Agenda Document Pack - Community Planning Board - 03/12/2024
Moray Council · 3 December 2024
Back to Community Planning Board — 3 December 2024 and its agenda
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Community Planning Board Tuesday, 03 December 2024 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a Meeting of the Community Planning Board is to be held at Committee Room, Council Office, High Street, Elgin, IV30 1BX on Tuesday, 03 December 2024 at 14:00. BUSINESS 1. Sederunt 2. Minute of meeting held 23 October 2024 5 - 12 3. Climate Change Overview Report by Depute Chief Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) 13 - 18 4. Whole System Approach to Obesity - NESTA Bid Opportunity Report by Elizabeth Robinson, Consultant in Public Health, NHS Grampian 19 - 42 5. Good Mental Health for All - Mental Health Update Report by Elizabeth Robinson, Consultant in Public Health, NHS Grampian 43 - 64 6. Fairer Moray Forum Verbal Update by Elizabeth Robinson, Consultant in Public Health, NHS Grampian 7. Childrens Service Plan 2023-26 Year One Report Report by Chief Social Work Officer/Head of Service and Chair of the GIRFEC Leadership Group 65 - 124 8. AOCB Page 1
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Any person attending the meeting who requires access assistance should contact customer services on 01343 563217 in advance of the meeting. Page 2
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THE MORAY COUNCIL Community Planning Board SEDERUNT Dr Adam Coldwells (Chair) Councillor Kathleen Robertson (Depute Chair) Mr Andrew Anderson (Member) Mr George Burgess (Member) Superintendent Jason Carrigan (Member) Councillor Juli Harris (Member) Councillor Sandy Keith (Member) Mr Gavin Miles (Member) Mr Grant Moir (Member) Mr John Mundell (Member) Councillor Bridget Mustard (Member) Mr David Reid (Member) Ms Claire Sim (Member) Mrs Susan Webb (Member) Ms Caroline Webster (Member) Mr Andrew Wright (Member) Councillor Amber Dunbar (Outside Body Appointee) Gp Capt Sarah Brewin (Non-Voting Member) Ms Sarah Medcraf (Non-Voting Member) Lt Col James Walker (Non-Voting Member) Clerk Name: Lindsey Robinson Clerk Telephone: 07966 120593 Clerk Email: committee.services@moray.gov.uk Page 3
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MORAY COUNCIL Minute of Meeting of the Community Planning Board Wednesday, 23 October 2024 Committee Room, Council Office, High Street, Elgin, IV30 1BX PRESENT Gp Capt Sarah Brewin, Mr George Burgess, Dr Adam Coldwells, Councillor Amber Dunbar, Councillor Juli Harris, Councillor Sandy Keith, Ms Sarah Medcraf, Mr David Reid, Councillor Kathleen Robertson, Ms Claire Sim, Mrs Susan Webb SUBSTITUTES Major Sharon Houston attended in place of Lt Col James Walker. Chief Inspector Mike Mckenzie attended in place of Chief Superintendent Graeme Mackie. The Depute Chief Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) attended in place of the Interim Chief Executive. APOLOGIES Mr Andrew Anderson, Chief Superintendent Graeme Mackie, Mr Gavin Miles, Mr Grant Moir, Mr John Mundell, Councillor Bridget Mustard, Lt Col James Walker, Ms Caroline Webster, Mr Andrew Wright IN ATTENDANCE The Depute Chief Executive (Education, Communities and Organisational Development); Head of Governance, Strategy and Performance; Health and Social Care Moray Interim Chief Officer; Moray Growth Deal Programme Manager; Communities Service Manager; Sport and Culture Service Manager; Chrissy Stower, Lead Public Health Officer; and Lindsey Robinson, Committee Services Officer, all Moray Council; Luan Grugeon, Strategic Development Manager; and Dennis Robertson, Depute Chair Moray Integration Joint Board, both NHS Grampian 1. Chair Dr Adam Coldwells, as Chair of the Community Planning Board, chaired the meeting. 2. Minute of the meeting held 23 May 2024 The minute of the meeting of 23 May 2024 was submitted and approved as an accurate record of the meeting. In relation to item 4 "Moray Growth Deal 2023 Annual Report" Mrs Webb advised that the Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC Aberdeen) has been opened up for Moray colleagues. Item 2. Page 5
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3. Anti-Social Behavior Action Plan and Community Wardens The meeting had before it a report by the Depute Chief Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) informing the Board of the outcome of the Community Safety Strategic Group’s (CSSG) action planning process through its Antisocial Behaviour (ASB) Task and Finish Group and updating the Board on the expansion of the Community Wardens activities and the progress on setting up the Crime and ASB Tactical group. During consideration, Mrs Webb sought clarification on how to blend some of the ideas as due to the rural nature of Moray the frequency of buses may be an issue. In response, the Lead Public Health Officer advised that the bus provided by Stagecoach was for Elgin only as this was identified as a hotspot and is awaiting funding from the Long Term Town fund, but there are different ideas for other areas being looked at. Councillor Keith sought clarification on how the promote the message and held people affected by ASB. The Lead Public Health Officer advised that the community Wardens were working closely with the Community Councils and are building a database of Community and 3rd sector organisations within their designated areas. They will also be more visible with the local community and will include local businesses. The Interim Chief Officer HSCM sought clarification on where it would be reported back to in terms of outlook and outcomes. The Lead Public Health Officer confirmed that it would go to the Community Safety Strategic group first and then it would be reported the Community Planning Board. She further confirmed that the Health & Social Care partnership is very involved and it is working well. Councillor Harris sought clarification on how ASB is being looked at in rural locations while also supporting the larger towns. The Lead Public Health Officer confirmed that if anything was reported within a rural area then a warden would be out within 24 hours during the working week. The links to the Community Councils and other groups will help. Group Captain Brewin asked how the military families feed in this. Chief Inspector Mckenzie advised that there was an existing line of communication to RAF Lossiemouth via the RAF Police who do patrols. Following consideration, the Board unanimously agreed to: i. note the ASB Action Plan at Appendix 1; ii. an update being brought to a future meeting; and iii. note that one Community Warden has been recruited at the time of writing, but that two days of interviews are in progress to recruit the final two additional Community Wardens. Page 6
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4. Putting People First Framework The meeting had before it a report by the NHS Grampian Strategic Development Manager, Colleagues and Citizens Engagement updating the Board of the new NHS Grampian’s Putting People First framework and asking to the Board consider opportunities to collaborate around listening to and involving the public in improving services and creating more preventative and sustainable models of care. During consideration, the Interim Chief Officer HSCM advised that the Community Appointment Day went well with good feedback from staff. She sought clarification on how to do this without further burdening teams. The NHS Grampian Strategic Development Manager advised that the Putting people First framework allows for an ongoing dialogue so that when changes are needed the links with the community are already there. Mrs Webb was of the opinion that it would be good to differentiate between this and medium to long-term consultation and sought clarification on how it would be taken forward as a CPB. The Depute Chief Executive (Education, Communities and Organisational Development) advised that it would connect into the development day and how the locality approach works to show what is important for communities and where it can join together. Councillor Robertson suggested that the public are being over surveyed and was of the opinion that partners should work more closely together to do things on the same day and share costs as this would be better for the public. Following consideration, the Board unanimously agreed to: i. note NHS Grampian’s Putting People First framework, ambition, guiding principles and priorities for the foundation years; ii. note the opportunities this offers to work in partnership as a public sector; and iii. note the recent positive feedback from the Community Appointment Day held in Elgin. 5. Partnership CLD Plan 2024-27 The meeting had before it a report by the Depute Chief Executive (education, Communities and Organisational Development) asking the Board to approve the Partnership Community Learning and Development (CLD) Plan (2024-27) developed by the Community Learning Strategic Partnership Group and to agree to annual updates. During consideration Dr Coldwells sought clarification on how cohesive it was between partners. The Communities Service Manager confirmed that partners were much more connected that in the past. Partners still lead on activities but not in isolation. Page 7
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Councillor Keith sought clarification on whether zero hours contracts were positive destinations. Ms Sim advised that as long as someone was in employment it is seen as positive. For this to be changed it would need to be through the Scottish Government. Ms Medcraf explained that how we look at zero hours contracts needs to be done carefully as they work well for some people. Mrs Webb asked if the plan was ambitious enough and if enough was being done with regard to the challenges of working in areas of poverty and social isolation. She also was of the opinion that there were a large number of networks so could there be an opportunity to rationalise this. The Communities Service Manager advised that the CLD plan was about community connections and the areas highlighted in the LOIP covers all demographics. Following consideration, the Board unanimously agreed to: i. approve the Partnership Community Learning and Development Plan (2024-27) developed by the CLD Strategic Partnership group (Appendix 1); and ii. annual updates to ensure that the Plan is responsive to local needs and to meeting recommendations from the Independent Review of CLD. 6. Proposed Schedule of Meetings to November 2025 The meeting had before it a report by the Depute Chief Executive (Education, Communities and Organisational Development) inviting the Board to agree the schedule of meetings for the period to November 2025. Following consideration, the Board unanimously agreed the meeting dates of 4 June, 20 August and 26 November, with a new date for February circulated after the meeting. 7. Systems Based Approach to Physical Activity in Moray Update The meeting had before it a report by the Depute Chief Executive (Education, Communities and Organisational Development) providing the Board with an update on the development of the Systems Based Approach to Physical Activity in Moray and asking that the Board encourage and liaise with partners to ensure this approach is embedded within relevant strategies and plans. During consideration Mrs Webb questioned why the whole system approach didn’t include healthy eating and obesity inline with the population approach to health improvement. The Sport and Culture Service Manager advised that partners on the strategic group had raised concerns at the focus moving away from physical activity which could risk diluting the focus. Page 8
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Dr Coldwells suggested that the Sport and Culture Service Manager work with Elizabeth Robinson (NHS Grampian) to look at a more holistic approach across the two themes Following consideration, the Board unanimously agreed to: i. note the progress made in relation to developing the Systems Based Approach to Physical Activity in Moray; ii. the wider approach as set out above; iii. scrutinise the emerging themes and high level actions to ensure alignment with strategic outcomes for Moray; and iv. encourage and liaise with partners to ensure this approach is embedded within relevant strategies and plans to ensure a whole system contribution. 8. Early Years STEM Full Business Case The meeting had before it a report by the Depute Chef Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) asking the Board to consider and approve the full business case associated with the Early Years (EY) STEM Project. At key programme and project milestones, the Moray Growth Deal seeks assurance approval to proceed from a number of boards, including the Moray Economic Partnership, Moray Council and the Community Planning Board. During consideration, Dr Coldwells sought clarification as to what the expectation from the Board was. The Moray Growth Deal Programme manager advised that there would be a need to use community resources and organisations to run joint events and a programme of engagement would need to be developed. Dr Coldwells asked how local businesses were involved. Mr Reid advised that local businesses would buy into the full growth deal through collaboration with partners. It will add value to the education system without duplication. Ms Medcraf added that some employer may be happy to just provide funding while others would want to be involved in the wider picture. Group Captain Brewin was of the opinion that there could be key joined up engagement with the uniformed services and asked that this could be looked into. The Moray Growth Deal Manager advised that he would go back to the team and have a look at it and feedback to the Board. Mr Robertson sought clarification as to how interested families would be supported, and how we help parents and carers support their children. The Moray Growth Deal manager advised that the community learning spaces would be open to parents and guardians as well as the children. Page 9
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The Depute Chief Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) added that parents would be brought in at a point where STEM was accessible for all. Following consideration the Board agreed to: i. approve the Full Business Case (FBC) in Appendix 1 (specifically to progress into delivery option 4 within the economic case; and ii. delegate authority to the Depute Chief Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) to make any final changes as required following completion of the Government review process, with a view to agreeing final versions of the FBCs to progress to implementation. 9. Extension to Term of Office for Chair and Depute Chair The meeting had before it a report by the Depute Chief Executive (Education, Communities and Organisational Development) inviting the Board to agree to extend the term of office for the Chair and depute Chair form 1 year to 2 years. During consideration both the Chair and the Depute advised that they would be happy to extend to 2 years but if anyone wanted to take over they would stand aside. Following consideration, the Board unanimously agreed to: i. extend the post of Chair and Depute Chair form 1 year to 2 years; and ii. amend the constitution accordingly 10. AOCB Group Captain Brewin sought clarification as to whether wrap around childcare could be added to the agenda for the next meeting. In response, the Depute Chief Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) advised that an updated report would be presented to the next meeting. She also explained the work already undertaken to consider the issues raised, what approach was being taken and advised that she would share this with the Board. She also asked if she could present the RAF Lossiemouth expansion plan to the next meeting. This was agreed. Ms Medcraf advised that she is now the Chair of the Moray Economic Partnership (MEP) and sought clarification on how the MEP and the CPB work together. The Depute Chief Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) advised that the CPB agenda is normally driven by the LOIP and the MEP feed into that, but at the moment there was space to discuss other items. 11. Cultural Quarter Full Business Case [Para 8 & 9] The meeting had before it a report by the Depute Chief Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) informing the Board of the progress made by the Moray Growth Deal (MGD) to prepare a full business case for the Cultural Quarter project Page 10
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and grant delegated authority to enable final approval of the business case so enabling the project to move into delivery. Following consideration, the Board unanimously agreed to: i. approve the full business case summarised in the report and contained in Appendix 1; ii. note the Council have been asked to approve the delegated authority to the Depute Chief Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) to make any final change as required following completion of the Government review process, with a view to agreeing final versions of each Full Business Case to progress to implementation but had declined to do so with a further report to come to Council on 4 December 2024 to seek final approval; iii. note the Council have been asked to approve the delegated authority to the Depute Chief Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) or other such signatory as may be required to accept the Government grants for the projects in line with the terms of the MGD; and iv. note the Council have been asked to approve the delegated authority to the Depute Chief Executive (Economy, Environment and Finance) to submit applications for funding that will assist in addressing the financial shortfall associated with the project. Page 11
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REPORT TO: COMMUNITY PLANNING BOARD ON 3 DECEMBER 2024 SUBJECT: CLIMATE CHANGE OVERVIEW BY: DEPUTE CHIEF EXECUTIVE (ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENT AND FINANCE) 1. REASON FOR REPORT 1.1. To provide the Board with an overview of how the Council is responding to the climate and nature emergencies. 2. RECOMMENDATION 2.1. It is recommended that the Board: (i) notes the contents of the report; (ii) invites partners to contribute to the regional Just Transition Plan when this is progressed. 3. BACKGROUND 3.1 Moray Council and its community planning partners play a vital leadership role in driving the ambition and local collaboration necessary to integrate climate action and a just transition into planning and investment decisions. 3.2 Climate change is a significant and escalating threat to Moray’s natural environment, people and economic wellbeing. The impacts of climate change are already being felt. From coastal erosion to severe storms and flooding, these impacts affect the way that Moray Council and its partners deliver public services. 3.3 Forecasts indicate that the impacts of climate change in Moray will continue to worsen, posing major challenges for both current and future generations, ecosystems, infrastructure and key sectors including food and drink, agriculture and tourism. 3.4 Climate impacts experienced elsewhere on Earth will also affect life in Moray. For example, disruption to supply chains or higher costs following drought in major food producing countries, or where conflict arises over access to natural resources. Item 3. Page 13
