop of wider challenges; from challenges in recruiting and retaining staff, to evidence of an increasing number of families in crisis and budget constraints across public services. It takes time to build relationships across services, partners, and communities and to do so in the right way. Taking a short-term approach to funding does not enable the level of trust required to be built between partners, and we know that this is critical to achieving and embedding sustainable cultural and systemic change.

Our year 1 evaluation indicated that in 2023-24 many CSPPs had not spent their funding in full, and more time was required to establish the culture and system change in family support before CSPPs would start to consistently observe early outcomes. Time is needed for local areas to assess current provision and community need, and to identify gaps in support and how they should best be addressed.

What will we do in response?

1. Give additional time and take decisions on future funding based on robust evidence

We have listened and learned from the first year and a half of the Programme and have a clearer sense of how to further enable the conditions for change. The case for additional time has been clearly set by our partners and after much consultation and engagement the Scottish Government has decided to extend the timeframe of the Programme beyond the current end point of 2025-26.

The Scottish Government does not intend to prescribe a new end point for the programme at this time. We want to ensure our decisions continue to be evidence based, responsive to learning, and take account of what local areas need by way of support. It is also recognised that elongating the Programme will take it beyond the current parliamentary term. This investment approach cannot bind future administrations to funding decisions beyond the Budget the current Parliament will approve for 2026-27. However, we can make evidence-based recommendations about where funding should best be deployed and at what level. The timeline below is the starting point for that and sets out the key points at which we expect that evidence will be available to all partners, and what decisions it can inform, and when. This timeline will be refreshed on an annual basis.

A key metric is how the Programme is supporting the overall delivery of the Promise by 2030, by supporting families earlier and more holistically before they reach crisis points and interactions with the care system. Given the purpose of the Programme is to enable this change at a local level, our outcomes are focussed on understanding the progress of local areas in building and sustaining holistic family support services in line with our National Principles. The framework for this is set out in our Programme logic model, which will be updated again with partners in advance of the procurement of the Year 3+ evaluation during the second half of 2025.

We will continue to deliver a robust evaluation programme, building on the Year 1 and Year 2 evaluations, to track progress throughout the life of WFWF. A contribution analysis approach is being developed which will support our understanding of how the programme is directly contributing to key Programme outcomes. Future evaluation reports using this approach will provide us with a robust evidence base from which to evolve existing funding streams and develop new investment propositions.

Decisions about making changes to, increasing or winding down individual elements of funding will be taken at key identified points set out in the timeline below. It is proposed that formal evaluation reports are provided in 2026-27 and 2028-29. The latter, based on data from 2026-28 will be the final point of formal WFWF evaluation before 2030 (by which time Scotland has pledged to have kept The Promise) and will allow funding decisions to be taken to maximise the impact

of the Programme in advance of this time point. The Promise policy officials and The Promise Scotland are represented on the WFWF evaluation advisory group, and we will work closely with them throughout evaluation planning. If required, a further evaluation can be provided in 2031-32. This would provide a full retrospective picture of delivery to 2030. It would not inform funding decisions but would review impact and inform future policy direction beyond the lifetime of the programme and The Promise.

The evaluation reporting dates have been chosen to align with the availability of relevant data. This is to ensure the most robust and comprehensive picture of the Programme delivery and impact. Analytical updates in the intervening years would be provided based on all available data, including CSPP annual reports.

Diagram showing year by year from financial year 2024-25 to financial year 2031-32 the associated budget, funding and evaluation and evidence for the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund.

2024-25 (Whole Family Wellbeing Fund year 3)

Within the 2025-26 Budget: Continuation of £32 million quantum, Consideration of quantum required for element 1, extension to 2026-27, parallel funding to prevent crisis and additional funding to support local development.

Funding: £32 million funding to all Children's Services Planning Partnerships (CSPPs), circa £1.8 million element 2 funding and £7.8 million element 3 projects.

Evaluation and evidence: Children's Services Plan (CSP) Annual reports for 2023-24 in June, Year 2 (2023-24) evaluation drafted by October and published by December.

