Tayside Children's Services Plan Appendix 2
Perth and Kinross Council · 25 October 2023
Back to Learning and Families Committee — 25 October 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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2 Appendix 2 Tayside Plan for Children, Young People and Families (2021-2023) Annual Report 2022-2023
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3 Contents Introduction 4 Tayside Collaborative Model 5 Focus of Priority Groups 6 Priority Group 1: Pre-birth and Early Years 7 Priority Group 2: Learning and Attainment 10 Priority Group 3: Health and Wellbeing 12 Priority Group 4: Care Experienced Children and Young People 14 Priority Group 5: Safeguarding and Child Protection 15 Performance Framework Summary 20 Conclusion 21 Appendix 1: Priority Group Members (Job Titles & Organisations) 22 Appendix 2: Headline measures 23 This report was approved by the Tayside Regional Improvement Collaborative on 21/08/23. Should you wish to enquire on this report, please contact us via www.taycollab.org.uk
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4 Introduction The Tayside Plan for Children, Young People and Families 2021-23 forms the Integrated Children’s Services Plan (ICSP) for the three Community Planning Partnership areas in Tayside and is led by the three Councils (Angus, Dundee, and Perth and Kinross), NHS Tayside, Police Scotland, the Third Sector and other organisations that influence service delivery in the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) areas. The plan focuses on improving the outcomes of children, young people and families by galvanising the collective capacity of partners across Tayside. This annual report outlines the work undertaken to progress the Tayside Plan for Children, Young People and Families in the period from April 2022 to March 2023. During this time, the Collaborative has remained committed to sharing and building on local practice across the 3 local authorities, and where value is added, working together to address the significant challenges faced by children, young people and their families at this time. The impact of the pandemic has continued to be experienced by the most disadvantaged in society, exacerbated further by the current cost-of-living crisis. The need to address child poverty and provide whole family wellbeing support has never been more evident. It is in this context that collaborative working across Tayside is vital to address inequity and accelerate progress towards improving outcomes in health, wellbeing and attainment. By focusing our collective efforts on the priorities of early years, learning and attainment, health and wellbeing, care experienced children/young people, and safe-guarding and child protection, we want to ensure that ‘our children and young people will have the best start in life and Tayside will be the best place in Scotland to grow up’. TRIC Leadership Group
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5 Tayside Collaborative Model The five Priority Groups (PGs) within the Tayside Collaborative have representation from across the three areas and deliver detailed action plans against which their progress is reported. The Performance and Data subgroup has continued to offer support to the PGs to deliver on outcomes. Governance is delivered through the Leadership Group and the Strategic Group at Chief Executive level, currently led by Dundee City Council. There is further governance oversight within the respective Children’s Planning Partnerships across Tayside.
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6 The Plan focuses on five shared priority areas to improve outcomes for children and young people, stated under each associated group in the progress section below.
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7 Priority Group 1: Pre-Birth and Early Years ‘Our children will have the best start in life in a nurturing environment’. The key areas taken forward from the 2021-23 Tayside plan were transitions for children aged 0-3 years with emergent developmental or additional support needs; tracking and monitoring in Early Years; and support for families (welfare and poverty). Transitions for children 0-3 years with emergent developmental or additional support needs During 2022-23, a multi-agency group continued to work collaboratively to find ways to improve home to Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) transitions for children with emergent developmental or additional support needs. Initially the target age group was 0-3yrs however this was extended to include transitions for children aged 2-5yrs. Most recent published data from Public Health Scotland Early Childhood Development statistics (2020-2021) at each of the 3 age reviews highlighted significant levels of emergent needs and concerns. Summary of data for 2020/21 13-15 month review In each of the local authority areas, the domain with the highest proportion of concerns was speech, language and communication followed by gross motor. This pattern was also reflected in national data. However, this represents an increase in the number of concerns about speech and language compared with the previous year. 27-30 month review For each of the local authority areas, the domain with the highest proportion of concerns was speech, language and communication, followed by emotional/behavioural in Dundee and personal/social in Angus and Perth & Kinross. Speech, language and communication and emotional/behavioural were also the domains with the highest proportion of concerns nationally. 4-5 year review The domains with the highest proportion of concerns were emotional/behavioural, fine motor and speech, language and communication although the order varied in each area. These domains also had the highest proportion of concerns nationally. In 2021/22 session, pathways were shared across Tayside, mapping support for children with emerging developmental or additional support needs transitioning into ELC settings. During 2022/23, these process maps were used to identify gaps in transition processes, find Tayside-wide solutions and create a Pan-Tayside pathway. A multi-agency staff survey was developed, implemented and analysed. The purpose was to gather baseline data in relation to the number of new starts (August 2022) with significant early concerns in relation to their development or emerging additional support needs. This included the percentage of those newly enrolled with significant early concerns raised prior to starting ELC and where the information came from, and the percentage of those children for whom concerns had been raised prior to starting ELC who had support plans in place. In March 2023, questionnaire results from 93 Local Authority ELC settings across Tayside