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3.5 It is important to note that climate change impacts certain population groups disproportionately. Climate-related disadvantage is often driven by a limited capacity to appropriately prepare for, and recover from, hazard events such as flooding or heat waves. Supporting the most vulnerable to make adaptations, including those in rented accommodation, can reduce the negative outcomes when exposed to a hazard. 3.5 The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 places statutory duties on the Council to respond to these challenges by reducing carbon emissions (mitigation), adapting to the changing climate (adaptation), and otherwise acting in a way considered most sustainable. The Council must report on compliance with these duties annually. 4. PROGRESS CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGY 4.1 Since declaring a climate emergency in June 2019, the Council has introduced a Climate Change Strategy with a target of reducing Scope 1 and 2 (direct) emissions from its activities to net zero by 2030. Direct emissions include fuel use in buildings and vehicles, water treatment, purchased heat and steam, and electricity from the national grid. In addition to direct emissions, the Council has a statutory duty to report on all “relevant and significant” Scope 3 (indirect) emissions, such as waste, transport and travel, employee homeworking, and commuting. An annual update on progress to reduce these carbon emissions is provided to the Council, with the last update presented in November 2024. BIODIVERSITY 4.2 The Council declared a nature emergency in February 2023. This recognises the value of nature and its role in achieving climate targets, maintaining a strong economy and protecting the health and wellbeing of future generations. Many of the Council’s activities have the potential to drive biodiversity loss or nature recovery. These including discharging responsibility as Planning Authority through application of policy, as a landowner by how the estate is managed, and as Education Authority through how young people are connected with nature. The Council’s latest biodiversity duty report was published in December 2023, highlighting continued improvements in managing council land positively for nature. These have included: Creation of new wildflower/living lawns; Completiton of condition surveys for all wildflower sites; Invasive non-native tree species removal at the Oakwood SSSI; Replacement of even aged spruce with mixed native trees at Millbuies Country Park; and Large-scale reduction in herbicide use. NATIONAL PLANNING FRAMEWORK 4.3 The introduction of new planning policy, National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), in February 2023 has required the Council as Planning Authority to give significant weight to the climate and nature crises when considering all development proposals in Moray. This will help to guide the location of new housing, transport links and infrastructure, ensuring that communities have access to the services that they need whilst enhancing the environment and meeting net zero targets. NPF4 also introduces the concept of Local Place Page 14
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Plans (LPPs) which are community-led plans that provide a framework for shaping the future of local places. LPPs are an essential tool for engaging with communities and fostering local democracy, ensuring that Moray’s towns and villages are designed with the people who live there in mind. 4.4 The Council’s climate change team now act as a consultee and provide guidance on planning applications, and have provided upskilling opportunities in this area for development management and development planning colleagues. Guidance developed by climate change officers to support the determination of planning applications has been highlighted as an exemplar by the Scottish Government, and will be used in the development of national guidance to support all local authorities. LOCAL HEAT AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY STRATEGY 4.5 The Council agreed its first Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) and Delivery Plan in June 2024. This was produced in collaboration with key stakeholders and the public and sets out a high-level approach to be taken in Moray for heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency improvements. It aims to provide affordable and sustainable heating solutions, reduce energy consumption and alleviate fuel poverty. Pursuing the LHEES could also help to create jobs in the green sector, improve health and wellbeing and contribute to achieving net zero across Moray. Though the strategy and delivery plan will be updated on a 5-year basis, they are designed to be indicative rather than prescriptive, and sufficiently agile to react timeously to changes in the funding and policy landscape. 4.6 The LHEES also identifies potential heat network zones for Moray. These are areas which are considered particularly suitable for heat network development to supply heat from a central source to consumers via underground pipes. These zones will be developed further for adoption within the Council’s Local Development Plan as required by the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021. In addition, the Scottish Government’s Heat Network Support Unit is currently providing up to £50,000 grant funding and advisory support to the Council for a detailed feasibility study of a new low carbon heat network in Elgin. The study commenced in April 2024 and focussed on a core network combining two areas in Elgin identified in the LHEES. This work explored at a high-level the viability of a phased build-out of a heat network in Elgin, with potential to provide a low or zero carbon heating source to multiple buildings within the town centre including the Council HQ campus. CLIMATE ADAPTATION 4.7 A climate adaptation benchmarking process has been undertaken by the Council over 2023/24, which involved collating activity which contributes to the Scottish national adaptation programme. While the Council is a national leader in its approach to coastal change and has robust flood risk management plans in place, it was found that further work is required to understand how climate change impacts will affect the organisation and service delivery. 4.8 Scottish Government guidance outlines a need for flexible measures to be taken to adapt to climate change risks to critical infrastructure across the region. The Council has therefore supported the establishment of 14 Community Resilience Groups and draft resilience plans are now in place for Elgin, Lossiemouth, Forres, Keith, Buckie, Portgordon and Aberlour. Page 15
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4.9 The Moray region is covered by Regional and Local Flood Risk Management Plans which identifies vulnerabilities and puts actions in place to address risks. These plans follow a 6-year cycle, with each local plan prioritising action, the responsible body, timescales and funding for the actions. In addition, an innovative pathway approach is now in place for Moray’s coastline. The Regional Coastal Change Adaptation Plan and ten associated local plans enable the Council to plan for, and react to, different scenarios as they are triggered. Collaborative working across services and with partners will ensure that all of these plans link with wider actions. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 4.10 On 4 November, the Council agreed a Sustainable Development Statement which shows how sustainable development is embedded in the Corporate Plan 2024-2029 and wider corporate policies and strategies. The Statement also identifies some gaps in current activity which require to be addressed in the short to medium term (by December 2025) to more fully comply with Best Value guidance, with five actions identified to progress over that time frame. These will be incorporated into the next iteration of the Best Value Action Plan. A review of the Statement will be undertaken as part of the Climate Strategy 2020-2030 Review to progress during 2024/25 and aiming to conclude with a report in December 2025. That review will incorporate a more expansive look at climate change including the social and economic impacts of sustainability as well as the environmental impacts. It will also look at how the Council can work with its community planning partners and local community to identify areas of shared interest for future activity, for example actions related to achieving a just transition. MORAY CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK 4.11 The Council is now a member of Moray Climate Action Network (Moray CAN), Moray’s new climate hub funded by the Scottish Government and run by tsiMORAY. Moray CAN facilitates knowledge exchange, project collaboration and commissioning opportunities aiming to address gaps in climate action and build upon existing efforts within the community. In 2023/24, Moray CAN distributed £25,900 in community grants to 19 projects delivering action on climate change, community wellbeing and sustainability. 4.12 Membership of Moray CAN is open to all individials, businesses, community groups and networks that support community-led climate action in Moray. Moray CAN hopes to build as wide a coalition as possible to work collectively to help Moray meet the challenges of the climate and nature emergencies. There is no cost or time commitment to being a member. Further information on how to get involved can be found on the Moray CAN website at www.moraycan.org.uk. The Council supports Moray CAN through provision of expertise and benefits from a collaborative approach to climate-related engagement work. 5. NEXT STEPS 5.1 The Climate Change Strategy will be reviewed and updated during 2025, coinciding with an agreed decision point on the Council’s commitment to the 2030 net zero target. The strategy review process will be set out in a report to Council for its meeting on 4 December 2024. The review and update will concentrate on areas which the Council has direct control over and areas which it has influence over. This will be led by the Council’s climate change officers in collaboration with elected members and the wider community. Recognising Page 16
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changes at Scottish and UK Government levels in this area as well as funding challenges, this invites Council to move away from its current 2030 net zero target and to instead adopt decarbonisation targets for each area within the council, with a backstop for overall net zero by 2045 but the ability to set earlier targets in areas where this is achievable. 5.2 In addition to the Council’s Climate Change Strategy review, officers will work in collaboration with Moray CAN and others to align work and actions to help create a Moray-wide climate change strategy to align with a regional Just Transition Plan. The updated Moray Council Climate Change Strategy and the regional Just Transition Plan will together form the basis of a regional Climate Change Strategy . The intention would be to avoid duplication and to align this strategy with an existing delivery partnership. 5.3 Officers are progressing high level actions relating to Just Transition funding and Socio- economic benefit funding which could secure significant funding to address regional economic challenges, including energy, climate change, just transition, and biodiversity. This aligns with strategic ambition for Moray and the wider area: The Draft Highlands and Islands Regional Economic Strategy and Moray Economic Strategy sets out the importance of climate change and Just Transition to their work. 5.4 In the Highlands and Islands Regional Draft Economic Strategy (June 2024), Goal 4 is to Maximise the economic and community benefits from renewable energy investments and drive the region’s move to net zero and climate resilience/adaptation. This includes sub-goals- 4.a: Actively work towards safeguarding and enhancing the regions natural capital 4.b: Maximising the economic and community benefits from renewable developments 4.c: Develop and implement more climate smart technologies and solutions in everyday life 4.d: Creating the conditions to enable affordable energy solutions for all 5.5 In the Moray Economic Strategy 2022, a Just Transition to Net Zero is seen as a key opportunity (p12) and maximising the environmental, social and economic benefits of the transition to net zero and Community Wealth Building is one of the seven strategic outcomes (p21). An integrated approach to delivering transition to net zero is a priority area of action (p23) including implementing a communication and information strategy covering Moray Council Climate Change Strategy and the wider transition to net zero, as well as developing an understanding of, and delivering, the support businesses will need to comply with the changing policy environment around net zero, including a just transition plan. The Communities and Place Subgroup of Moray Economic Partnership aims to implement a communication and information strategy covering Climate Change Strategy and the wider transition to net zero (p27). The implied scale of the Just Transition Fund’s activity is significant enough to be transformative for Moray’s economy. It is vital that the Moray Economic Partnership follows the progress of the Just Transition Fund and other funds related to net zero. That will help partners to understand how Moray can Page 17
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benefit from these funds and influence how they are delivered and by whom. The development of these green funding schemes will represent a very significant change to the public sector funding landscape. They will be vital to supporting the major private investment needed to transition to net zero (p14). 5.6 The Moray Economic Partnership (MEP) who will help to deliver the draft Regional Economic Strategy would be a logical partnership to also host the regional climate change strategy activities given the strategic context set out above. There are discussions ongoing with the chair of MEP as a possible host partnership for the strategy, and this requires further discussion as the structure and governance around MEP is also under review. 5.7 In addition, the newly created Scottish Climate Information Service (SCIS) is developing a common data platform to track regional progress on the actions needed for local emissions reduction. The aim is that the SCIS will bring smarter tools, greater consistency and more data to drive climate change action at the local level. Details at https://www.climateintelligenceservice.scot/ Once the Council Climate Change Strategy and the regional Just Transition Plan are produced, the intent would be for this work to be used to underpin a regional climate change strategy. This could progress with a workshop for community planning partners to collate organisational strategies and pledges and agree the process of creating a regional Climate Change Strategy. This could be linked to an explanation of the ClimateView software being developed by Scottish Climate Information Service to calculate change in regional carbon emissions. However, this needs to be resourced. 5.8 CPP partners are invited to note the work ongoing and planned relative to sustainable development and climate change, and in particular the opportunity to collaborate relative to a Regional Just Transition Plan, with MEP suggested as the most appropriate CPP partnership to host that activity, but the final hosting to be confirmed. 6. CONCLUSION 6.1. This report provides an overview of the Council’s response to the climate and nature emergencies. 6.2. The Council’s Climate Change Strategy will be reviewed during 2025, with opportunities for collaboration with external stakeholders. 6.3. Development of a Moray-wide regional climate change strategy will be progressed by Moray CAN and other partners with input from the Council. Author of Report: Rod Lovie, Principal Climate Change Officer George Gunn, Climate Change Strategy Officer Background Papers: Ref: Page 18
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REPORT TO: COMMUNITY PLANNING BOARD ON TUESDAY 3 DECEMBER 2024 SUBJECT: WHOLE SYSTEM APPROACH TO OBESITY/NESTA BID OPPORTUNITY BY: ELIZABETH ROBINSON, CONSULTANT IN PUBLIC HEALTH, NHS GRAMPIAN 1. REASON FOR REPORT 1.1 To appraise the CPP of the upcoming opportunity to apply for funding to support a locality based whole system approach to obesity. 2. RECOMMENDATION 2.1 That the partnership agrees in principle to the submission of a bid to Nesta to implement a locality based whole system approach to obesity. 3. BACKGROUND Obesity in Scotland and Moray 3.1 Scotland has among the highest levels of obesity prevalence for men and women among OECD countries. Estimates of the cost of obesity to Scotland put the total economic cost in 2022 to be £5.3bn per year in 2024. 3.2 Obesity results from many interconnected policy, environmental, social, economic, cultural and biological factors. An Obesity in Scotland Factsheet published in February 2024 describes the impact of obesity on all sectors of society: The cost to the NHS in Scotland of obesity is estimated to be £772 million. Average NHS costs for people with a body mass index of 40 kg/m2 (severe obesity) are estimated to be twice those for people with a BMI of 20 kg/m2 (within normal weight range). Item 4. Page 19