2025-26 (Whole Family Wellbeing Fund year 4)

Within the 2026-27 budget: consideration of quantum required for element 1, quantum required for element 2, potential expansion of element 3 projects and potential investment in joint cross-portfolio activity.

Funding: £32 million per annum funding to all CSPPs, Element 2 funding to be confirmed (tbc), £5.3 million funding for element 3 projects, as well as proposed potential new funding to preventing system crisis and proposed potential new funding to support local development.

Evaluation and evidence: CSP Annual reports for 2024-25 in June. In September, internal analysis on 2024-25 annual CSPP reports, Collaborative Partnership Support (to 2025) and Programme element 3 Projects (to 2025).

2026-27 (Whole Family Wellbeing Fund year 5)

Beginning of financial year: Scottish Parliamentary Elections

End of financial year: End of RSR period

Within the 2027-28 budget: Consideration of all funding for 2027-28 to 2031-32 financial years, including continuation of element 1 funding and quantum and potential expansion of element 3 projects.

Funding: Proposed extension of element 1, proposed element 2 funding to be confirmed (tbc), proposed potential element 3 project expansion, proposed potential new funding to preventing system crisis and proposed potential new funding to support local development.

Evidence and evaluation: CSP Annual Reports for 2025-26 financial year and CSPP plans for 2026-2029 published in June. Year 3 and 4 evaluation (June 2024-June 2026) drafted by September and published in December.

2027-28 financial year:

Funding: Funding past 2026-27 will be determined by new administration. Funding streams highlighted here are indicative recommendations for incoming Government, and will be updated to inform Budget 2027-28 decisions. Proposed activity for next administration includes continuation of element 1 funding, element 2 funding, element 3 project expansion, potential new funding to prevent system crisis, potential new funding to support local development.

Evidence and Evaluation: CSP Annual reports for 2026-27 in June. Internal analysis in September.

2028-29 financial year:

Within the 2029-30 budget: Proposed consideration of continuation of programme for next two years.

Funding: Funding past 2026-27 will be determined by new administration. Funding streams highlighted here are indicative recommendations for incoming Government, and will be updated to inform Budget 2027-28 decisions. Proposed activity for next administration includes continuation of element 1 funding, element 2 funding, element 3 project expansion, potential new funding to prevent system crisis, potential new funding to support local development.

Evidence and evaluation: CSP Annual reports for 2027-28 in June. Year 5 and 6 evaluation (June 2026-June 2028) drafted by September and published in December.

2029-30 financial year:

2030: Keeping The Promise

Funding: Funding past 2026-27 will be determined by new administration. Funding streams highlighted here are indicative recommendations for incoming Government, and will be updated to inform Budget 2027-28 decisions. Proposed activity for next administration includes continuation of element 1 funding, element 2 funding, element 3 project expansion, potential new funding to prevent system crisis, potential new funding to support local development.

Evidence and evaluation: CSP Annual reports for 2028-29, and CSPP plans for (2029-2032) published in June. Internal analysis in September.

2030-2031 financial year:

Funding: Funding past 2026-27 will be determined by new administration. Funding streams highlighted here are indicative recommendations for incoming Government, and will be updated to inform Budget 2027-28 decisions. Proposed activity for next administration includes continuation of element 1 funding, element 2 funding, element 3 project expansion, potential new funding to prevent system crisis, potential new funding to support local development.

Evidence and evaluation: CSP Annual reports for 2029-30 published in June. Internal analysis in September.

2031-2032 financial year:

Beginning of financial year: Scottish Parliamentary Elections

End of financial year: End of RSR period

Funding: Funding past 2026-27 will be determined by new administration. Funding streams highlighted here are indicative recommendations for incoming Government, and will be updated to inform Budget 2027-28 decisions. Proposed activity for next administration includes continuation of element 1 funding, element 2 funding, element 3 project expansion, potential new funding to prevent system crisis, potential new funding to support local development.