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8 highlighted that the three main areas of concern were speech and language development; play skills/interaction with others; and social communication. Of those children who had a successful transition, use of My World documentation to support planning in Angus; multi-agency relationships in Perth & Kinross; and health visiting relationships in Dundee were highlighted as positive contributing factors. Positive parent/carer relationships and effective lines of communication between ELCs and families, as well as transition visits and processes, were evident across all local areas. Summary of Staff Survey Results Information provided relates to both the 2 year old and 3-5 year old populations, case held by Health Visiting teams across Tayside, who enrolled in ELCs in August 2022. 2-year old children • 47% of those newly enrolled since August 2022 had significant early concerns. • 97% of those newly enrolled with significant early concerns raised prior to starting. • 50% of those newly enrolled since August 2022, whose concerns had been raised prior to starting ELC, had support plans in place. • Parent/carer as most common source of information with other health professional and ELC worker also noted. Of those children who had a successful transition, the following factors made this a successful process: • Effective relationships and information sharing between ELCs and Health Visitors • Child’s Plan in place prior to start • Parent/carer relationships 3-5 year old children • 17% of those newly enrolled since August 2022 had significant early concerns. • 97% of those newly enrolled with significant early concerns raised prior to starting. • 60% of those newly enrolled since August 2022 whose concerns had been raised prior to starting ELC, had support plans in place. • Parent/carer as most common source of the information, other health professional, ELC worker and other family member also recorded. Tayside Local Authority Early Learning and Childcare Settings 2-year old children • 17% of those newly enrolled for August 2022 had significant early concerns. • 52% of those newly enrolled with significant early concerns raised prior to starting. • 22% of those newly enrolled for August 2022 whose concerns had been raised prior to starting ELC, had support plans in place. • Parent/Carer and Health Visitor most common source of information with other Health professional and Social Worker also noted. 3-5 year old children • 13% of those newly enrolled in August 2022 had significant early concerns. • 51% of those newly enrolled with significant early concerns raised prior to starting. • 41% of those newly enrolled for August 2022 whose concerns had been raised prior to starting ELC, had support plans in place. • Parent/carer most common source of the information with previous ELC setting Health Visitor and Social Worker also recorded.
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9 Whilst there is evidence of effective communication and processes in place, feedback highlighted that further work is required to strengthen transitions through improved contact and information sharing with other agencies; better lines of communication and information sharing with parents/carers; and improved contact and information sharing between ELCs ahead of transition into ELCs. In June 2023, the Pan-Tayside transitions pathways for ELC providers and Health Visitors were shared with staff for use in all 3 local authorities. These outline the agreed processes that will support effective communication, information sharing, and transition planning for children aged 2-5 years with developmental needs and those with additional support needs, and include: • Pathways for Health Visitors who notice emerging concerns at 13-15mth and 27- 30mth review • Early Learning and Childcare admission process, including for children with significant early concerns in relation to their development or emerging additional support needs • ELC Transition Referral Process for children with emerging additional support needs The transitions survey will be repeated in 2023/24 to measure the impact of the use of the pathways to improve transitions into ELC for children with significant early concerns in relation to their development or emerging additional support needs. Tracking and Monitoring in Early Years In 2022/23, the Early Years tool developed to capture the learning, development and progress of children aged 3-5 years, was refined by each local authority in response to evaluative feedback and is being used across Tayside by ELC staff to provide timely, targeted support and challenge. From October to December 2022, a tool to track the development of 2-3 year olds was piloted with a small number of settings and this was extended to include more settings from January to June 2023 then implemented wider in the summer of 2023. In response to evaluative feedback from this pilot, adaptations have been made by each local authority and this will be used across Tayside in 2023/24. Support for Families (Welfare and Poverty) This subgroup of PG1 provides a useful forum to share ideas and good practice and agree and act on measures to improve access to financial maximisation support for families with infants or babies. Findings for the first 3 quarters show that the number of referrals to Welfare Rights from Midwifery Services, Health Visitors and Family Nurse Practitioners has been lower than the previous year. This could be due to a raised awareness of services and self-referrals as the cost-of-living response from local authority and third sector partners increased awareness of access to benefit advice, home energy advice and debt support. In the period of 2022-23, an additional 83 members of staff were trained on implementing referral pathways. This figure combines midwifery staff, Health Visitors and Family Nurse Practitioners. 164 people have accessed NHS Tayside’s Fuel Poverty sway module which will continue to be offered to support rollout of the Warmth Matters app which will be promoted across primary care services in October and November 2023. 2023-24 training dates have been offered to secondary care staff to support the money worries questions within the adult nursing documentation. Revised Poverty Sensitive Practice training, Public Health Scotland child poverty e-learning module and the Child Poverty