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The cost to the economy was calculated in the research to be £213 million, including to employers from lost productivity and reduced economic output due to additional sick days taken by people living with obesity. Data from the Labour Force Survey indicates that Scotland has the highest proportion of working age labour market inactivity due to ill health in the four UK nations. This applies to both men and women, and has grown markedly in recent years. The most deprived quintiles in Moray are most significantly affected by the costs of obesity. These main costs associated with unhealthy diet and weight can be grouped into three broad categories – direct, indirect and intangible. Direct costs are generally those which relate to costs of health care services including prevention, diagnosis and treatment of conditions. Indirect costs refer to the loss of productivity on society and typically include absenteeism and premature mortality. Intangible costs relate to the psychological burden on individuals and their friends and families from pain, suffering and bereavement experienced as a result of poor health from overweight and obesity. The indirect costs of obesity are the most significant costs, accounting for almost two-thirds of total economic costs and impacts from overweight and obesity. Almost all obesity prevention interventions are highly cost-effective to society i.e. savings on health care costs and improved productivity, through reduced absenteeism for example, could outweigh the costs of direct investment required to deliver the interventions, and could save the NHS £1.2bn per year. A recently published report highlights significant net benefit to the UK economy of four obesity prevention policies which had either been recently implemented or are scheduled to be introduced by the UK government. These policies are the soft drinks industry levy (already implemented), in-store location promotion restrictions (implemented in October 2022) on products high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS), restrictions on price promotions of HFSS products, and a 9pm watershed for advertising HFSS products on TV and a ban on paid- for online advertising. The report outlines that over a 25-year period, the combined net benefit of these policies is estimated to be over £76 billion, demonstrating the significant cost that obesity has to the economy and the huge economic benefits that can be achieved when such policies are implemented. 3.3 These policies help to rebalance the food system, addressing the structural and systemic issues which drive obesity, and ensure that the healthy option is the cheapest and most accessible option for everyone. No one policy is a silver bullet, and as this research demonstrates, a range of policies and interventions are required to be introduced and. implemented simultaneously to improve population weight outcomes. Page 20
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3.4 Action from society across all sectors is necessary in order to reduce levels of obesity. Despite this awareness, the majority of interventions and strategies continue to focus on individual behaviour change approaches and do not take this complexity into account. Opportunity for action 3.5 Tackling obesity is really difficult – it is probably one of the most intractable issues that we face as a community. An opportunity has now arisen to apply for a significant injection of funding to support a whole system approach to obesity in Moray. 3.6 Nesta is an innovation agency for social good, which works with partners to design, test and scale new solutions to society’s biggest problems. It is offering an opportunity to apply for Page 21
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3.7 Moray Community Planning Partnership is already committed to a Whole System Approach to Physical Activity, based around Public Health Scotland’s Active Scotland Strategy. This programme would complement that work which is also contributing to reduction in obesity. 3.8 The proposed Location Based Testing Programme aims to deliver layers of different interventions, across public sector and industry sites to improve a local food environment to help reduce obesity. The Nesta Board is in the final stages of developing the criteria by which a decision on location will be made. 3.9 If successful, the bid would bring in significant funding to deliver a whole systems obesity approach but targeted at a smaller, well defined population of 26,000. Although Elgin is clearly only a part of Moray, it would meet the proposed criteria from Nesta, who want to run the programme in a smaller geographic location, to increase intensity of exposure. 3.10 If successful, this project could therefore easily be incorporated into Moray Whole System Approach to Obesity as a component or project within the overall plan, and also complements ongoing work being delivered via Heart of Moray and DHI. 3.11 At 29%, the proportion of Moray residents in the ‘Healthy Weight’ category (BMI between 18.5 and 25 kgm-2) was below both the Scottish and Grampian averages of 33% for the 2016-2019 period (Figure 21).lxxx In the 2022/23 school year, 16% of Primary 1 children in Moray were in the clinical categories of overweight, obese or severely obese. This is higher than the national average of 15.4%.lxxxi Page 22
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Proportion of residents in the ‘Healthy ‘Weight category (BMI between 18.5 and 25 kgm-2). Source: Scottish Health Survey. 4. SUMMARY OF IMPLICATIONS Application for the funding would require political will and commitment; however the potential benefits to the economy, to CPP partners and to health and wellbeing are significant. 5. CONCLUSION It is recommended that CPP approve this request. Author of Report: Elizabeth Robinson Consultant in Public Health Background Papers: Ref: Creating a blueprint for halving obesity in the UK | Nesta Designation: Consultant in Public Health Name: Elizabeth Robinson Page 23
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Showing how shared responsibility for small actions can create a big impact on our health Location based testing Item 4. Page 25
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a b c d Executive summary Slide 3 Location based testing key context and objectives Slides 4, 5 Programme location criteria Slide 6 Programme partnership opportunities Slides 7, 8, 9 Programme stages including intervention co-design process Slides 10, 11, 12 Content About Nesta Slides 15, 16, 17 Estimated budget Slides 13, 14 Page 26
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a b c d Executive Sum m ary What Who HowWhy Most of us currently consume too many calories. This is not driven by one product or business; it is an outcome of the aggregate food environment that surrounds us. Our ‘Blueprint for halving obesity in the UK’ is the output of expert analysis of the existing evidence that identifies interventions that have been shown to have a modest, but significant, impact on people’s diets and has the potential to reduce health inequalities in the UK. Logic indicates that layering multiple evidence-based changes that reduce calorie intake across food system could have a significant impact on population-level diets. We believe this programme will deliver compelling evidence that demonstrates that small changes across food environments where people purchase and consume calories add up to significant impact on dietary intake that supports healthier lives. Working with a local authority, and in partnership with food retailers, restaurants, takeaways, advertising agencies, public services and food aid charities, we will share responsibility for creating change. We will show how working together to make small changes can create a big impact on our health, understanding the role we each can play in system-level transformation. Each partner organisation in the chosen location will commit to implementing at least one evidence-based intervention for a period of six months with a wraparound evaluation that includes the overall impact on household calorie purchasing. We evaluate the impact of interventions on people’s dietary intake as well as assessing interventions for feasibility, commercial viability, and public acceptability at scale. Nesta envisions a cross-sector programme that concurrently tests multiple food environment interventions in a single location in the UK Page 27
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Consensus view “We need to recognise how national and multinational organisations are shaping [our] environments… High population consumption is less about individual ‘choices’ and more as a result of the strategies used by large companies” Sir Frank Atherton, Chief Medical Officer For Wales “There is a clear need for targeted interventions to improve health and decrease social inequalities… Joined up action by industry, government – and wider society is needed.” Kate Halliwell, Chief scientific officer, Food and Drink Federation We’re hearing the same message demanding action: the time for change is now 72% of people support limits on shops promoting unhealthy foods in prominent areas such as checkouts; 62% of people support restrictions on promotional offers (e.g. buy-one-get-one free) on unhealthy foods in supermarkets. Obesity Health Alliance Research, 2020 “We’ve reached a point where meaningful intervention from the government is a necessary course of action.” James Mayer, president of Danone UK & Ireland Page 28
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a b c d Why: The problem we’re trying to solve Obesity rates have doubled since the 1990s. Pushing the onus on the individual to make changes has failed again and again. Living with excess weight is a huge driver of poor health. Obesity and overweight also costs the UK £98bn per year. What surrounds us, shapes us; The food environment influences what we eat, and subsequently our weight. Changes to our environment are necessary. Creating healthier food environments will support behaviour change in consumers and is key to preventing and reducing obesity for groups living with or at risk of excess weight. Few programmes to date have tested the layering of and interaction between individual interventions to reduce obesity, particularly interventions that target the environments in which we purchase and consume the most calories. This includes grocery stores, restaurants and takeaways, community and educational settings, and public spaces. Engaging a range of cross-sectoral stakeholders, we intend to demonstrate that layering evidence-based interventions in food environments in one location can lead to a meaningful reduction in calories consumed at a population level, whilst also being viable for businesses and acceptable to local citizens. This will identify pathways to improve the health of communities and reduce health inequalities by generating evidence to support national policy change and demonstrating feasibility and cost-effectiveness at large scale. We will share responsibility, not relying solely on one sector or organisation, for making small changes that add up to significant impact. This is an ambitious aim and will require working in partnership with many organisations in one location in the UK. Page 29
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a b c d Where: Location criteria What size of location? We want to work in a neighbourhood of ~25,000 residents. This reflects a size that balances trade-offs between intensity of exposure, and ability to collect data. What type of location? Our priority criteria reflect typicality of a location on indicators such as prevalence of obesity and population demographics so that any findings are assumed generalisable. Which partners are present? Focussed around a retail centre. People purchase most of their calories in their local area and don’t travel large distances to shop. How many partners are present? ~6 supermarkets; ~27 restaurants and takeaways (FEAT, 2024); 8 convenience stores; 1 leisure centre; 1 food bank, 2 schools; 1 hospital ● Prevalence of obesity (adults and children) ● IMD Rankings, including deprivation ranking ● Population demographics ● Population density ● Proximity to fast food outlets, supermarkets, convenience stores, and fresh produce ● Presence of industry partners Criteria Category 2: Enablers ● Political will ● Population turnover ● Geographic size ● Distance from alternative shopping destinations Criteria Category 1: Typicality to other areas Our initial proposal is to run the programme in a smaller geographic location, to increase intensity of exposure Page 30
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a b c d Who: Proposed Partnership Model We suggest a governance structure that identifies specific roles for an anchor organisation in a cross-sectoral and multi-level matrix We intend to make funding available to the anchor organisation to contribute to strategic oversight and provide local coordination of the programme. At present we envision that this will be equivalent to 3.5FTE at a middle and senior level for the duration of the programme. This would include recruitment costs, DBS checks and other overheads including technological resources. We imagine that the full grant available to the anchor organisation will range between £600,000 - £1,000,000 for the programme duration. We perceive that a local anchor organisation could play a dual role of delivering strategic programme leadership and managing local coordination of partners Page 31
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a b c d Who: Meeting local priorities A partnership between Nesta and a local anchor organisation could achieve the following aims: ● Support local citizens to access a healthy, affordable diet that helps them live a longer, healthier life. ● Invest innovation funding; Nesta will make funding available to the local anchor partner to unlock resource to participate fully in the strategic design, delivery and dissemination phases and to coordinate the programme at a local level. Nesta will also commit a dedicated team of expert consultants for the programme duration. ● Use rigorous evidence and unique insights to transform a local food system and develop a robust evidence base for future strategies ● Promote the programme through dedicated communications support. The role of a local anchor organisation could include: ● Local coordination: Supporting the programme to deliver on its aims by working closely with internal and external stakeholders. ● Supporting the access to and collection of high quality data: Ensuring that we are optimising existing data sources, whilst also contributing to the local data landscape, to underpin good decision making throughout planning, delivery and evaluation. ● Supporting design and delivery: From co-designing the interventions, to understanding how they are deployed to deliver the intended impact, we perceive that the Local Authority partner will be heavily involved in how the programme achieves its aims. ● Promote the programme through dedicated communications support Page 32
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a b c d Our aim is to intervene across the food environment in which most calories are purchased or consumed to holistically transform the system. We are currently focussing on securing national partnerships with the intention that we would develop local partnerships once a location is identified Community food Out of Home Retail Built environment Public services Food banks Food pantries Community settings including sports clubs National Restaurants Local Restaurants Local Takeaways Delivery aggregators National Retailers Local Retailers Convenience stores Markets Public parks including mobile catering units Vending machines National Public caterers Leisure centres and entertainment venues Educational and healthcare settings NATIONAL LOCAL Who: Partnership opportunities Page 33
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a We have a flexible 4-step process to co-design and operationalise location-based testing, which can be made bespoke according to the needs of national and local partners, including the anchor partner b c d What: Program m e structure 12 - 18 months: TRIAL CO-DESIGN 6 months: TRIAL IMPLEMENTATION 6 months: TRIAL EVALUATION 6 months: SYNTHESIS AND DISSEMINATION Identify and select interventions Implement trial with high fidelity and within estimated resources Evaluate impact of trial consumer purchasing / consumption Publish research findings and engage relevant stakeholders Nesta leads Partners lead Nesta leads Partners lead Nesta leads Partners lead Nesta leads Partners lead ● Identify partnership opportunities ● Identify interventions proportionate to scale of impact desired ● Design data tracking methods ● Ensure trials are complementary and reflect a coherent programme ● Identify local partnership opportunities ● Identify intervention areas of interest ● Share relevant data for analysis ● Develop implementation approach ● Support partners to implement trial e.g. through training, materials and training sessions, as required ● Coordinate trial process ● Ensure buy-in at local setting to run trials ● Ensure resources and systems are set up to implement trial ● Manage fidelity throughout trial period ● Analyse environmental data to understand changes in consumer purchase habits ● Conduct programme-lev el impact evaluation ● Share insights eg. viability, feasibility, acceptability ● Share environmental level data ● Support collection of additional in-store data where required eg. qualitative insights ● Develop narrative and strategic engagement plan ● Generate print and digital outputs ● Manage media engagement ● Lead discussions on implications for local and national policy ● Support narrative development ● Sign off research outputs ● Advocate for programme recommendati ons ● Engage in discussion on implications for local and national policy Select interventions to trial with associated effect sizes Launch concurrent trials for 6 months Complete trial and impact analysis Disseminate programme learnings Page 34
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Balanced interventions: High impact, high feasibility to implement a b c d What: Intervention Identification Fram ework High We have conducted evidence reviews and used internal Nesta expertise to identify a range of high impact x high feasibility interventions with a strong evidence base to implement with partners. The final selection of interventions will depend on the partner’s context and needs. Com plexity to trial in location-based testing Low High Potential health impact (kcal reduced per person per day) Disseminate information to consumers on health e.g. labelling Healthy defaults to smaller portion size / lower kcal option Store refit Offer healthy swaps Reposition healthy options more prominently Reformulate unhealthy products Focus in-store advertising on healthy options Promote healthy options by restricting pricing or vol/location promos on HFSS Increase availability of healthy products / reduce availability of HFSS Customer rewards for selecting healthy options We aim to implement high impact and feasible interventions to make customer purchases and consumption healthier & improve dietary intake Page 35
