Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme - EQIA

The Scope of the EQIA

The Programme is based on the findings of the Independent Care Review - The Promise and Plan 21-24 - The Promise. Two external stakeholder groups led by the Scottish Government, the Coronavirus (COVID-19): Children and Families Collective Leadership Group - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) and the Family Support Advisory Group - gov.scot (formerly known as the Family Support Delivery Group) were engaged in developing our vision and blueprint for holistic family support, and route map for the system change necessary to deliver that vision. The Programme proposals were designed in partnership with a range of stakeholders including local government, the third sector, social work, public health and the Promise. The Programme is being reviewed based on the key findings and recommendations in the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding (WFWF) - year 1 process evaluation: final report.

This EQIA is reviewing high level principles of the Programme, as overall responsibility for decision-making on use of the WFWF in local areas remains with CSPPs:

• one of the criteria for allocating WFWF to local areas (as detailed annually in Element 1 allocation letters issued to all CSPPs) is that all services funded by WFWF must undergo relevant impact assessments, including Equality Impact Assessments and Children’s Rights Impact Assessments (CRWIAs), as appropriate. Similarly a criteria for Element 3 funding is that planned spending must undergo relevant impact assessments, including EQIAs and CRWIAs
• additionally, the public sector duty regarding socio-economic inequalities set out in section 1 of the Equality Act 2010, otherwise known as the Fairer Scotland Duty, requires that when taking strategic decisions, particular public bodies, including local authorities and health boards, must have due regard to how they can reduce inequalities of outcome caused by socio-economic disadvantage in the exercise of their functions Children's services planning: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot))

It is important to note that the overall responsibility for decision-making on use of the WFWF in local areas remains with CSPPs. As such, data gathered on family support will differ by each local area, and may not clearly fit the equalities characteristics and the format of an EQIA. Furthermore, the funding formula for Element 1 is based on age, low income, rurality and multiple deprivation (and does not explicitly fit all equality groups descriptives in the EQIA).