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10 Action Group (CPAG) Cost of the School Day modules means that a range of up-to-date training resources on the impact of poverty can be offered to a wide range of staff. A new training resource for community food providers and advice service staff will be developed in 2023-24 in response to the publication of UNICEF’s guide on supporting families with infants under 12 months experiencing food insecurity. PG1 subgroup members will be involved in the development of the training and a localised pathway of support. Building on the existing relationship with Dundee University’s School of Medicine, a new project with 1st year medical students will use case studies from local Welfare Rights and Citizens Advice services that will highlight the importance of financial inclusion and support. Introducing learning and awareness of the health-related harms that are caused by poverty to future medical staff is an area of work that the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit (SPIRU) is interested in hosting on their Tackling Poverty Directory to showcase areas of innovation and good practice. Priority Group 2: Learning and Attainment ‘Our children and young people will be meaningfully engaged with high quality learning experiences to extend their potential.’ United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child (UNCRC) During 2022-23, professional learning sessions on Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA) continued to be offered to all schools to help increase understanding of UNCRC. These were well attended. Since May 2022, the Scottish Government has supported UNICEF UK’s RRSA removing the financial barriers to schools motivated to undertake Silver and Gold Awards. Across Tayside, we now have 181 schools involved with RRSA; 16 have achieved Gold; 36 Silver; 87 Bronze; and an additional 42 schools registered. This is an increase of 50 schools since 2021/22. Working to achieve a RRSA ensures that schools have access to a range of free training and resources for the duration of the funding period (May 22 - May 25); further developing their approaches to engaging, listening and acting on the views of children and young people. The impact being that children are more likely to be engaged in their learning if they feel their rights are prominent in the learning environment. During the year, a series of career long professional learning (CLPL) sessions were delivered across Tayside and attended by over 500 members of staff. These included sessions run by Education Scotland and the One World Centre in conjunction with colleagues from our own services. Digital Learning In session 2022-23, the Tayside Virtual Campus offer (blend of self-study, live delivery, webinars and tutorials) was further expanded to support 38 learners engaging with 6 Advanced Higher subjects (French, Spanish, Computing, PE, Modern Studies, and Business Management). Half of the candidate gained A or B grades with 82% attaining an award at A – D. For session 2023-24, 185 young people are enrolled to study 6 Advanced Higher subjects and 1 Higher subject (Politics). To support our virtual learning model of delivery, an induction course has been developed for learners who are accepted to study with the Tayside Virtual Campus. The Scottish Qualifications Agency (SQA) has accredited the course at SCQF Level 6 (worth 3 points). Learners who complete the assessments to a satisfactory level gain our newly created Certificate in Preparing for Digital Learning in the Senior Phase. This course is designed to develop knowledge and skills relating to; digital tools, academic writing, citation and referencing, effective study, basics of research and has tools to support
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11 health and well-being. Many of the assessments are designed to test practical application and learner reflection. The whole course signposts students to many other services and helps develop learner self-efficacy. This helps lay a solid foundation for our learners and further supports improved attainment, both in their Virtual Campus course and in their other school-based courses. For the small number of young people who decide not to continue with their subject after the summer holidays, provided they have achieved all the assessments, they will still be rewarded for the time spent. Learners who join much later, for example after the summer break, can still attain due to the flexible nature of the course. While the course is currently quite bespoke to the Virtual Campus, we are anticipating that it will be suitable for students in our city campuses/consortia/clusters and as a stand-alone course available to schools in 2024-25. National 1- National 3 resources have been developed and collated for learners in the Senior Phase in all STEM subject areas in partnership with Forth Valley Regional Improvement Collaborative and the TRIC STEM officer. A new website, Open Tay Learning, was created to house these resources. This website allows us to create a bespoke resource with many accessibility functions to enhance learning for our young people with additional support needs and barriers to learning. In session 2022-23, this resource was developed to include English and Maths resources. Each local authority is now utilising the Digital Schools Award Scotland self-evaluation framework with schools to develop their digital pedagogy and a total of 26 schools in the region have achieved their award with a further 106 now enrolled across the region. Leadership Our Tayside Leadership, Development and Induction programme continued in 2022/23 with participation of a further 15 headteachers from across Tayside. The programme continued in a hybrid format of both online and face-to-face sessions and was delivered across six workshops. Moderation and Assessment The online Quality Assurance and Moderation Support Officers (QAMSO) programme continued to be delivered to practitioners from across Tayside. Three online twilight sessions, involving 38 staff from across three authorities, were held to allow QAMSOs to reconnect and moderate together across the improvement collaborative. Feedback was positive with requests for more in-person moderation opportunities. In September 2022, a full day session was held for 140 school leaders across Tayside. Feedback was very positive and the 2023-2024 Teaching, Learning and Assessment Group (TLAG) plan was created in response to this information. Leads and 17 staff from across the 3 authorities also collaborated in a working group to create progression pathways in pupil/family friendly language from Early to Fourth level, in response to requests from practitioners. The Literacy documents will be shared with schools early in the new session. The Curriculum Community of Practice was led by Education Scotland and lead staff from each authority with 33 Head Teachers and Leaders participating in a series of 6 sessions culminating in an in-person afternoon event at the V&A Dundee.