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a b c d What: Im plem entation Codesign with Partners Partners share environmental data on purchasing, consumption and nutrition This will include any existing interventions in place Nesta analyses and suggests intervention options After analysing healthiness of offer, current initiatives, mapping relative impact + costs of interventions Partners modify and approve interventions Through half-day workshop with cross-functional stakeholders and senior execs, Nesta ensures final interventions add up to intended impact Nesta identifies implementation plan Across programme to ensure coherence including resources (financial, human, data) required to implement interventions + fidelity check process alongside partners Partners prepare for trial implementation With support from local and central teams. This will include training of colleagues, setting up supply chains, data monitoring processes, etc We run the concurrent trials across the location for 6 months With fidelity checks and cost of implementation monitoring. Data on viability and acceptability will also be generated. Deep dive on trial design (12-18 months): Nesta will bring prior expertise in behavioural science, innovation, design and data science to design interventions for trial Iterative process Page 36
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a b c d How: Estim ated budget Our estimated budget is still being developed as we seek to co-design the programme with key stakeholders. We anticipate costs to be between £7 and £10 million. Nesta hopes to identify match funding. Highest estimated trial budget Year 1: Ground making including trial design Year 2: Live trials and data collection Year 3: Data analysis and dissemination of results Central programme management and research team 550,000 550,000 550,000 Local programme management and coordination 300,000 270,000 270,000 Direct delivery costs 500,000 1,600,000 Evaluation design 150,000 Implementation and process evaluation 250,000 Primary data collection 1,500,000 1,500,000 Data analysis 1,400,000 Patient and public involvement 50,000 30,000 30,000 External communications including events 30,000 15,000 30,000 Data hosting and licensing 30,000 30,000 30,000 Total per annum 3,110,000 4,245,000 2,310,000 Total over programme duration 9,665,000 Our estimated budget is still being developed as we seek to co-design the programme with key stakeholders. We anticipate costs to be between £7 and £10 million. Nesta hopes to identify match funding. Page 37
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a b c d How: Estim ated budget - Approach How has the budget been developed? We have developed an estimated budget by benchmarking identified costs against existing food system research programmes including: SALIENT; FIO Food; Mandala Consortium; Amsterdam Healthy Weight Programme; DHSC-funded Childhood Obesity Trailblazer Programme and others. Staffing costs including local coordination costs - Central programme management and research team calculated using the day rates of 7 FTE multidisciplinary team for the duration of the programme. - Local programme management and coordination calculated on the salaries and employer costs of 3.5 FTE at a middle and senior level for the duration of the programme. This also includes recruitment costs, DBS checks, technology Direct delivery costs - Calculated using a range of estimated costs for: travel, accommodation and venue hire; specialist support (i.e. graphic design, nutrition expertise); stock and packaging; staff training costs - This might include creative approaches to improving food environments such as buying advertising space to advertise healthy foods - This might include underwriting risk for independent businesses and service providers Evaluation design - Selecting the area, planning an implementation and process evaluation, planning an impact evaluation, agreeing on data collection with external companies, capturing strategy in a evaluation protocol Primary data collection and data analysis - Conducting an implementation and process evaluation that covers feasibility, viability, social acceptability, fidelity, dosage (incl. recruitment, data collection and analysis): - Data collection for the Impact evaluation at the environmental level (including sales, profit and revenues from stores) - Data collection for the Impact evaluation at the population level Patient and public involvement - Calculated based on recruitment costs, training costs and ongoing engagement of a PPI group (~20 people) costs for the duration of the programme as well as venue costs and travel costs External communications - Calculated based on the development of a digital media strategy and assets, a series of dissemination events including a parliamentary event, and the write up of programme updates and results into shareable reports Page 38
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We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design new solutions to society’s biggest problems, test them rigorously, and help them to spread nationwide to deliver change at scale. For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation by harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design. Nesta’s Healthy Life Mission aims to increase the average number of healthy years lived in the UK, while narrowing health inequalities. Our goal is to halve the number of people with obesity in the UK over ten years to 2030. Our recent projects include a proposal to introduce healthiness targets for retailers in the UK and signing a two year health innovation partnership with Asda. Who we are Page 39
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A healthier life Our mission is to increase the average number of healthy years lived in the UK, while narrowing health inequalities. Our goal is to help people live longer, healthier lives by halving the number of people living with obesity in the UK over the ten years to 2030. We are on a mission to make healthy eating easier and more accessible in schools, high streets, workplaces, and online, helping more people live a healthy life for longer by encouraging reformulation and smaller portion sizes; making healthier food more appealing by shifting promotional activity towards healthier choices; and making healthy food more accessible, affordable and convenient. Page 40
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Nesta and Asda are collaborating on an innovation partnership to deliver significant health benefits. The partnership will develop Asda’s health strategy, identify high-potential health interventions, conduct exploratory research to de-risk interventions, design, implement and evaluate live trials, and scale successful interventions. The goal is to meet the needs of customers and colleagues while supporting Asda’s ambitions for profitable growth and improved customer health. Read more here. Asda Health Innovation Partnership Nesta has produced a new policy recommendation for health targets for major retailers. Our modelling estimates that setting a health target for the 11 largest grocery retailers could reduce obesity in Britain by approximately 23%. This would translate to around four million fewer people living with obesity in the UK and around £20 billion in annual cost savings to society. The proposal received interest and support from media, industry and senior policymakers. Read more here. Mandatory Targets Nesta’s A Healthy Life Case Studies Later this year we will be launching an online tool – A blueprint to halve obesity in the UK – which will show the cost effectiveness and impact of different approaches to obesity policies. The aim of this tool will be to support policymakers to harness and apply the best quality evidence in this space, by making clear what policy responses would be proportionate to the scale of the issue. Nesta’s project will deliver a tool that presents this much-needed information in an accessible way. Read more here. Creating a blueprint for halving obesity in the UK Page 41
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REPORT TO: COMMUNITY PLANNING BOARD ON TUESDAY 7 DECEMBER 2024 SUBJECT: GOOD MENTAL HEALTH FOR ALL: MENTAL HEALTH UPDATE BY: ELIZABETH ROBINSON 1. REASON FOR REPORT 1.1 To provide CPP with an update on progress towards delivery of the Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2016 - 2026. 2. RECOMMENDATION 2.1 It is recommended that the Board: i) discuss and endorse the description of services and pathways within Moray, and links to wider Grampian services; ii) approve and continue to provide support for the Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan 2024 – 2026; and iii) note the proposed Governance Structure for Mental Health and Wellbeing in Moray as set out in Appendix 3. 3. BACKGROUND 3.1 A report from Audit Scotland in 2023 described the issues facing mental health services in Scotland. ‘Although spending has increased, accessing services remains slow and complicated for many people, particularly people living in poverty, from rural areas, and from ethnic minorities. The mental health workforce Item 5. Page 43
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is under pressure, with high vacancy rates and turnover’. The report described the need ‘to progress the agenda to improve and protect population mental health and increase the mental health support available from primary care, both of which are essential to improving access and relieving pressure on services’. 3.2 By their very nature, mental health services are complex; they are provided by Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCP), NHS Boards, local authorities, third sector and community initiatives and they span a spectrum from prevention and wellbeing to enduring functional illness. There is therefore a requirement to have a clear understanding of current pathways, a delivery plan underpinning the Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, and robust governance in place to ensure monitoring, evaluation and improvement takes place. 3.3 Over recent years the strategic oversight of mental health services in Moray has been impacted by wider system pressures, thus reducing the effectiveness in delivering and monitoring the Good Mental Health for all in Moray Strategy 2016 – 2026. The steps outlined in this report will address this. 3.4 During recent development sessions and associated conversations, staff across the partnership have demonstrated a collective understanding of the current challenges and a shared commitment to work together to design and deliver good quality person led mental health services in Moray. There is a recognition that a whole system approach is required and that services require a degree of flexibility to respond at times of greatest need as well as delivering support on a day-to-day basis. 4. KEY MATTERS RELEVANT TO RECOMMENDATION 4.1 In order to deliver on the Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, improve mental health within Moray and provide timely and appropriate treatment to those in need, the focus must be on preventing future poor mental health as well as building the capacity of our current treatment services. The delivery plan therefore takes a whole system approach to delivery of Mental Health and Wellbeing services. This whole system approach is illustrated in Fig. 1 below. Page 44
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Fig. 1 4.2 During a series of development sessions staff aligned current resources and services with the categories listed in Fig. 1 above. The content generated is outlined in Appendix 1. The lists generated are examples of services, particularly in relation to self-management and community supports, rather than comprehensive lists of every service available. This exercise highlighted key information in relation to areas of strength, gaps, commissioning of services, alignment of services/pathways and data collection. This information has subsequently informed the Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan 2024 - 2026 contained in Appendix 2. 4.3 The Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan 2024 - 2026 has been written to align as far as possible with the Scottish Government’s ‘Scotland’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023’ and with other key national and Grampian guidance documents. 4.4 The Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan 2024 - 2026 is also designed to complement but not duplicate the Grampian wide work taking place under the aegis of the Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Portfolio Board. Page 45
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4.5 A performance dashboard is in the process of being developed to sit alongside the Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan 2024 – 2026. Data on referrals, caseloads, waiting lists, average length of treatment, will be collated and bench- marked with reference to the mental health and wellbeing standards which will help demonstrate the effectiveness of service delivery. 4.6 A strategic oversight board was developed to monitor delivery of the Good Mental Health for all in Moray Strategy 2016 – 2026. This board is currently not in place due to wider system pressures during and following COVID-19. This report recommends the re-establishment of strategic governance arrangements, namely the ‘Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Group’, to ensure that the changes required to services can be implemented quickly and effectively. An outline of the proposed governance structure is included in Appendix 3. 4.7 The Moray Wellbeing Hub have facilitated the Moray Making Recovery Real Partnership which provides an invaluable opportunity for the voice of lived and living experience to be integral to the strategic planning and oversight of mental health and wellbeing service delivery and strategic planning in Moray. This group will continue to provide this role within the new governance arrangements, with membership representation and a direct connection between the Making Recovery Real Partnership and the Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Group. 4.8 Governance alignment with the Moray Alcohol and Drug Partnership (MADP) and with the Moray Suicide Prevention strategic groups is crucial and as such nominated representatives from those groups will sit on the Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Group. 4.9 The alignment of Children’s Services and Adults Services mental health strategic planning and delivery is essential. Therefore, the Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Partnership chairperson will be a member of the Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Group. Twice yearly the groups will merge to plan collectively. The medium term vision would be for there to be a single strategic group for children and adult mental health services in Moray. 4.10 A number of challenges will be faced such as Financial pressures Ensuring robust leadership and planning, and a clear shared vision National policy/strategic drivers Recruitment and retention of staff in public, private and third sector Capacity to lead the changes required whilst sustaining management and delivery of clinical services Page 46
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Infrastructure Utilisation of bed base Availability of good quality and timely data 4.11 An agreed governance structure, delivery plan, reporting structures and shared understanding of pathways will help mitigate against the risk presented by these challenges and ultimately help shape the delivery of mental health and wellbeing services in Moray. 4.12 There will be a requirement to review the Good Mental Health for all in Moray Strategy during the later part of 2025. The Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Group would be well established by this time and would lead on coordinating the review of the Strategy. 5. SUMMARY OF IMPLICATIONS (a) Corporate Plan and 10 Year Plan (Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP)) and Moray Integration Joint Board Strategic Plan “Partners in Care 2022 – 2032” The approach set out in this report is consistent with these plans. (b) Policy and Legal There are no implications for policy or legal. (c) Financial implications Whilst it is acknowledged that there are significant challenges, none are arising directly from this report. (d) Risk Implications and Mitigation Any risks identified will be managed by the services and escalated as appropriate. None are arising directly from this report. (e) Staffing Implications Whilst it is acknowledged that there will likely be staffing challenges, none are arising directly from this report. (f) Property None arising directly from this report. (g) Equalities/Socio Economic Impact Page 47
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None arising directly from this report. (h) Climate Change and Biodiversity Impacts None arising directly from this report. 6. CONCLUSION 6.1 The Community Planning Board are asked to: i) endorse the description of services and pathways within Moray, and links to wider Grampian services; ii) approve and continue to provide support for the Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan 2024 – 2026; and iii) approve the proposed Governance Structure for Mental Health and Wellbeing in Moray as set out in Appendix 1 Author of Report: Iain Macdonald: Deputy Head of Service, HSCM Elizabeth Robinson: Consultant in Public Health, NHS Grampian Background Papers: Appendix 1: Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing System Appendix 2: Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Service Delivery Plan Appendix 3: Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Group Proposed governance structure Page 48
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Appendix 1 - Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing System Support Primary Care Secondary Care Tertiary Care Self Management Community Support Item 5. Page 49
