Item 07 - CPP Whole Family Wellbeing Fund Update February 2025
West Dunbartonshire Council · 20 February 2025
Back to Community Planning West Dunbartonshire Management Board — 20 February 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Report by the Chief Education Officer Management Group: 20th February 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Subject: 1. Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this report is to: Inform members of the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund and; Update on plans to deliver whole family supports. 2. Recommendations 2.1 Community Planning Partnership (CPP) West Dunbartonshire is asked to: note progress and strategic direction of plans. 3. Background 3.1 Scottish Government (SG) have established the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund (WFWF) over the lifetime of this parliament (2022-2026) (App1. National Principles of Holistic Whole Family Support). They have committed £500 million to support Community Planning Partnerships to: support the whole system transformational change required to reduce the need for crisis intervention and; shift investment towards prevention and early intervention. 3.2 In 2024, further correspondence from SG highlighted funding extensions to 2027. Their ambition is still that by 2030 at least 5% of all community-based health and social care spend will be on preventative whole family support measures. 3.3 Funding in financial year 2024-2025 is focused on: supporting capacity building at local and national level; supporting the scaling up of existing transformational practice in line with holistic whole family support principles and demonstrating positive impact for families. ITEM 7
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3.4 It is expected that when WFWF ceases, local investment will have realigned to support the new systems and services it has enabled. (App.2 Whole Family Wellbeing Funding) 4. Main Issues 4.1 WDC has established a multi-agency steering group to develop a strategic approach to delivering Whole Family Wellbeing changes and improvements. Key staff have been identified who will progress workstreams. Plans and updates are and will continue to be reflected in the Integrated Children’s Services Plan. This Strategic Group has skills and values centred on the principles of holistic whole family support and a commitment to working in new and different ways to join up resources and approaches. The establishment of a cyclical series of meetings ensures joined up decision making and action planning which is timely, effective and impactful. 4.2 Our vision of family support is one which is clearly accessible and readily available to all and any family who needs it. We aim to ensure families are able to access the help they need, where and when they need it for as long as it is needed. In this way, we will shift towards a West Dunbartonshire where more of our children know and experience care, compassion and love, as opposed to a ‘care system’. This will enable us to fulfil the right of children to be raised safely in their own families; where those family’s skills and capacities have been developed and strengthened, leaving them better equipped to support their children. 4.3 Our strategy guides partners in jointly developing systems to provide holistic support which addresses the needs of children and adults in a family at the time of need rather than at times of crisis. In turn, it is anticipated this will help families to flourish, reduce the chances of family breakdown, and of children entering the care system. It takes account of The Promise Scotland and clearly highlights the importance of un-stigmatised access to effective universal and intensive family support with early intervention and prevention at its core. 4.4 The Strategic plan identifies three distinct phases of implementation from 2021 – 2026. This will ensure we build capacity, conduct tests of change, develop new and improved methodology and evaluation processes and embed what we and our service users know is working. 4.5 The range and reach of the plans for whole family wellbeing development were all undertaken given due diligence to the criteria shared and the 4 key areas of Family wellbeing development identified by SG: Children and Families at the Centre, Availability and Access, Whole System Approach/joined up Support and Workforce and Culture. This has enabled us to ensure our change processes consider the range of implications and equally ensure clear alignment with reporting and evaluation processes we need to evidence change and improvement to inform reporting. The action plan itself consists of approaches to:
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CLPL recognising our staff as our most valuable resource and allowing us to build capacity and provide opportunities to mainstream this into daily practice Early and non -stigmatising universal offers of help and support via the range of opt in family support sessions on offer in our Hubs This approach is supported by outreach workers from education and HSCP Commissioning of specialist services to support families who require a more targeted and specialist support and help Planning of family wellbeing activities supporting those who find it difficult to participate otherwise by overcoming barriers with them The use of an Involvement and Engagement Officer to support and promote children’s rights and ensure their voice is heard and reflected in CPP plans and that they are aware of and know how to access their rights. 4.6 The three Family Hubs across the Council; Clydebank Central, Dumbarton Central and Bonhill have provided families with access to a range of workers and supports on the premises in any given day, providing a suite of family help supports, coordinated and delivered in the premises and elsewhere as appropriate. These include: Neurodevelopmental workers, Includem Specialist Family Support, Outreach workers, specialists in Functional Family Therapy, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists and Family Nursing staff. They offer planned group and 1-1 sessions focussing on family help. This partnership working also offers opportunities for professional learning for the wider multi-agency workforce, with a series of ND specific CPD sessions for staff from all agencies being delivered in each hub. Referral figures for session 2024-2025 are: Referral Types: Numbers : Outreach Referrals since Aug 2024 55 referrals since August 24 Current Active Caseload across 5 Outreach Workers 75 Families Active Caseload Supported and Discharged since August 36 Families / 189 Children Unallocated 0 Clydebank / 9 Lomond (All offered group work whilst waiting allocation for 1-2-1) Dropped In to Hub & Triaged 22 people Engaged in Group Work & Festive Film (Aug to Dec) 73 parent/carers 153 children Over the summer approximately 300 families accessed the Hubs via drop-in sessions. The content of these has been informed by needs identified by parents and staff, such as supporting neurodiversity, sleep, parenting and mental health concerns. 4.6 The ND team Cuppa and Connect sessions planned for Hubs did not prove to be as well attended as anticipated. The agile nature of evaluation informing improvement, has enabled the team to revise the approach and instead promote and deliver these sessions in schools. This change has proven very successful and as a result significantly more families have been supported.