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12 School Improvement Following COVID-19 and recovery, reciprocal visits resumed in session 2022/23 to support local authority central teams and build the capacity of school leaders across Tayside, with peer Head Teachers supporting improvement visits. Priority Group 3: Health & Wellbeing ‘Our children will grow up healthy, confident and resilient with improved physical and mental health and strengthened emotional wellbeing.’ Tayside Child Healthy Weight Strategy Following extensive consultation and engagement ‘Helping Tayside’s Children & Young People Feel Great and Ready to Learn’ the Tayside Child Healthy Weight Strategy (CHWS) was co-produced and launched in June 2021, promoting five key ambitions: 1. Child healthy weight is seen as a society wide issue. 2. Children have the best start in life. 3. Our environment supports healthier choices. 4. Families get helpful weight management support. 5. Families and communities in most need are our main concern. Implementation is now being driven and co-ordinated by NHS Tayside Public Health Directorate working alongside multi-agency partners. The strategy has thirteen calls to action that seek to focus collective effort and shared responsibility in addressing population levels of childhood obesity. Increasing the proportion of children who have a healthy weight and reducing the disparity between levels of obesity seen in the least affluent compared to the most affluent areas is a key focus. The UNCRC is rooted within the five key ambitions, and these are being operationalised through a Whole Systems Approach (WSA) to Child Healthy Weight (CHW). Pressures relating to the cost-of-living crisis and increasing numbers of families living with food insecurity has widespread impact, including increasing the risk of poor diet quality and obesity and further driving the socioeconomic inequalities in child healthy weight. This challenging background sets a clear and ongoing need for implementation and spread of a WSA to CHW across Tayside informed by the early adopter work in Dundee and the need to advance the realisation of the vision of the strategy ‘for every child in Tayside to grow up in a community and environment that supports them to feel great and ready to learn so that they can achieve optimum health and flourish to their best of abilities’. The Dundee Healthy Weight Partnership was refreshed, and membership expanded to partners outside Dundee to increase capacity to support the implementation of a whole systems approach across Tayside. In February 2023, as part of the evaluation of the CHW whole systems approach, members of PG3 participated in an Action Learning Set, facilitated by the National Institute of Health Research Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Team and an NHS Tayside Researcher. In terms of applying a whole systems approach to child healthy weight across Tayside, the strategy will be operationalised in Angus via the ‘Best Start, Bright Futures’ group and align closely with efforts to address child poverty.
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13 A revised whole systems outcomes framework is currently under development and will be reviewed in-line with the publication of the national report on the ‘7 Local Levers for Diet and Healthy Weight in Scotland’ in the Autumn of 2023. Progress towards realising the ambitions of the CHWS is reported to NHS Tayside Public Health Committee, Dundee Children and Families Executive Board, and the Integrated Children’s Services Partnerships as the Tayside wide roll-out progresses in the other two local authorities. 'Connected Tayside'- An Emotional Health and Wellbeing Strategy for Children and Young People (2021-23) Following the launch of the Connected Tayside strategy in November 2021, an implementation plan was developed. The Children and Young People’s Charter, and a padlet of resources have been developed, including links to e- learning modules, the previously developed Emotional Health and Wellbeing Toolkit, and a variety of useful links to support teachers, parents and carers across Tayside. Since then, the work of the Health & Wellbeing Priority Group (PG3) has been to continue to support the implementation of the strategy and to develop effective measures to demonstrate impact. Additional support has been provided by CAMHS and resources accessed through ‘Living Life Well’ (the overarching, population-wide mental health strategy for Tayside) to investigate mechanisms for gathering information on awareness and use of the strategy by major stakeholders. Counselling in Schools The Counselling in Schools (CiS) programme continues to be delivered across Tayside. The 3 local authorities continue to work collaboratively in the procurement of counselling providers. During the reporting period April 2022 to March 2023, 3752 children and young people were supported through counselling in schools across Tayside. Tayside Angus Dundee Perth & Kinross Total CYP supported 1851 388 800 663 Primary 332 58 205 69 Secondary 1519 330 595 594 Male 547 108 262 177 Female 1157 267 446 444 Prefer not to say 93 15 41 37 Total number of counselling sessions 3752 847 1476 1429 Most young people supported were in secondary school, with the greatest number attending counselling being in S3. The most prevalent issues identified at counselling were anxiety, self-esteem, emotional/behavioural and family issues. An evaluation of the impact of the Counselling in Schools programme in Tayside is being developed in conjunction with Abertay University.