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Appendix 2: Delivery Plan The overarching purpose of this delivery plan reflects the Moray Good Mental Health for All Strategy (2016-2026)i, and relevant national strategies and guidance documents, including ‘Scotland's Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2023’ii which aims to: Promote positive mental health and wellbeing for the whole population, improving understanding and tackling stigma, inequality and discrimination Prevent mental health issues occurring or escalating and tackle underlying causes, adversities and inequalities wherever possible Provide mental health and wellbeing support and care, ensuring people and communities can access the right information, skills, services and opportunities in the right place at the right time to meet their needs. The Delivery Plan is presented under the following headings: Early intervention, prevention and self management Mental Health Quality Standard 1: Access Mental Health Quality Standard 2: Assessment, Care Planning, Treatment & Support Mental Health Quality Standard 3: Moving between and out of services Mental Health Quality Standard 4: Workforce Mental Health Quality Standard 5: Governance & accountability This plan purely focusses on adult services at present; the medium term ambition is to merge the strategic planning processes for child and adult mental health services so that we see children as being clearly embedded within families and communities, enable seamless transitions from child to adult services (at whatever age and stage they occur) and can take a holistic approach to prevention of poor mental health. Throughout implementation of the plan we aim to embed the principles of prevention of poor mental health, and the Scottish Recovery Network which are to: Take a whole person approach Champion and value lived experience by integrating it into all parts of the system Embed peer support approaches and roles in mental health services and supports Offer more community-based supports and choices so everyone can be supported when and where they need it Work with others to create a more equal society where good mental health and wellbeing can flourishiii Item 5. Page 51
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Section 1: Early intervention, prevention and self management: Underlying this section is the necessity of a move towards a preventative, population health model which promotes and sustains good mental health and wellbeing. Strategic Outcomes: Communities, families and individuals are better equipped to support and protect people’s mental health and wellbeing and provide opportunities to connect with others. More effective cross-policy action is in place to address the wide ranging factors that impact people’s mental health and wellbeing Outcome Actions Lead Timescale Underlying determinants of good mental health are tackled, including financial inclusion, nurturing early years, healthy environments, active citizenship and participation and wellbeing of diverse communities. Work with Community Planning Partners to ensure cross policy actions that more effectively address the wide ranging social, economic and environmental factors that impact people’s mental health and wellbeing, including poverty, stigma, discrimination and injustice. Consultant in Public Health Mar 25 Positive attitudes to mental health and to people with mental illness are promoted; we have raised awareness of mental health issues, reduced stigma and discrimination and promoted inclusion, including better access to mainstream services. Work with CPP and other anchor organisations to adopt a ‘mental health in all policies approach.’ Continue to tackle mental health stigma and ensure people can talk about their mental health and wellbeing Health Improvement Team Lead Making Recovery Real Partnership Ongoing We have promoted mental health, wellbeing and resilience through work; Develop a targeted action plan to promote fair work across Moray. Employability Partnership Oct 25 Page 52
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and addressed employability issues, including for those affected by mental ill health. Health Improvement Team Lead We have developed social connections, tackled isolation, built resilience, strengthened use of community assets, including social prescribing, strengthening self care and peer support Roll out of social prescribing across Moray, building on existing on Link Worker/ community connector roles Support the development of community hubs and building of community connections Health Improvement Team Lead Mar 25 We have promoted holistic health for people with long term conditions, promoting recovery approaches and social inclusion Continue to commission: 1. Intensive recovery service – a high level support and recovery outreach service 2. Lower level community support – direct access self referral or via Health and Wellbeing Practitioners – for short term practical support for people not requiring secondary care HSCP Making Recovery Real Partnership October 24 We have improved responses to people in distress – both from services and the wider community, including action to prevent suicide and better support people who self harm. People experiencing crisis are kept safe and their situations do not further escalate Continue to commission Distress Brief Interventions – time limited and supported problem solving contact with people in distress for up to 14 days. Develop Integrated model of support, including digital/remote Primary Care mental health and wellbeing resources, promoting access to resources such as NHS Inform, interactive self-care guides, NHS 24’s 24/7 mental health hub, Breathing Space crisis line and computerised CBT. Ensure we have support available to people in mental health distress and crisis. This includes information, advice MHSM and Making Recovery Real Partnership Oct 24 Oct 25 Page 53
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and support, including access to urgent care, access to self care and community based support. Understand how people are currently accessing and receiving unplanned mental health support in Moray and adapt system to meet needs at an earlier stage within budget constraints. Within this, we will understand the differences between new presentations and repeat/circulating presentations in commissioned services, primary and secondary care. Trauma is recognised, responded to appropriately and prevented where possible. Ensure that all staff are trained in trauma-informed practice MHSM Sept 25 Page 54
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Mental Health Quality Standard 1: Access: People in Moray have equitable and non discriminatory access to effective and relevant support for their mental health, within appropriate timescales. Outcome Actions Lead Timescale People can access the person-centered support they require. Regardless of where contact is first made, patients will be supported to get the right help from the right source. Develop business case for a dynamic direct access assessment and point of support for people who have mental health needs, reducing harms and providing a pathway to recovery, in line with Moray Alcohol and Drug service model. MHSM Mar 25 We will have maximised the potential for digital innovation, tackling digital exclusion and literacy where it exists. Integrate our local service with digital/remote Primary Care mental health and wellbeing resources, increasing access to resources such as NHS inform, interactive self-care guides, NHS 24’s 24/7 mental health hub, Breathing Space crisis line and computerised CBT. Work with DHI and TSI Moray to develop shared, accurate and accessible information source for mental health services. MHSM Jan 25 Patients are able to easily access & understand information about who services are for, what is provided and how they can be referred to these. Staff feel more knowledgeable about other services in local area and how to link patients in to them. Develop an overarching and practical method of sharing of information between services, with clarity of pathways and roles Ensure effective publicising and accessibility of preventative and early intervention services, including non medical and community models of support from early intervention to recovery and general wellbeing support. MHSM Mar 25 Page 55
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Mental Health Quality Standard 2: Assessment, Care Planning, Treatment & Support: People with mental health conditions, including those with co-existing health conditions, experience improved quality and length of life, free from stigma and discrimination Mental health policies, support, care and treatment are better informed and shaped by people with lived experience of mental health issues and staff practitioners, with a focus on high quality provision that is recovery oriented. Outcome Actions Lead Timescale Help and support will be centred around the person, respectful of their choices and based on evidence about what is most likely to help them. It will be focused on supporting them into independence and recovery. Comprehensive support and support that promote and support people’s mental health and wellbeing are available in a timely way that meets and respects individual needs. Identify and implement three projects to embed principles of realistic medicine and care in mental health service practice. For example: Directory of services Building a personalised approach to care Implement shared decision making MHSM Sept 25 Patients have a choice of how they access care and support; digitally or face to face. Expand offer of Near Me appointments MHSM Sept 25 Strengthened support, care and treatment pathways for neurodiverse adults who require a diagnosis and support. Utilising adult National Neurodevelopmental Service Specification once it is available, strengthen, clarify and develop support and care pathways for people requiring neurodevelopmental support, working in partnership with health, social care, third sector and other delivery partners. Identify appropriate and accessible supports for potentially neurodiverse adults who are awaiting assessment, aren’t functionally affected, or have lower-level needs. This may involve peer support. MHSM Mar 26 Page 56
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Parity of services for older adults Understand the gaps in older adult services and develop plan to address these. MHSM Sept 25 Focus on recovery Continue to work with Scottish Recovery Network to develop and support the establishment of peer support networks in the settings where these will have most impact. MRRP Sept 25 Ward 4/availability of an appropriate acute facility Respond to review of bed base being undertaken at Grampian wide level MHSM Mar 25 Community Treatment & Support Model Explore and develop community-based models of psychiatric care and Psychiatric Assessment Suite MHSM Sept 25 Increased availability of timely, effective support, care and treatment that promotes and supports people’s mental health and wellbeing, meeting individual needs. Strengthen stepped care approach - develop business case for posts (potentially Band 7 Mental Health Practitioner) to work across Moray GP practices to provide thorough assessment of presentation/ problem, risk and identification of suitable options for care. MHSM Sept 25 Page 57
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Mental Health Quality Standard 3: Moving between and out of services Outcome Actions Lead Timescale Ability to escalate or de-escalate treatment or support is as easy as possible; patient does not need to repeat their story and is supported in a seamless way. Remove barriers to accessing the right care, right place, right time and develop discharge and shared care arrangements with primary care, individuals and families. Implement dynamic case management, with the aim being to improve capacity but provide ease of access back into service if required. MHSM Sept 25 Flexible and supportive structures are in place to support effective discharge – negotiated pathways to ensure patient’s needs are met, making patient movement up and down the pathway less complex. Introduce co-produced written care plans for transitions between services or discharge from services, which detail how to re-engage. Any risks should be clearly identified and documented, and the flexibility of transfer time and handover of care should be considered. Introduce case-based discussion regarding thresholds between primary and secondary care. Dynamic caseload management Community mental health staff to increase the level of working within community settings in order to strengthen relationships across the service. Understand what is required to strengthen effective MDTs within localities and implement action to ensure maximum effectiveness. MHSM Sept 25 Develop an effective process for ensuring that when people with long term complex needs return to Moray, they have appropriate supports in place; this may include the use of core and cluster supported housing opportunities for people with severe and enduring mental health conditions. MHSM Mar 26 Page 58
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Mental Health Quality Standard 4: Workforce: The mental health and wellbeing workforce is diverse, skilled, supported and sustainable, trauma & inequality informed Outcome Actions Lead Timescale Workforce feels valued and respected and is more likely to want to work in Moray and remain here. Develop workforce plan for mental health services in Moray, linking to Grampian wide development and clearly aligning Moray services as part of wider Grampian mental health service offer MHSM Sept 25 Undertake a needs analysis of current service in line with ‘Report of the Short Life Working Group into Primary Mental Healthcareiv’, considering the potential utilisation of Multidisciplinary Teams/extended roles. MHSM Dec 25 Robust, resilient and effective Mental Health Officer (MHO) service is in place Redesign of MHO provision within current financial constraints to provide sufficient capacity while allowing other MHOs with substantive posts opportunities to have sufficient MHO work to maintain their skills. Social Work June 25 Review capacity of Out of Hours Social Work function in relation to mental health and develop to address any needs. Social Work June 25 Reduction in use of temporary and costly staffing Implement CESAR model for psychiatry. Understand the workforce required to reduce or remove the need for locums and other temporary staffing solutions. Work with cross Grampian system to build stronger relationships and sustainability so that Grampian system can provide support and cover when necessary. MHSM Mar 25 Workforce is informed, trained and confident in supporting self-care and recommending digital MH resources Develop and implement training and CPD plan for Mental Health service staff, recognising new developments in digital supports but also the challenges that some people face in accessing and using digital facilities. MHSM June 25 Page 59
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Mental Health Quality Standard 5: Governance & accountability Outcome Actions Lead Timescale Clear and effective governance in place Review of adult and older adult mental health governance, strategic and delivery elements, including provision of reassurance to IJB, and strengthening the role of Making Recovery Real partnership and the voice of lived experience. Align governance between the strategic groups which oversee: Children and Young People’s Mental Health, Moray Alcohol and Drug Partnership, Suicide Prevention Strategic Group and Adult Mental Health Deputy Head of Service Dec 24 Decision makers, service users and practitioners are better able to access the evidence, and data to provide assurance and adapt services to meet local needs. Work with, and learn from colleagues, including data analysts and Alcohol and Drug Development Team, to maximise use of data, evidence and evaluation in targeting and improving our work. Create performance dashboard and actively participate in Scottish Benchmarking Network MHSM Mar 25 Understand financial structures of mental health provision in Moray and identify & align short- and long-term funding opportunities. Mental Health Strategic Group Mar 25 Undertake self-assessment against Core Mental Health Quality Standardsv MHSM Sept 25 i Good Mental Health for All in Moray ii Mental health and wellbeing strategy - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) iii Scottish_Recovery_Network_Strategic_Plan_202124.pdf Page 60
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iv REPORT OF THE SHORT LIFE WORKING GROUP FOR MENTAL HEALTH IN PRIMARY CARE (www.gov.scot) v https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/strategy-plan/2023/09/core-mental-health-standards/documents/core-mental-health- quality-standards/core-mental-health-quality-standards/govscot%3Adocument/core-mental-health-quality-standards.pdf Page 61
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Appendix 3: Good Mental Health for All Strategic Group - Governance Arrangements Aim To establish a Strategic Group to oversee the delivery and monitoring of the adult and older adult services aspect of the Good Mental Health for all in Moray Strategic Plan (2016 – 2026) and the underpinning Adults Services Mental Health Delivery Plan (2024- 2026). The Strategic Group will provide the leadership and strategic direction required to ensure the delivery of the priorities outlined within the plans. The Strategic Group will ensure the cross population of priorities with the Moray Children Services Plan 2023 to 2026. Meeting Schedule The Strategic Group will meet on a six weekly basis for the first 12 months and quarterly thereafter. Quorum The Strategic Group will be quorate when there are six or more members present. Reporting Arrangements The Strategic Group will feedback periodically to the Health and Social Care Moray Senior Management Team (SMT) and the Operational Management Team (OMT), and will formally report on progress to Moray Integration Joint Board (MIJB) on a six monthly basis. The Strategic Group will feedback to other Committees and Strategic Groups as required. Linkages are outlined below in Diagram 1. Moray Integration Joint Board Moray Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Group HSCM Senior Management Team HSCM Operational Management Team Moray MH/Drug Related Death Group Moray Strategic Performance and Commissioning Group Group Moray Suicide Prevention Group Moray Alcohol and Drug Partnership Moray Clinical Care and Governance Group Grampian Mental Health and Learning Disability Portfolio Board Making Recovery Real Partnership Item 5. Page 63
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Cross Cutting Strategic Plans The Moray Mental Health Services Strategic Group will ensure the cross population of key priorities through membership representation from the Mental Health and Wellbeing Partnership Group (Children and Young People), Suicide Prevention Group and the Moray Alcohol and Drug Partnership, and the Grampian Mental Health and Disabilities Portfolio Board. Thus ensuring good communication, sharing of good practice and the avoiding of duplication of resources Membership of Strategic Group Deputy Head of Service, HSCM (Chair) Integrated Service Manager, Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol Service Consultant, Public Health Consultant Psychiatrist Adult Mental Health Business Manager, Moray Mental Health Services GP Clinical Leads for Moray Service Manager, Policy Development & Commissioning, HSCM Senior Commissioning Officer, HSCM Lead Nurse, Adult Mental Health Consultant Practitioner, AWI and Mental Health, Social Work Mental Health Manager, Social Work Partnership Development Lead, tsiMoray Consultant Clinical Psychologist, CAMHS Project Manager, SAMH Champion and Director, Moray Wellbeing Hub Representative, Making Recovery Real Partnership Public Protection Lead Officer, Moray Council Commercial Innovation Lead, Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre Chairperson, Mental Health and Wellbeing Partnership (Children and Young People) Chairperson, Suicide Prevention Group Chairperson, Moray Alcohol and Drug Partnership Page 64