Evidence and evaluation: CSP Annual reports for 2030-31 in June. Year 7-9 evaluation (June 2028-June 2030) drafted by September and published in December.

2. Maintain our commitment to funding all CSPPs and take an evidence-based approach to future funding

Our Element 1 funding currently provides £32m of annual funding direct to all CSPPs via the General Revenue Grant provided to local authorities. This is a significant investment and critical part of how we will keep the Promise and improve children’s outcomes by ensuring families can access the support they need, where and when they need it. CSPPs are responsible for collectively agreeing how to spend this funding in support of WFWF transformational aims. Recognising the urgency to transform services, the Government’s ambition is to increase the scale of this investment, but we must take an evidence-based approach to any future funding decisions. At the current time, we only have the Year 1 evaluation (2022-23) to demonstrate evidence of how this funding has been deployed or was planned to be deployed. In recognition of the importance of security of funding for local partners, it is our intention to work with COSLA, and in the context of the Verity House Agreement, to extend the funding for CSPPs into 2026-27 – the last year in which we can take spending decisions as part of the Resource Spending Review period (2023-24 to 2026-27). In doing so, we will continue to work in partnership with COSLA and CSPPs to build our evidence base of spend. This will inform our annual consideration of the funding available and ensure it best supports transformation.

3. Explore new funding streams to support local transformation

The elongation of the Programme timescales brings the opportunity to evolve, expand and expedite our approach to funding local activity. We are listening to feedback which suggests that new funding streams could be usefully deployed to further support transformational change for example through:

• Responding to the immediate issues system of an increase of families in crisis.
• Providing additional funding to some individual CSPP areas to support their next phase of implementation based on evidenced need.

We have begun to develop our approach to these in partnership with COSLA and other key stakeholders, with a view to informing decisions taken in the context of future budget discussions.

A. Responding to the immediate needs of families in crisis

We have received clear messages from partners about the challenges of the wider operational context restricting their ability to drive sustainable transformational change. This includes concerns about an increasing number of families in need of immediate support, and the parallel impact of funding pressures on the existing local infrastructure that supports them, including third sector services. While we want the Programme to focus on developing a future system of more holistic support, we recognise that addressing the immediate challenges that families are facing is a critical component in enabling this longer-term shift.

In considering any expanded funding in the future, we will consider where funding could help alleviate the strain on services delivering crisis intervention, and therefore allow more capacity for transformational change. For example, this could be in the form of direct support for families, or additional support for services which are under strain in the current fiscal context. We need to consider and recognise the wide range of activity already underway at local and national level including the variety of community-based early help and support currently provided by the third sector, and the need to sustain and develop this infrastructure as part of future delivery. We will also need to take into account the work via Social Security Scotland and wider activity to tackle child poverty. We will therefore work with partners to consider what interventions could best address these issues, maintaining a focus on how this would support our theory of change in building and sustaining local systems of holistic support.

B. Providing additional funding to individual CSPP areas to support their next phase of implementation based on evidenced need

As set out above, we currently provide a total of £32m to local areas through CSPPs to support delivery of the Programme. It has always been recognised that CSPPs are at different stages of delivering transformational change and this was highlighted by our initial findings report in 2022-23. As such, some local areas may be more ready to move beyond scoping and testing approaches to embedding them as a sustained offer of support for the families they serve. We want to be able to support local areas as flexibly as possible, noting their different needs. For some, this may require one-off spending to secure infrastructure. For others, this may mean funding evaluation work to support a business case. Or it could mean funding to support the initial set up costs of expanding services beyond the initial ‘test’ areas.

Whatever the need, we recognise the importance for a funding approach which balances a light-touch, flexible and non-competitive approach, with assurance that short-term funding is being requested as part of a strategic plan for local systemic change. The evaluation and sharing of this developing local practice is also critical – where models of delivery are working well, we want to build the evidence base by which other local areas can develop their own interventions.

Again, we will work with partners to consider in more detail how new WFWF funding streams could best support this next stage of activity, where local areas are ready to progress their plans.