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14 Priority Group 4: Care Experienced Children and Young People ‘Children who are care experienced or at risk of becoming care experienced, have good quality relationships with people who are committed, who support and nurture them, whether within their birth families or other family or care settings’ As a key policy driver, The Promise continues to shape the focus of work in Social Work services and within wider partnership working to improve services to children and families. The focus for PG4 therefore changed to aspects of the 5 foundations of The Promise, including the co-ordination of some regional activity and some shared learning about local initiatives which could be transferred between areas. This included work with Strathclyde University Centre of Youth and Criminal Justice, the 3 Local Authorities and NHS Tayside to carry out a regional self-evaluation of practice against new national Secure Care Standards. The new standards focus on multi-agency practice before, during and after a young person is placed in secure care and outcomes of the self- evaluation included a need to improve communication with young people. At a local level, the self-evaluation also informed a review of approaches towards older young people in Dundee, which has involved additional training and development to the partnership workforce and possible co-location of services. The group also reviewed data pertaining to the school attendance of care experienced children and young people. This confirmed that children who are looked after at home have the lowest attendance levels, especially in S1-S3 and has informed local Promise delivery plans to ensure there is support for children in this group including a focus on transition into secondary school, support at home, school and in the community and reducing stigma that can be experienced for young people in the school setting. Some examples of practice improvement that have been developed locally and shared in the wider group include: the development and pilot of a social education module for use in Angus schools to de-stigmatise care experienced children. and promote an understanding of the value of connection and relationships. A Promise working groups specifically to develop tools and approaches to promote sibling relationships will report next year on their findings and explore opportunities for shared learning and development. Similarly, in Dundee and in Perth and Kinross, family time between brothers and sisters has continued to be promoted through fostering families. An electronic system is also being developed in Perth and Kinross to identify significant relationships a child or young person wishes to remain connected with when they become involved with Social Work. Through funding from the Corra Foundation, Perth and Kinross has also developed a Lifelong Links service which has successfully reconnected a number of children and young people with someone significant to them. All areas are considering ways to improve engagement and communication with children and young people. Dundee have reviewed the Team Around the Child process with a focus on improved engagement of children (see below). My Plan letters are being trialled in Angus where accessible letters are sent to all young people following their child’s planning meeting, describing what each professional must do to support them.
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15 Priority Group 5: Safeguarding and Child Protection ‘We will continue to ensure that our children and young people are safe and protected from harm, at home, school and in the community.’ The work of Priority Group 5 is built upon the research carried out for Tayside by Dr Sharon Vincent of Northumbria University and Priorities for Practice were developed from this. The Priorities for Practice workstream themes have continued to be focused on in the 3 local authorities and used to underpin and shape Child Protection Committee Improvement Plans, case reviews and workforce development. Workstream 1 – Focus on the Child, Engagement and Relationship Building In Angus, the ongoing commitment to improve the experience of families involved in child protection processes, has seen the rollout of PREpare, as social work led, strengths-based model that improves child and parental engagement in the child protection planning and decision-making process. The voice of children, including very young children, is central to the PREpare approach, seeing risk and strength from the perspective of the child. A short film about PREpare has been made providing information for families and professionals. Evaluations show that parents who attended a facilitated PREpare meeting prior to a Child Protection Planning Meeting (CPMM) were more engaged in the CPPM and contributed to the care and safety planning for their children. The rollout of PREpare will continue to be extended into next year. Focusing on strengthening GIRFEC practice and ensuring needs are identified and
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16 responded to at the earliest opportunity, children and families in Dundee were engaged in reviewing the multi-agency Team around the Child (TATC) process. Changes included ensuring that children’s perspectives are presented first in TATC meetings, followed by those of parents/carers; and writing the Child’s Plan in a participatory and transparent way during the meeting when actions can be discussed, agreed and plain English plans shared on the day. The impact of these changes has resulted in increased participation, greater focus on the child’s needs, use of creative ways for children, parents/carers to have their voices heard and calmer meetings with less focus on negative issues. Care experienced young people from Angus were also engaged in a project to design the new #SPEAKUP campaign for Child Protection Scotland. Their involvement was instrumental in ensuring that the campaign message would be available in formats accessed by other young people including YouTube. Workstream 2 – Assessment and Planning Multi-agency Guidance During 2022/23, under the auspices of PG5, the following practice guidance was reviewed and refreshed: 1. Tayside Practitioner Guidance: Chronologies (24 August 2022) 2. Tayside Practitioner Guidance: Concern for Unborn Babies (24 August 2022) 3. Tayside Practitioner Guidance: Inter-Agency Referral Discussions (IRDs) (9 June 2023) These are now compliant with the National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 (Scottish Government: September 2021) and were shared with local child protection committees to disseminate. The Interagency Referral guidance was finalised following the evaluation of an audit of Initial Referral Discussions (IRDs) undertaken in Perth and Kinross. Angus has scheduled an IRD audit in 2023 following the Perth and Kinross model. In support of the IRD Guidance, Perth and Kinross Child Protection Committee also developed an Online IRD Module which can be accessed here and is available to all partners across Tayside. Perth & Kinross Child Protection Committee developed an IRD Quality Assurance and Self- Evaluation Toolkit, which after being piloted in Perth and Kinross, has been further piloted in Angus and Dundee, refined and is has now been made available to the CPCs and partners across Tayside. In Dundee, a programme of work, Transforming Public Protection, took place from 2021 to 2023 to improve the use of chronologies within Children and Families Service. Improvement methodology was used to develop and test a new template on Mosaic, as well as local guidance on chronologies. Quality assurance to date has shown an improvement in the quantity and quality of chronologies with 78% found to be good or better. Multi-agency Quality Assurance and Evaluation Through PG5, learning is continually shared; key child protection data trends examined; and opportunities to extend child protection quality assurance and self-evaluation shared in order to develop a Tayside-wide approach to child protection learning and development. Following the publication of National Guidance for Child Protection Committees