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REPORT TO: COMMUNITY PLANNING OFFICERS GROUP, NOVEMBER 2024 & COMMUNITY PLANNING BOARD ON 3 DECEMBER 2024 SUBJECT: CHILDREN’S SERVICE PLAN (CSP) 2023-26, YEAR ONE ANNUAL REPORT BY: JIM LYONS, CHIEF SOCIAL WORK OFFICER/HEAD OF SERVICE AND CHAIR OF THE GIRFEC LEADERSHIP GROUP 1. REASON FOR REPORT 1.1. To ask the Community Planning Officers Group to review the Children’s Services Plan 2023–2026-year one progress report 1.2. To ask the Community Planning Board to approve the Children’s Services Plan year one progress report (2023/24) 2. RECOMMENDATION 2.1. It is recommended that the Community Planning Board consider and approve the year one report 3. STATUTORY CONTEXT 3.1. Part 3 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 places a statutory duty on the local authority and its relevant health board to prepare a Children’s Services Plan for the area of the local authority, in respect of each three-year period. It is expected that they will work collaboratively with other members of the Community Planning Partnership (CPP), as well as with children, young people, and their families at various stages of the plan’s development and review. 3.2. Part 3 of the Act seeks to improve outcomes for all children and young people in Scotland by ensuring that local planning and delivery of services is integrated, focused on securing quality and value through preventative approaches, and dedicated to safeguarding, supporting, and promoting child wellbeing. It aims to ensure that any action to meet need is taken at the earliest appropriate time and that, where appropriate, this is taken to prevent need arising. Item 7. Page 65
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3.3. Moray Children’s Services Plan 2023-26 incorporates the following statutory plans to simplify reporting: Child Poverty Plan Corporate Parenting Plan Children’s Right and Participation Plan In addition, it was agreed to incorporate the Promise Plan and the Child Protection Improvement Plan. The Improvement Plan developed following the inspection of the Children’s Services Partnership in 2023 is an additional plan formed later. 3.4 The Children’s Services plan 2023-26 was approved at the Corporate Planning Board on 17 May 2023. 3.5 The Scottish Government reviews all Children’s Services Plans within 6 months of submission against 15 statutory criteria. Moray’s review was we required no further updates and had fully met 14/15 criteria used to assess the plan 4. 2023/24 UPDATE 4.1. The annual report follows the same structure of the Children’s Services Plan, with progress updates against the outcomes within the 8 priority areas. Priority areas where reporting have been incorporated are more detailed. 4.2. The first year includes the forming and reshaping of the governance structure outlined in the Children’s Services Plan. 4.3. They key areas of progress to note are: Priority Area Progress Hearing children and young people’s voices Increase in young people’s voice in commissioning processes, evidence available on how young people are shaping service design and Participatory Budgeting processes to distribute £310K of funding. Tackling child poverty Establishing a Moray Poverty dataset to be able to set performance indicators in relation to improvement work and to target resources. Increased the frequency of financial enquiries with families with early years children to promote access to support early. Improving mental and emotional wellbeing Evidenced a gap in support, completed test for change and created new parent support service Working to develop a system approach to MHWB with open door approach to smooth transitions between services. Trailing social prescribing approaches with young people. Keeping children and young people safe Work included children’s inspection. Updated child protection processes in line with new guidance and delivered assessment-based training. Completed a Page 66
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yearlong partnership-based internet safety campaign included workshops reaching 2389 young people. Overcoming challenges experienced by those with a disability or neurodiversity Improved access to sports and introduced ASN specific clubs. Widened opportunities to deliver alternative education curriculums to support needs. Undertaking the Education ASN review and associated changes. Strengthening support for families Continued the update of the child planning documentation and guidance and rolled out refreshed solution-oriented training, undertaken exploratory work to prepare for system change of family support including piloting community hub approaches and joint adult/child family support service approach. Increased the family learning opportunities in early years Improving outcomes for our looked after and care experienced children Created a virtual headteacher role to improve educational attainment, commissioned a children rights service, increased the number and range of placements available within Moray. Acquired funding to develop a maintaining relationship policy and introduced the Education Scotland Promise Award. Supporting our workforce Developed a multi-agency learning and development strategy and recruited a Learning & Development Co-ordinator to manage a multi- agency training programme. Working in partnership Adult Joint Strategic Needs Assessment completed. Developed the governance structure to deliver the CSP and made a number of successful partnership-based funding bids. 4.4. The Children’s Services Plan incorporates the national wellbeing dataset. Baseline data was included in the Children’s Services Plan (page 7). An update will be provided in the next annual report following the completion of the Children Health & Wellbeing Survey in the final quarter of 2024. Education has committed to complete the survey bi-annually. The survey is the main source of data to update the wellbeing dataset. 5. SUMMARY OF IMPLICATIONS 5.1 There is a statutory duty to produce a 3-year Children’s Services Plan and to provide an annual progress report to the Scottish Government. The Children’s Services Plan and subsequent progress reports should be published on the Community Planning website. There is a risk of reputational damage if these duties are not met. 5.2. The Children’s Services Plan Annual Report meets our statutory reporting responsibilities in relation to Children’s Services Planning, Child Poverty, Children’s Rights and Corporate Parenting reporting. 5.3. Although very well received, the Children’s Services Plan 2023-2026 has been noted as very ambitious, an exercise will be completed to focus work after the Page 67
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mid-way point to ensure changing capacity and relevant financial restraints is reflected in the prioritisation of improvement work. Author of Report: Lindsay Nelson, Improvement Officer (Wellbeing), completed on behalf of the GIRFEC and PROMISE Lead Officer and Chair of CSP. Background Papers: Ref: Page 68
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1 Table of Content Appendix 1 Item 7. Page 69
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2 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….2 Strategic Outcomes…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….5 Voice…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9 Family……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12 Tackling Child Poverty 12 Improving the mental and emotional well-being of children young people and their families 20 Keeping children and young people safe 26 Supporting children and families who experience challenges due to disability or neurodiversity 28 Strengthening family support 31 Care………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 37 People………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………43 ScaƯolding………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..44 Measuring Progress…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….47 Appendix 1 Whole Family Wellbeing Report …………………………………………………………………………………48 Appendix 2 photo Gallery………………………………………………………………………………………………………….53 Page 70
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3 Introduction Welcome to Moray’s Children's Services Plan, Our Promise to the Children of Moray, annual report for 2023 -2024. Moray’s Children Services Plan and reporting also incorporates the other key partnership plans that have an exclusive focus on children, young people and their families. They are: Child Poverty Plan Children's Rights and Participation Plan Corporate Parenting Plan Child Protection Improvement Plan Moray formally launched our Promise to the Children of Moray in October 2023, showcasing the various priorities to an audience of 220 people, accompanied by a marketplace of 25+ local organisations who work within the area of family support. Our plan was introduced by the NHS Grampians’ s Children’s Commissioner accompanied by parents from the Our Lines, Oor Anne Project, supported by Children 1st Moray. The parents highlighted the importance of working with respect for parents, ensure that they feel heard, are taken seriously and that support is to be available at all stages, including if their children are no longer living with them. The plan was warmly received, described as comprehensive, clear and easy to read. There was an agreement that the priorities reflected the areas they wished to see improve. Attendees fed back they wanted to hear the progress, therefore we have made the event an annual occasion to share progress and hear if together we are making a diƯerence. The first year of our plan coincides with some key challenges felt both locally and nationally that families are facing: Reduced school attendance Increased violence and aggression both within and outside the school community. Ongoing impact of COVID, especially evident in specific age groups The struggles of neurodiverse parents and children Rise in both poverty and child poverty and the cost-of-living crisis Page 71
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4 Our action plans are structured around the five foundations of The Promise with children’s rights underpinning every foundation. Voice Explains how we will seek out and act on the voice of children, young people and their families Family Details the actions we will take to; tackle child poverty, improve the mental wellbeing of children, young people and families, keep children and young people safe from harm, strengthen support for families and meet the challenges children, young people and families face due to disability and neurodiversity Care Outlines how we will support our looked after and care experienced children and young people to reach their full potential People Describes how we will support the workforce to listen and be compassionate in their decision making, develop trusting relationships with our children, young people and families and deliver the services and supports they need Scaffolding Outlines the key actions strategic leaders will take together to ensure that the ‘system’ supports the delivery of improvements outlined within this plan. Our strategic outcomes are outlined below, followed by individual progress reports for each of the 9 priority areas. Page 72
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5 PRIORITY AREAS Voice Hearing children’s voice The voice of children and young people is evident in all things that impact on them. Adults successfully seek out and hear the voices of children and young people of all levels of ability. Engagement activities are more coordinated, minimising the risk of children and young people being over consulted. Family Tackling Child Poverty Parents claim all of the welfare benefits they are entitled to and do not feel stigmatised when seeking support. The impact of poverty on children, young people and their families is minimised. Young adults and parents experience no poverty related barriers to entering and sustaining training and employment Improving Mental Wellbeing of Families Parents are confident and able to support their child(ren) to sustain good mental wellbeing. The right mental health and wellbeing support is available to children, young people and their parents as soon as they need it. Community based mental wellbeing support is strengthened. Children, young people and their parents experience a smooth transition between support services, including transition to adult services Keeping Children Safe Workers are confident and supported to identify and understand risk. Children, young people and families are empowered to participate in child protection processes. Children and young people develop healthy relationships with peers, online and in the community. Children and young people are safer because risks have been identified early and responded to eƯectively. Children and young people at risk of or who come into conflict with the law are supported with compassion and care. Children and young people are supported through recovery and do not experience further trauma. Page 73
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6 Overcoming Challenges Experienced by Children with Disability or Neurodiversity Children and young people’s education and care needs are met, regardless of need. Parents and young people with neurodiversity challenges can access early help and support. Children, young people and families with additional support needs have improved access to support, leisure and community-based activities. Families can access a neurodiversity diagnosis in a timely way. Children with additional support needs experience a smooth transition to adult services. Strengthening Family Support Children’s and families’ needs are addressed early through implementation of eƯective child’s planning processes. There is a clear pathway of non-stigmatised support available to parents throughout Moray. Children’s transition into Nursery is consistently good. Parents are supported and enabled to be the best parents they can be. Care Improving Outcomes for Care Experienced Young People The gap in educational outcomes of looked after and care experienced young people is reduced. Looked after and care experienced young people enter and sustain education, training or employment after leaving school. The health needs of looked after children and young people are met. Looked after and care experienced young people, and their parents/carer feel their voice has been heard through the provision of independent advocacy. The number of range of placements available meets the needs of children and young people in need of care. Transitions feel and are experienced as integrated, with maintaining relationships being paramount. Siblings are supported to maintain positive relationships with one another. Children and young people seeking asylum are fully integrated into school and community life. Looked after and care experienced young people are not overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Our improvement activity is shaped by the voice of our looked after and care experienced young people. People Page 74
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7 Supporting our Workforce Integrated working practice is enhanced through joint development opportunities that support our shared vision, core principles and values. StaƯ facilitate and enable the relationships, networks and connections that support our children, young people and families Scaffolding Working in Partnership As a partnership, we are aware of the changing needs of children, young people and their families. As a partnership, we maximise all opportunities to lever in additional funding and work together to ensure it supports the delivery of our shared priorities. The risk of silo working across children and adult services minimised. We more consistently and eƯectively measure the impact of the actions we are taking to improve outcomes for children, young people and families. The co-ordination of continuous improvement activity improves Page 75
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8 The voice of the child is more than seeking their views, it is about enabling children and young people to take as active role as possible in making decisions about things which aƯect them Voice: Hearing children and young people’s voices Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress The voice of children and young people is evident in all things that impact on them. “When we went to the meeting, the school listened to you, it made a huge diƯerence and the improvements to my grandson’s timetable and how we are treated has totally changed. Thank you so much.” Parent (Nov 2023) “First time in 2 years we feel we have been listened to and progress was made at the CPM for our daughter thanks to your services input.” Parent (Jan 2024) All strategic groups report on how they are engaging with children and young people. At the beginning of this reporting period, they jointly contributed to the Children’s Rights statutory report 2020-2203 Moray Children's Rights Report 2020-2023 Below is a range of examples of some of the ways young people’s voice has had an impact in 2023/24: Impacted service design & development including commissioning 8 Young people were part of commissioning the new Children’s Rights Service Young people shaped the school counselling service’s new digital platform, looking at language and content and suggesting new themes. A survey by the provider of young people showed being listened to by adults with the time and space to do so was the support they wanted most for their mental wellbeing Approaches of family mediation and functional family therapy have been introduced within new services, both approaches hold the child/young person’s voice at the centre of support and assessing impact Influencing policy Children living in the CALA children house were part of the process of refreshing the service delivery plan along with their families Supported the policy team to look at the language used in child protection processes and procedures and designing information leaflets Sharing their views: A single point of contact was developed in housing in response to care experienced young people expressing they felt housing oƯicers didn’t understand their challenges 6 care experienced young adults shared their views on receiving mental health support Page 76