4. Expand our national support offer to help CSPPs

The elongation of the Programme also provides the opportunity to develop and expand our offer of practical support to help CSPPs deliver on the ground. We have been engaging with CSPPs to understand their priorities in this area, as well as drawing on expertise in delivering transformational change. As a result, we will be evolving our current support offer to focus on four key themes:

• Our ongoing commitment to Collaborative Partnerships and the LiA Network, with adaptation of the latter to align with the proposed Learning System.
• Supported Self-Assessment for CSPPs to participate in a facilitated self-assessment of their approach to delivering improvements. This will involve a collaborative process designed to increase capacity and capability for change, to identify and build on local assets and to support CSPPs to define improvement priorities.
• Developing a Learning System to support the Scottish Government, CSPPs and national partners to apply a systematic approach to help get evidence into practice through collaboration and joint learning. We are scoping how best to optimise the connections between other national transformational change programmes including The Promise and Early Child Development given the clear overlap.
• Focused Quality Improvement Support: we are scoping a national Quality Improvement support offer to help bring focus, connection and method where it is most needed. As part of this scoping, we have identified the pre-birth to three age group as a critical population to focus on. Improving the experience and quality of life at this early stage can have a significant positive impact on outcomes later in life. This population also links to other national transformational change programmes, including The Promise and Early Child Development, ensuring we provide a joined-up offer to local areas.

Each component of this expanded offer is either being actively developed and scoped with a view to beginning implementation in quarter 3 of 2024, or work is already underway, specifically in relation to leadership support as one aspect of the learning system.

The expansion of the support offer will require ongoing investment in providing local areas access to expertise in transformation, collective learning and development opportunities, and peer support. As with other aspects of the programme, we will be led by evidence and feedback and flex our approach accordingly over the coming years.

5. Evolve our cross-portfolio approach to develop joint propositions for future investment

As outlined above, under Element 3 of the Programme, we have already invested over £13m in 12 projects across wider Scottish Government portfolios, which support various aspects of holistic family support. These programmes are running to different points up to the end of 2025-26. Elongation of our timeframes gives us the opportunity to build on the learning of those programmes and take informed decisions about whether further investment would support our national approach to early, holistic whole family support. As these projects conclude and are evaluated, we will take decisions about the future investment required as part of the annual budget process.

In addition, we want to ensure we continue to maximise opportunities for taking a cross-portfolio approach in recognition of the broad reach of services that support or engage with families. We particularly recognise the opportunity to develop this work in the context of a wider programme of public service reform, including the next phase of joint activity with local government through the Verity House Agreement. The Scottish Government is also committed to responding to stakeholder feedback that the current funding and reporting landscape could be simplified.

Opportunities include:

• Continuing to explore opportunities for practical alignment of WFWF with other funding streams that share a common purpose, whether this includes a focus on the same target population or delivering on similar outcomes. For example, the Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund, which is distributing funding to local authorities for targeting initiatives, activities, and resources towards children and adults up to 26 years old with care experienced. The elongation of the Programme provides greater opportunity to do this, given the varying timeframes of established funding streams.
• Taking a targeted approach to how WFWF can contribute to cross-government joint work on prevention, particularly in relation to taking a holistic approach for supporting families. This includes recognition that there are a number of different programmes supporting transformational work in this space and there is the opportunity for stronger connections and integration of evidence and approach for greater impact. These opportunities include the Social Inclusion Partnerships, GIRFE, Early Learning and Childcare, and other Pathfinders. The Early Child Development Programme also highlights the evidence around the importance of providing support as early as possible to enable caregivers to provide the nurturing care that babies and young children need, from pre-birth. We want to ensure there is a concerted effort in taking a cross-Scottish Government approach to these key areas of work moving forward, with consideration of how we best deploy Scottish Government support in a way that continues to deliver for local need and deliver innovate ways of working. The Programme is well placed to be a key partner in this activity in a range of different ways, which includes collaboration on support, place-based activity, and funding activity. The outputs of this collaboration will inform future budget and policy decisions from 2025-26.