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17 Undertaking Learning Reviews, local arrangements have been updated and Significant Case Reviews (SCRs) and Initial Case Reviews (ICRs) replaced with multi-agency Learning Reviews, in line with national guidance. Angus has jointly commissioned a consultant with Dundee Protecting People to review and develop local learning review guidance for all protecting people committees. In Dundee, the Child Protection Committee established a Quality Assurance Sub-Group when it published it’s 2022-25 Delivery Plan. The aim of the group is to improve their strategic approach to learning from single agency quality assurance and develop a multi-agency co-ordinated and systematic approach to quality assurance, self-evaluation and the use of improvement methodology. This work will link with other subgroups (data, case reviews and CYP involvement) in order to triangulate findings and recommendations. Over 2023, a single agency audit schedule has been finalised, the Protecting People Quality Assurance Framework has been revised and multi-agency audits planned, the first taking place in September 2023. Children’s Social Work and other agencies have continued with single agency case file audits, which were commented on positively by the Joint Inspection report published in 2022. Workstream 3 – Early Intervention and Support Priority Group 5 is also committed to supporting the workforce to take early intervention approaches including support to whole families through for example, Safe and Together. This model is predicated on partnering with the non-abusive parent to keep them safely with their child(ren) wherever possible and, through intervention with the abusive parent, it aims to reduce risk of harm to the other parent, and child(ren). Safe and Together is guided by three main principles: Safe and Together is included in the National Child Protection Guidance 2021 as a best practice model and as such has been further implemented within the 3 local areas. Dundee first introduced Safe and Together in 2016. There is now a Team Manager (Domestic Abuse) within the Children and Families Social Work service who works closely with the Violence Against Women (VAW) lead and VAW Partnership to implement Safe and Together across the wider multi-agency workforce. A complex case consultancy forum has been established, comprising of Community Justice, Police, Women’s Aid and ASSIST colleagues to support social workers with complex domestic abuse cases using a Safe and Together lens. There has also been a relaunch of Safe and Together briefing sessions and
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18 practitioner forums. Angus began to embed this model in 2017 by training 20 champions. Since then, it has grown and as of April 2023, there are over 70 champions from both frontline and strategic positions in place. Champions take a role within their own team or organisation to promote the model and come together regularly to provide support and to develop tools and learning opportunities for the wider multi-agency workforce. In Perth and Kinross, Safe and Together training has continued to be rolled out across Services for Children, Young People and Families (SCYPF) after its inception in 2021. 135 SCYPF and Criminal Justice Service (CJS) staff have now been trained in the full model and over 240 staff from across the partnership, including Elected Members and colleagues from Housing, Health, Education, Children’s Hearing Panel members, Reporters to the Children’s Hearing and the Third Sector. Feedback has been very positive and has helped understanding of the model and work to support parents and children subjected to domestic abuse. Further work is planned to increase the awareness of Child Protection Officers in schools regarding domestic abuse, Safe and Together, and the wider topic of ensuring that fathers and male carers are included in the day-to-day lives of their children. In Angus, a multi-agency working group has also been established to consider the role of fathers in families and how services interact with them. The focus of the group is to consider practice of engaging with fathers across all agencies and to identify barriers to their inclusion. Workstream 4 – Partnership Working The Child Protection Committees (CPCs) across Tayside are local multi-agency partnerships, strongly committed to building active child protection communities and securing a culture where the care and protection of children and young people are at the heart of everyone’s job. Membership of the CPCs remain intentionally wide and kept under constant review to ensure they accurately reflect the local children’s services landscape across the public, private and third sectors. This allows the CPCs to take a whole-community approach to raising awareness of the key risks to children and young people. Much of the work of Priority Group 5 has provided the 3 local child protection committees with added value; supported the work of the committees; and provided a shared opportunity across Tayside to design, develop, implement and evaluate our work to improve day-to-day culture, ethos and child protection practice. Building on local learning and development, training opportunities on a pan-Tayside basis will also be further progressed throughout the next reporting year. Workforce Development In Angus, the Protecting People workforce training programme has continued to be delivered during 2022-23 with a combination of virtual, online and e-learning opportunities. The learning and development framework is updated every 2 months with newly available learning resources ensuring the workforce has access to the most up-to-date and relevant materials. A monthly newsletter for internal and external frontline staff is issued with just over 1,190 subscriptions. Similarly in Dundee, work was carried out in 2023 to bring Protecting People Learning and Development (including child protection) into one online location that is easily accessible
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19 and locates protection training and development within a tiered framework, from basic awareness to skilled and expert levels. The training and development opportunities are multi-agency and cross-cutting. The framework will be launched in August 2023, hosted on One Dundee and accessible to all agencies. Framework overview Workstream 5 – Empowerment, Supervision and Leadership The aforementioned Transforming Public Protection programme in Dundee had a focus on supervision and led by front line managers, a supervision model was developed and implemented. In an audit of cases, 85% were rated good or better in relation to supervision.