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9 Voice: Hearing children and young people’s voices Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress Young people produced a film on the positive/negatives of living in Burghead from their perspective and suggested improvements - https://vimeo.com/903878755/a9ee8f143e?share=copy Champion Board members made a video introducing Moray and met with Care Inspectorate inspectors when they visited Young people influenced the development of a petition policy to be able to have their views presented Young people co-produced the guides for practitioners to experience better meetings, its success in hearing meetings has led to plans to expand the work to cover all types of meeting going forward Decision Making and Funding Participatory budgeting (PB) approaches are enabling young people to share their views and be decision makers on issues that impact them, examples this year include: • Deciding Pupil Equity Funding spending, outcomes include creating new sensory areas in classrooms and installing water fountains • Developing more inclusive community provision to include those struggling with their mental wellbeing (10K of community mental health funding distributed across 8 projects) • £240K of funding to develop children’s play activities and youth activities improved 4 play areas, including a skate park. Communities working together additional raised £25K to upscale these projects • Allocating £33K of Just transition funding to children and youth focused projects to support the ambition of net zero across 14 projects We continue to promote children’s rights with 48 out of 52 schools in Moray being registered for UNICEF Rights Respecting School Award and 85% having now achieved an award. We have a lead teacher for UNCRC with pupil participation groups and children rights groups supported by youth work in place. More schools are evidencing how children and families are part of developing school improvement plans. Engagement activities are more co-ordinated, minimising the risk of There is a delay to this work, a proposal has been outlined and options explored. However, in the current financial situation it has been decided to halt this work. All strategic groups are reporting on their engagement work regularly to the oversight group so there remains opportunities to explore what we can achieve during this period. Page 77
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10 Voice: Hearing children and young people’s voices Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress children and young people being over consulted Adults successfully seek out and hear the voices of children and young people of all levels of ability. Aberlour Options Voice.pdf During the recent Children Services inspection, responses by children and young people to the care inspectorates survey showed that: 78% of children reported that their worker had listened to them 76% of children reported their rights had been explained to them 78% of children reported they had someone who could help them express their views The records audit undertaken showed that 56% of records were rated as good or better with regard how the professionals had listened, heard and involved the child with 78% of records stating the child contributed to initial meetings. We have a range of work in development: Expanding the use of the “Better Meetings” guides to all practitioners and meetings A toolkit of resources for hearing voice is to be launched with new child planning guidance in September 2024. Introduced active listening training alongside mental wellbeing training and beginning to introduce an emotional distress assessment tool with pastoral staƯ to help staƯ feel more confident in conversations with young people about their mental wellbeing Continuing to develop child friendly complaints, (aligned to the Scottish Public Service Ombudsmen model) and Child Protection Procedures by co-designing more child friendly materials Highlighting good practice- Aberlour Options have presented to a wide range of professionals this year on how they are successfully capturing the voice of those with disabilities or are non-verbal. Moray will introduce the voice of the infant toolkit developed in Aberdeenshire in Autumn 2024 with the aim to increase the evidence of the voice of babies in records and reports by 80%. Page 78
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11 Poverty impacts on the health and wellbeing of the whole family and for children it can have long term eƯects on outcomes in adulthood. Family: Tackling Poverty Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress What poverty look like in Moray is understood by all Moray has made significant progress through the development of a localised dataset in enhancing our understanding of child poverty. The national Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) measures have been combined with local analysis to provide an accurate internal picture of Moray, using mainly 2021-2023 data (latest SIMD data available is from 2020). The national picture shows Moray having a child poverty rate of 24.1% in comparison to the national rate of 24.5%. This is a rise of 2.8% on the data included in our Children Services Plan. Moray’s poverty ranking (based on the Child Poverty After Housing Costs data) has seen significant change. Since 2014 Moray’s position was static at 20thout of the 32 local authorities. However over last few years’ Moray rose to 11th and has varied since between 14th and 16th. When placed next to the 8 comparative areas to Moray, we are rated second highest. Our internal picture shows the complexity of child poverty in Moray: More people in Moray (41.3%) live in rural areas compared to the national average of 17%. 26% of children living in urban areas are in poverty, in contrast to 21% who live rurally 48% of the 66% of the children experiencing poverty are living in urban areas and living in just 30% of the most deprived areas (as opposed to the 14.5% identified if we use the SIMD ranking system only). 85.5% of children in Moray live out with the most deprived areas. the level of poverty experienced ranges from 0% to 64.8% in diƯerent areas of Moray. The scale of child poverty in Moray: There are 3, 849 children experiencing relative poverty, this is a rise of 470 children (14%) since 2020 The largest increase seen in an area was 12.1% (equates to 88 children) The highest and lowest ranked intermediate zones are both in Elgin Page 79
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12 Family: Tackling Poverty Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress What poverty look like in Moray is understood by all (cont.) We now have all 126 zoned areas (with populations between 500-1000) rated using poverty/financial vulnerability factors from highest to lowest, when focusing on the areas rated the highest, 20/25 areas show increase in child poverty and 5 areas a decrease Factors impacting poverty in Moray: Recent evidence shows good levels of employment. However, the Moray average working week is longer than the national one and the average full time weekly wage is lower (£647.20 compared to £702.80), showing Moray primarily has a low-income economy. Other factors include: Increased public transport costs and access challenges Increased food prices in more rural areas Access to mains gas and cost of alternative fuel A higher proportion of rural properties are less well insulated Our next steps are to use the dataset to set accurate baselines and performance indicators and to continue to develop to incorporate other types of poverty including digital poverty, food security and hygiene poverty. Parents claim all the welfare benefits they are entitled to and do not feel stigmatised when seeking support. Moray Council provided all households with a copy of the ‘Worrying About Money’ leaflet, which was co-developed in partnership with the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN), alongside their council tax bill in April 2023. The leaflet focuses on promoting cash-first support options in Moray. The leaflet incorporated the content of the previous Locality Network developed poverty conversation toolkit, which included additional community based supports. Three training events on the cash first options were delivered in partnership with IFAN this year, with 1 focused on school-based staƯ. The before and after training surveys showed an average increase in ratings around knowledge and confidence from 1.56 to 4.1 on a 5-point scale. Hits on the online version of the worrying about Money site increased following training dates, with a 33% increase evident after the first training session. Page 80
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13 Family: Tackling Poverty Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress Parents claim all the welfare benefits they are entitled to and do not feel stigmatised when seeking support (cont.) We continue to use the Grampian developed Financial Inclusion Pathway and the newer Infant Feeding Crisis Pathway. Additional training has focused on health visitors and midwifes with a recent test for change looking at 2 areas teams showing that 94% of families were asked about financial supports. The support available across Moray has expanded this year. The Moray Baby Bank charity has combined with a new pre-loved charity to expand the range of items available free for families The Infant Formulae in a Crisis Pathway have been expanded to consider food insecurity and includes income maximisation. Moray Community Foundation, launched in April 2023, to address personal emergencies which have been compounded by the cost-of-living crisis. A financial wellbeing worker is part of the support included in the newly commissioned intensive family support service, Families Together (Children 1st) Increased family learning opportunities that oƯer support on budgeting and numeracy-based skills has been coordinated through Community Learning Development (CLD) The Fairer Moray Forum Action Group has undertaken a mapping exercise to identify the variety of supports on oƯer throughout Moray to improve the awareness of supports which are available. Moray continues to contribute to the annual Challenge Poverty week to raise awareness of support The impact of poverty on children, young people and their families is minimised, whilst opportunities for wellbeing and attainment are maximised Pupil and Strategic Equity funding (SEF) is used in a range of ways across our school estate with a common theme being the employment of Home School Link Workers and youth workers to support family engagement. 38 of the 43 PEF plans available focused on health and wellbeing, examples included breakfast clubs, nurture-based support and outdoor learning 15 schools focused on families and communities, examples being developing hub spaces for families to access, family learning, developing clothes and swop shops, book and cooking sessions 4 larger scale school projects were funded using SEF, 3 in areas meeting SIMD (5-6) criteria and a third in an area where low income and pockets of poverty are an issue Page 81
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14 Family: Tackling Poverty Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress The impact of poverty on children, young people and their families is minimised, whilst opportunities for wellbeing and attainment are maximised (cont.) Examples of good practice developed using the funding Elgin High School managed to combine elements of its PEF funding with over £1700 of funding successfully acquired from community sources to run a Breakfast Club. They received a further £1000 Kellogg’s grant who they partnered with to share good practice and are a current test school for their new secondary school welcome pack. 20-25 pupils attend daily, with 64% of pupils fitting PEF criteria. Provision includes monthly cooked breakfast and hot chocolate Fridays. The school also ran a whole school “Scottish Big Breakfast” in support of STV children’s Appeal which included fruit tasting, making fruit smoothies using pedal power and a school band providing music. Due to the success, they now run the whole school breakfast once every school term. Buckie Associated School Group received £275,855 to focus on children between P5-S1 from across the schools in the ASG areas identifying pupils through a data analysis looking at attendance, poverty related attainment, social and emotional based concerns and those achieving lower than their potential attainment. A hub and spoke model were adopted with a range of support provided including additional literacy and numeracy support, working on alternative awards to build confidence, developing safe spaces within school, weekly parent contact and whole family activities. Outcomes have included: increases in attendance, (rising 7.5% to 85.1% and 5.7% to 86.2% in the second cohort) All pupils had increased scores on the Glasgow Mental Wellbeing Profile and were evidenced seeking less support from other school staƯ by the end of the first term. A target of 20% improvement was set for those identified as not working at their age/stage, results post support showed 44% had reached the expected writing level, 55% their reading level and 33% their numeracy level.12 of the lowest attaining pupils also completed Hi5 Awards Summer holiday support Page 82
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15 Family: Tackling Poverty Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress The impact of poverty on children, young people and their families is minimised, whilst opportunities for wellbeing and attainment are maximised (cont.) School holidays are a challenge for families experiencing poverty or with low income, last summer we were able to distribute £67, 935K between 21 providers to provide additional childcare and activities, targeting those on low incomes. Provision included holiday playschemes, sport camps, enhancement to planned provision to involve meals and to organisations working with vulnerable families, for example our drugs & alcohol service and women’s aid. We also worked to increase the number of free access family activities available through the summer, examples being coding sessions and Lego build sessions. Improving home eƯiciency and minimising fuel poverty To date the Moray Energy EƯiciency scheme has supported 228 council and privately own properties to increase home eƯiciency a new Eco 4 flex scheme is due to be launch in May 2024 focused on those living in private housing occupied by low income, vulnerable and fuel poor households. Additional support to families continues to be provided through cash first options and through vouchers provided by our 3rd sector partners, an example being Aberlour Childcare Trust urgent assist fund to manage fuel costs. In this coming year we plan to audit the cost of the school day approach across schools, including assessing more closely the uptake of free school meals, travel and the education maintenance allowance Young adults and parents experience no poverty related barriers to entering and sustaining training and employment. Young adults and parents experience no poverty Our Local Employment Pathway is named Moray Pathways, It is comprised of over 50 support organisations and local employers with the aim of supporting local people into fair and sustainable employment. The pathway utilises No One Left Behind and Child Poverty Employability funding to provide a key worker support service for young people and for parents. In total, 763 people were referred to the Moray Pathway partners this year, including 185 young adults and 60 parents, of which 45 have been care experienced. Page 83
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16 Family: Tackling Poverty Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress related barriers to entering and sustaining training and employment (cont.) Young adults and parents experience no poverty related barriers to entering Outcomes of Moray Pathways A total 326 Outcomes were recorded with young people achieved the following: 27 moved on to employment, with 17/27 securing 6 month paid placements with the pathway funded Moray Employer Recruitment Incentive (MERI) (10 parents also used this scheme) 40 completed vocational based activity 30 entered further/higher education 61 worked on barriers to employment, these included personal development, their health & wellbeing, and creative and life skills (includes mentoring) 15 are at the engagement phase (newest referrals) Examples of young people’s support provided are the annual summer programme for those leaving school where there may be a risk of not progressing to their identified positive destination (24 young people took part this summer) Mentoring Young Talent matches care experienced young people and young people 16+ that are not in employment, education and training to a volunteer mentor for a year. 34 young people were supported this year. Progress for Parents The Progress for Parents service within Moray Pathways (parent employability scheme) focuses on the 6 identified priority family groupings by, Partnering with organisations to provide place-based support in areas identified with most need through working together with the family nursing partnership, the resettlement team, schools and the justice team amongst other partners. Joining family sessions and attending community-based activities like community lunches and schools to raise awareness of service Page 84
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17 Family: Tackling Poverty Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress and sustaining training and employment (cont.) Young adults and parents experience no poverty related barriers to entering 1-1 key workers support parents with personal development, barrier removal and skills development to create opportunities to enter the workforce or secure improved career options project oƯicers focusing on school age childcare and families with disabilities. Outcomes of Progress for Parents In total 60 new parents were referred in 23/24, with 76 parents continuing to be supported from the previous year. All parents are oƯered a referral to the Money Advice Team as part of an initial financial health check. Of the 60 referrals this year: 13 parents continue to work 1:1 with a keyworker to address barriers to employment and on personal development, 1 parent has been supported to start volunteering, 2 have gone into education, 25 have entered employment, 6 have progressed into training, 13 have disengaged for various reasons. Barriers to employment for parents School Age Childcare 2 parent focused surveys identified that the cost and availability of childcare for school age children is a major barrier to parents entering the workforce. Both a local working group and a Highland and Islands Regional Economic Subgroup are jointly looking at the issue with a range of stakeholders, including Scottish Government representation. A Project OƯicer started in post in January 2024, initially focusing on establishing relationships with local childcare providers, both mapping current provision and exploring barriers to expanding local provision. Page 85