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The average number of families attending these sessions is fifteen. This cyclical model of support will continue across all schools over the next few years. Some sessions are now being continued and facilitated by parents themselves once the series of sessions has finished. 4.7 A calendar of Quality Improvement and Self-Evaluation has been produced and is being implemented, which leads all partners in evaluating our joint approaches to How Good Is Our Family Support. This process supports partners over a three year cycle, to consider the four themes of family support and outcomes of this will inform developments and improvements to service delivery. Evaluations focus on the four key areas of delivery of WFW and evidence of improvement across all of these: Availability & Access : Families are aware of support available to them and are empowered to access that support. Support is easily accessible and located in places that work for children and families within their local communities. How good are we? Children and Families at the Centre of Service Design Holistic Whole Family support must be designed and delivered with children and families at the centre. Engagement with children and families must be meaningful and inclusive with families being involved in the decisions that affect them. Planning for services should take a rights-based approach ensuring support is stigma-free and takes account of the voice of children and families. How good are we? Year 1 Term 1 Availability & Access (Dec’22) Better collective awareness of available support - families should have an awareness of how to access support with support being promoted free from stigma and judgement. 2 Weak Year 1 Term 2 Children and Families at the Centre of Service Design (Dec’22) Meaningful and inclusive engagement with children and families with families being involved in the decisions that affect them. 2 Weak Year 2 Term 1 Availability & Access (Sept’23) Universally accessible early help and support - there should be no barriers to accessing support, regardless of a family's background, the reason for, or how they reach into family support services. 4 Good Year 2 Term 2 Children and Families at the Centre of Service Design (Nov’23) Support is stigma free at all levels 3.5 Satisfactory/ Good Year 3 Term 1 Availability & Access (Oct - 2024) Support delivery where and when to suit families. 4 Solid Good Year 3 Term 2 Children and Families at the Centre of Service Design (2024-2025) Rights-based planning & participation (19th Dec 24) 4 Good Whole System Approach Creating a Family Support system that is accountable to service users and takes a whole system approach to ensure support can be offered across a wide spectrum of need from the least intensive to the most intensive requirements. There is a non- siloed and proportionate approach to funding with clear budgets that meet the scale of need. Partners involved in the delivery and design of family support share a collective responsibility for the whole system, supported by an innovative, collaborative and fair approach to the procurement of services. How good are we? Workforce & Culture Creating a workforce with a clear and shared understanding of families across the whole system is imperative towards effective delivery of shared outcomes across localities. There should be a clear workforce strategy with skills and values centred on the principles of holistic whole family support. Best practice should be shared locally and nationally. Workers should have support for skills development to a level that they need to fulfil their ambition and feel empowered to be innovative. How good are we? Year 1 Term 3 Whole System Approach (March ‘23) Non-siloed aligned and proportionate family support funding that matches scale of need 2 Weak with Areas of 3 Satisfactor y Year 1 Term 4 Workforce & Culture (June ‘23) : The workforce and management has a clear and shared understanding of Children and Family demographics and culture in their localities. 3 Satisfactory @ Individual Service Level 2 Weak - as an overall in joined up approach
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Year 2 Term 3 Workforce & Culture (Jan’24) Shared accountability for whole system/joined up approach 3 Satisfactor y with areas of Good Year 2 Term 4 Workforce & Culture (March’24): Address power dynamics by empowering the workforce to be innovative in how they support children and families (including in the design and delivery of services). 3 Satisfactory Year 3 Term 3 Whole System Approach (2024-2025) Commissioning and Procurement (Feb ‘25) 4 Good Year 3 Term 4 Workforce & Culture (2024- 2025) : Support for skill development and mechanisms for sharing best practice and learning nationally Development of Holistic Workforce with improved capacity to deliver. (April’25) 5. People Implications 5.1 There are no people implications because of this report. However, it is essential that partners collaborate to re-align resource allocation and priorities to meet the needs of children, young people and families with Early Help as we progress towards 2027. 6. Financial and Procurement Implications 6.1 There are no direct financial implications for Community Planning West Dunbartonshire resulting from this report. All activities related to the implementation of these interventions are contained within allocated SG funding. 7. Risk Analysis 7.1 If the Council is unable to ensure positive outcomes for children, we will not be meeting their needs (Children and Young People Act 2014) (Equalities Act 2010). 7.2 If the Council is unable to meet the needs of children, young people and families this could result in reputational damage. 8. Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) 8.1 The plans enhance the quality of the service provided to all children, young people and families, therefore it can be seen to have a positive impact in terms of the equalities 9. Consultation 9.1 Legal Services and the Section 95 Officer have been consulted in relation to the content of this report. 10. Strategic Assessment 10.1 This report reflects the Council’s aspiration to reduce inequalities for the people of West Dunbartonshire.
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Person to Contact: Claire Cusick Senior Education Officer Appendices: Appendix 1 – National Principles of Holistic Whole Family Support. http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781804351208 Appendix 2 - Whole Family Wellbeing Funding https://www.gov.scot/publications/family-support-advisory- group-whole-family-wellbeing-funding-2/ Wards Affected: All