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20 Performance Framework Summary The agreed set of indicators (when the Tayside Plan was first introduced) have now been updated by the Performance and Data Group to include core data from this year. Performance in relation to these high-level outcome measures has been provided in Appendix 2, with information to the end of 2020-21 representing the most up to date data available from most public sources. In addition, work has progressed this year in the development of a more detailed performance framework looking at outcomes relating to specific actions within the priority groups and including both quantitative and qualitative data. • 27-30 month child developmental data has shown a slight increase in the proportion of children with a concern in any domain in both Angus and Perth and Kinross and a minor (0.5%) decrease in Dundee but overall can said to be stable. Once quarterly and more timely becomes available on a regular basis it will become easier to follow trends in a meaningful way. Speech, language and communication remain by far the most common concerns, and some of this still is likely to reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. • The proportion of pupils entering positive destinations after leaving school remains high, with all 3 local authority areas show a slight increase (approximately 2 % points) in this reporting year (including for children who are looked after. A decrease had been seen in the previous year which had been attributed to the impact of COVID- 19, so it appears that there may have been a recovery in this data. • Childhood obesity at P1 remains a key measure for Tayside, along with other measures being developed for the Child Healthy Weight strategy. Due to reduced weighing in recent years due to the pandemic, comparisons over time are difficult to make. However, all three local authorities see significant gaps in healthy weight depending on income, with an average difference of 10% between SIMD 1 (68.2%) and SIMD 5 (78.5%). • The proportion of children achieving Literacy and Numeracy at SCQF Level 4 has remained broadly stable this year (with a small increase in Angus). However, increases in the proportion achieving Literacy and Numeracy at SCQF Level 5 has increased slightly in both Angus and Dundee. Data for both measures are broadly in line with national values. • In general, educational attainment continues to show some fluctuating patterns and has not been consistent across all key measures across the three local authority areas. The alternative awarding arrangements in place in the Senior Phase in 2020 and 2021, the generous approach applied in 2022, and the significantly different circumstances in which exams took place in 2019 and the years before, means that comparisons of attainment between years should be treated with significant caution and do not allow for any conclusions to be drawn on changes in education performance. As highlighted in previous years, some indicators are based on relatively small cohorts, such as number of Looked after Children in particular settings, which are therefore subject to fluctuation from year to year. Caution is therefore required in interpretation. Again, there are often considerable differences in the patterns seen across the three local authority areas, which, considering the different demographic profiles in each area, is not unexpected.
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21 Conclusion As an established Collaborative, the commitment to partnership working across Tayside has continued in the delivery of the 2021-23 plan. Given the demands on Children’s Services, partners have had to prioritise those areas where collaborative working would have greatest impact and reduce duplication across the 3 local authorities whilst realising that some of the work is best driven locally to achieve more immediate outcomes for children, young people and families. However, across the Collaborative there remains the appetite to share learning and to adopt, adapt or abandon, as appropriate given the changing needs of our local communities. As we present the Tayside Plan for 2023-26, there is a continued commitment to improve outcomes for children, young people and families in Tayside by ensuring the leadership, structure, membership and support available to the Collaborative is effective in progressing the priorities within the new plan and make improvements that will ensure ‘our children and young people will have the best start in life and Tayside will be the best place in Scotland to grow up’.
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22 Appendix 1: Priority Group Members (Job Titles and Organisations) (AC – Angus Council, DCC – Dundee City Council, PKC – Perth & Kinross Council) Priority Group 1: Pre-birth & Early Years. Lead: Education Manager, Early Years (DCC) Members: Family Nurse Partnership Lead Nurse (NHS Tayside), AHP Early Intervention and Prevention Lead (NHS Tayside), Senior Health Promotion Officer (NHS Tayside), Education Officer (Education Scotland), Quality Improvement Officer (Early Years and Primary) (PKC), Senior Nurse Health Visiting Service (P&K) (NHS Tayside), Consultant Midwife (NHS Tayside), Acting Service Leader (Education & Lifelong Learning) (AC) Priority Group 2: Learning & Attainment (TLAG). Lead: Education Officer (DCC) Members: Chief Education Officer (DCC), Head of Education (PKC), Executive Director (Education & Children’s Services) (PKC), Director of Education and Lifelong Learning (AC), Service Leader (AC), Improvement Officer (AC), Education Officer x 2 (DCC ), Head Teacher, Angus Virtual School (AC), Quality Improvement Officer (PKC), Senior Regional Advisor for Tayside (Education Scotland), NIF Advisor (Education Scotland), Support Service Manager (AC), Chief Education Officer (AC), Service Manager (Primary) (PKC) Priority Group 3: Health & Wellbeing Lead: Lead Nurse, Women, Children & Families Division. (NHS Tayside) Members: Education Officer (DCC), Service Lead (DCC), Service Leader ASN/Educational Psychology (AC), Lead Officer ADPs (AC), CAMHS Manager (NHS Tayside), AHP Manager (NHS Tayside), Senior Nurse School Nursing Service (NHS Tayside), Senior Health Promotion Officer (NHS Tayside), Dietetic Consultant in Public Health (NHS Tayside), Development Officer (Heath & Social Care) (PKAVS), LAC Medical Adviser to Adoption and Fostering Panels, Community Paediatrician (NHS Tayside), Inclusion Manager/Principal Educational Psychologist (PKC), Senior Education Officer (Inclusion) (Education Scotland). Priority Group 4: Looked after Children, Care Leavers & Young Carers. Lead: Head of Service, Children’s Service and Community Justice (DCC) Members: Senior Manager, Residential Services (DCC), Education Support Officer (ASN) (DCC), Senior Manager, Children and Families (PKC), Service Leader, Child Protection and Review (AC), Team Manager (Carers Support Services) (Dundee Carers Centre), Locality Reporter Manager (SCRA), Child Heath AHP Service Manager (NHS Tayside), Team Leader (Looked After Children) (NHS Tayside), Consultant Community Paediatrician/Medical Advisor for LAC in Dundee (NHS Tayside), Senior Information Officer (DCC), Senior Education Officer (Inclusion) (Education Scotland), Service Manager, Children and Families (DCC), Consultant in Public Health (NHS Tayside), Assistant Director (Barnardo’s Scotland), Attainment Advisor (Education Scotland) Priority Group 5: Safeguarding & Child Protection Lead: Detective Chief Inspector, Public Protection Unit (Police Scotland) Members :Detective Inspector (Police Scotland), Assistant Director (Barnardo’s Scotland), Lead Nurse Child Protection (NHS Tayside), Consultant Paediatrician Child Protection (NHS Tayside), Independent Chair (Angus Child Protection Committee), Independent Chair (Dundee Child Protection Committee), Independent Chair (Perth and Kinross Child Protection Committee), Lead Officer, Protecting People (DCC), Team Leader, Protecting People (AC), Child Protection Inter-Agency Coordinator (PKC), Attainment Advisor (Education Scotland), Information Assistant (PKC), Tayside Child Protection Learning & Development Officer (PKC).
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23 Appendix 2: Headline Measures Unless otherwise noted, data for all indicators covers the six academic years 2016/17 to 2021/22 NB The COVID-19 pandemic may have had an impact on many of the measures presented, particularly those within education. Care should be taken when making comparisons with previous years. For 2020 and 2021 the absence of external assessment information, and the Ministerial direction to award estimated grades, have led to a different pattern of attainment than we have seen in previous years. The results for 2020 and 2021 should not be directly compared to those in previous years or future years. The Attainment data cannot therefore be used to directly demonstrate subject, school or authority improvement compared with previous years. 1. Education measures: Our children, young people and their families will be meaningfully engaged with learning and combined with high quality learning experiences all children and young people will fulfil their potential Indicator (aim) Angus Dundee Perth & Kinross Scotland Proportion of school leavers achieving 5 plus awards at SCQF level 5 or higher (increase) Proportion of school leavers achieving 5 plus awards at SCQF level 6 or higher (increase)
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24 Indicator (aim) Angus Dundee Perth & Kinross Scotland Proportion of school leavers from SIMD Q1 achieving 5 plus awards at SCQF level 5 or higher (increase) Proportion of school leavers from SIMD Q1 achieving 5 plus awards at SCQF level 6 or higher (increase) Proportion of school leavers achieving literacy and numeracy at SCQF level 4 or above (increase) Proportion of school leavers achieving literacy and numeracy at SCQF level 5 or above (increase)
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25 Indicator (aim) Angus Dundee Perth & Kinross Scotland Proportion of pupils entering positive destinations after leaving school (increase) Leavers’ average total tariff SIMD Quintile 1 (increase) Leavers’ average total tariff SIMD Quintile 2 (increase) Leavers’ average total tariff SIMD Quintile 3 (increase)
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26 Indicator (aim) Angus Dundee Perth & Kinross Scotland Leavers’ average total tariff SIMD Quintile 4 (increase) Leavers’ average total tariff SIMD Quintile 5 (increase) Proportion of pupils who stay on from S4 to S5 (increase) Proportion of pupils who stay on from S4 to S6 (increase)
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Indicator (aim) Angus Dundee Perth & Kinross Scotland 27 attendance rate, overall(%) * Data on school attendance is only collected nationally once every other year, so data shown is for 2012-13, 2014-15, 2016-17, 2018-19 and 2020-21 – 2022/23 not available yet School attendance rate, primary (%) * Data on school attendance is only collected nationally once every other year, so data shown is for 2012-13, 2014-15, 2016-17, 2018-19 and 2020-21 – 2022/23 data not available yet attendance rate, secondary (%) * Data on school attendance is only collected nationally once every other year, so data shown is for 2012-13, 2014-15, 2016-17, 2018-19 and 2020-21 – 2022/23 data not available yet
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Indicator (aim) Angus Dundee Perth & Kinross Scotland 28 Proportion of school leavers who are looked after achieving literacy and numeracy at SCQF level 4 or above Due to the small cohort size, data is presented as 3 year rolling averages (2016-2018,2017-2019,2018-2020,2019-2021 and 2020-2022) Proportion of pupils who are looked after entering positive destinations after leaving school Due to the small cohort size, data is presented as 3 year rolling averages (2016-2018,2017-2019,2018-2020,2019-2021 and 2020-2022) % children and young people looked after in community settings
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29 2. Other indicators Indicator (aim) Angus Dundee Perth & Kinross Scotland Proportion of children with at least one developmental concern recorded at 27-30 months Child Health Review (reduce) Proportion of children with no speech, language and communication concerns identified at 27-30 months Child Health Review (increase)