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18 Family: Tackling Poverty Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress and sustaining training and employment (cont.) An example of good practice in this area locally has been a partnership between Moray Business Gateway, Moray Council’s Childminder Development OƯicer, Moray UHI and Moray Pathways. Funding and support were provided to create a free bespoke two-week childminding training course for six participants. Two of the attendees have gone on to be registered childminders with places available. Families with disabilities Moray made a successful application to the Child Poverty Accelerator fund to work with families with disabilities to improve income maximisation and develop a local group to continue to support families. Engagement events with families have taken place, with feedback being used to develop the project to meet need. Page 86
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19 Positive mental wellbeing greatly improves the experience of growing up and provides a solid foundation upon which a person’s lifelong health and wellbeing outcomes Family: Improving the mental and emotional wellbeing of children, young people and their families Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress Parents are confident and able to support their children to sustain good mental wellbeing “The practical tips in the sessions give me more optimism that there is something that I can do” “Comparing what makes me stressed to what makes my son stressed help me realise that I can dismiss him at times” I'll notice myself doing it from now on and try to do better” “I want to understand self- harm more and how I can help him” We identified a gap in local support or training for parents to access themselves (without their child) to learn more about supporting their child’s mental wellbeing. A parent pilot was developed and tested in partnership with Therapeutic Counselling Services oƯering parents the following choices: online or face-to-face workshops covering anxiety, stress, self-esteem and self-harm designed around psychoeducation, personal development and skills and resources 1-hour wellbeing consultations for the parent or carer to assess their resilience, identify the child struggles and create a plan of action together including providing resources 1-2-1 support, focusing on listening and validating concerns, facilitating parents to develop insight, identifying strengths, oƯering tools, discussions of boundaries, demonstrations of resources and activities provided and psychoeducation about teenage development Key successes of the pilot included: 98% parent self-referral rate 85% measured increase in self- confidence to support their child mental wellbeing 98% reported increased knowledge of mental wellbeing related issues and understanding of young people’s needs Parents reported a 70% sustained improvement and application of their knowledge 8 weeks after receiving support. Parents willingness to open up about other concerns. For example, 29 parents shared they were experiencing financial struggles and 19% of parents shared their own mental wellbeing struggles Page 87
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20 Family: Improving the mental and emotional wellbeing of children, young people and their families Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress Moray Parent Project Report.pdf The pilot has been so successful and popular with parents we have committed to its continuation with increased focus on attracting Dad’s and kinship carers and developing an open-door handover for parents into Mental Health & wellbeing services to support their needs. The pilot will be incorporated into the support available through the community/family hubs being developed through our Strategic Equity and Whole Family Wellbeing Funding. The right support is available at the right time A Mental Health & Wellbeing Services (MHWB) Development Group has been established, consisting of the 4 main MHWB services so far. The group is focused on: Working to improve coordinated support plans, Smoothing transitions between services, Increasing early intervention uptake and reducing redirected referral numbers. Progress to date includes: Development of case discussion meetings. 19 children & young people have benefitted to date with the following impacts seen of the approach: - Improved collaborative working that ensures the right amount of support is available from the most appropriate service - Joint risk management discussions in relation to suicide and self-harm concerns. - Some cases have been escalated to CAMHS - StaƯ are reporting their practice is developing through increased knowledge through engagement with more highly trained Mental Health specialists. - Next step is to consider how to support those waiting for more specialist support and to those leaving CAMHS to support transition into community provision Page 88
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21 Family: Improving the mental and emotional wellbeing of children, young people and their families Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress The right support is available at the right time (cont.) Smoothing transitions between the services, all the commissioned MHWB services are now agreed referrers to CAMHS, making the case discussions more eƯective and increasing the quality of information in referrals Jointly developed a service information leaflet shared to all schools and the wider Children Services sector as part of work to promote early intervention provision and reduce redirected referral levels The Improvement OƯicer (Mental Wellbeing) works closely with the services to improve data collection, evidencing the impact of support and service development, this has led to: the development of a mental wellbeing dataset to help inform service development, identify gaps in provision and emerging trends addressed an emerging trend of an increase in redirected referrals to school counselling, leading to training for guidance pastoral teams on assessing emotional distress supporting our community MHWB service to measure impact more consistently and work together to reduce the waiting time which has reduced from 12 weeks to 5-6 weeks Young people have: co-developed with the counselling service their digital platform, shaping content and testing its usability tested new ways of experiencing support, trying out mind movement taster sessions within two high schools We have explored diƯerent support and capacity building opportunities by: • piloting attaching a young person’s community mental wellbeing practitioner to 2 of our children houses. Initial results show an increased uptake of 1-1 support in comparison to the children’s house not in the trail (control) • waiting well through phone check-ins when on waiting list for community MHWB services • a trial of an under-10s counselling oƯer has been running in 3 primary schools with 34 spaces, this is currently being evaluated Page 89
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22 Family: Improving the mental and emotional wellbeing of children, young people and their families Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress The right support is available at the right time (cont.) • identified gaps in peer-based support within the peri-natal parent stage, a series of recommendations are currently being considered to explore in the upcoming year Developed and resourced 2 suicide prevention pilots planned in response to an identified training gap. The pilot is designed to explore how we create suicide safe schools and includes partners of SAMH, CAMHS and CRUSE bereavement service. Outcomes There has been a 39% increase in referrals to community-based MH services, a 9% rise to school counselling services and a 7% fall seen in CAMHS referrals during this year. We hope to maintain this shift towards early intervention going forward. Through additional support provided, our community mental wellbeing service average improvement rate has increased from lows of 48% to consistently being between 80-90%. The average confidence rate of parents in relation to supporting their child’s mental wellbeing who received 1-1 support within our parent pilot rose from 50% to 88%. Community based mental wellbeing support is strengthened “I didn’t want change, I was quite happy the way my life was, I never went anywhere without my mum except school, I’m proud of myself for all the changes I’ve made, I'm happier now and my mum trusts me too” Young person 13 yrs A social-prescribing based pilot was undertaken to understand why young people were engaging less in community provision which was impacting the outcome of the work of our mental health support services Young people were supported to identify and address barriers to accessing provision available. The insights gained were used to work with community providers to increase inclusion for young people struggling with their mental wellbeing. A social prescribing model was developed outlining the level of support young people needed to use this approach successfully A Participatory Budgeting (PB) opportunity was developed by the young people who had taken part in the project based on their shared experiences to design and run a funding process which they themed around inclusivity 26 referrals were received for young people 12 years and over who had been receiving mental wellbeing- based support. Page 90
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23 Family: Improving the mental and emotional wellbeing of children, young people and their families Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress “Having a fit life card has opened up my daughter’s world, she loves going to the gym, becoming more confident with every visit” – Parent Insert small pic of poster here 17 young people went on to achieve their community-based goals, examples included joining gym classes, joining a local youth club, getting a part time job and joining school-based clubs. 3 young people who were not attending school returned to school all participants showed an increase in school attendance. the social prescribing model developed will now be evaluated alongside our adult models to identify how to develop a social prescribing approach in Moray fit for all “I wanted friends, I struggle cos I don’t understand people, they say one thing and it means something completely diƯerent. It’s much better at school I can say hi to or smile to people as we pass each other going to our classes and have someone to hang out with who thinks like me” Young Person 14 yrs feedback on what they gained from the pilot £10K of our Children & Young People’s Community Mental Wellbeing Funding was used to run the process across two areas. A total of 23 applications were received with 494 votes cast by young people across the 2 school ASG areas with 8 projects successful. The successful projects ranged from providing lunch time sports activities, equipment for scout groups, increase access to outdoor learning opportunities, supporting military children, funding to support a diversity & inclusion group to gain the LGBT Educational Charter and support to enable a new role-playing games club developed by parents for neurodiverse children to aƯord premises during a pilot phase. Example of young person’s feedback “Designing everything took time, it was good to hear what others on the panel had to say about everything, and we could agree on most things. I liked how everyone’s voices were heard; everyone got our activity and idea on our poster.” Young Person Page 91
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24 To be safe means growing up in an environment where a child or young person feels secure, nurtured, listened to and enabled to develop to their full potential Family: Keeping Children and young people safe Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress Workers are supported to identify and understand risk (This work is linked to the People priority within our CSP) A new Multi-agency Learning Development Strategy and training program has been developed, informed by a training needs assessment completed by 145 staƯ members. New roles have been created of a Partnership Learning and Development Co-ordinator and a Trauma Informed Development oƯicer who is already in post. http://www.moray.gov.uk/downloads/file153710.pdf During the reporting period: 85 multiagency staƯ completed Child Protection Basic Awareness training 34 staƯ completed Understanding Neglect training. staƯ attended a series of briefings to share the new Child Protection National Guidance, and all training materials have been updated to reflect the guidance Participation and trauma informed practice themes have been incorporated into our training and development. A review and refresh have taken place of multi-agency chronologies and child protection procedures across the partnership within the last year 404 frontline staƯ completed the Care Inspectorate survey in August 2023 as part of our inspection. 90% agreed that the learning and training they participated in has increased their confidence and skills when working with children and young people at risk of harm 97% reported they were confident to recognise and report signs of child abuse, neglect and exploitation. StaƯ who have undertaken recent training reported: 96% Knew the standards of practice expected of them 89% agreeing that they had the guidance and supervision in place to meet those expectations. Page 92
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25 Family: Keeping Children and young people safe Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress Moray also launched its Moray Protects website, which provides a public platform for engagement and awareness raising initiatives, alongside information and guidance for practitioners on public protection. Children and Families are empowered to participate in Child Protection Processes “I felt listened to because some of the outcomes I asked for were upheld and (the professional named here) listened to me and took my thoughts into account” (young person”, 12 years old). A solution orientated approach to Child Protection Planning Meetings has been implemented with evidence of the approach evident in 100% of the meeting that were examined in recent quality assurance reviews. Parents attended child protection meeting in 95% of cases. 107 staƯ having attended solution orientated training in the last year. Feedback since these changes were introduced include that professionals and families feel that risks are fully explored but in a more positive way with a clearer focus applied. 98 parents completing the care inspectorate survey confirmed that children, young people, parents and carers felt their views were considered during decision making. We are working to ensure children understand the child protection processes by: introducing a children’s section with child friendly advice on the processes on the recently launched Moray Protects website. testing how child friendly our complaints process through a new child feedback form introduced Our focus going forward is: the continued roll out of solution-oriented core group meetings continued use of the complaints child feedback form to identify areas of learning to quality assure the changes made to the child protection processes to see how well the child voice is being heard develop a young person support and protection procedure outlining the approach practitioners should follow when working alongside individuals aged 16-18 (or to 26 if care experienced). Children and young people develop healthy relationships with peers, Moray’s Child Protection Committee and NSPCC Scotland worked together to develop the ‘Let’s Chat Online Safety’ campaign beginning in 2023. The aim of the campaign has been to raise awareness of online harm and oƯer solutions and guidance to tackle risks early. The campaign to date has included: Page 93
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26 Family: Keeping Children and young people safe Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress online and in the community. Children and young people develop healthy relationships with peers, online and in the community (cont.) “Good focus on solutions and what we can start doing to help kids today” “Interesting, informative and fun” 18 parent sessions attended by 256 parent/carers, 4506 online safety leaflets being distributed 359 families engaged at a range of community events Workshops delivered in schools to 2389 young people The focus of content was designed in response to parents and frontline staƯ requests, covering topics including, gaming, grooming, mental health and wellbeing, online bullying, friendship, pornography, parental controls, persuasive design, sharing nudes and social media. All the FAQs responses across all the topics have been shared on the Moray Protects website. The Safer Schools Scotland app has also been re-launched locally to promote access to up-to-date advice and jointly promoted with the campaign. Children and young people are safer because risks have been identified early and responded to eƯectively. Those who come into conflict with the law are supported with compassion and care and children are supported through recover and do not experience further trauma. Moray continues to invest in the assessment tools used and the development of our child protection processes. 138 staƯ received Graded Care Profile 2 training 154 staƯ have received Safe and Together training via the violence against women and social work partnership. Safe and Together language related changes are now being evidenced in report and file audits. We continue to regularly quality assure the components of our process, our recent inspection highlighting the quality of our IRDs and SCIMs processes as a strength. 92% of Joint Interviews are carried out using the SCIM method far exceeding our initial target of 60%. Moray has increased the availability of intensive family support interventions to support where risk is identified that may impact the stability of the family including when children in conflict with the law. Family functioning therapy and family group decision making form the approaches being used. Moray’s Protection from Serious Harm Protocol was developed within this reporting period with a view to managing the risk of harm posed to a young person and/or to other people Page 94
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27 Children with disability and neurodiversity and their families will receive the support they need to enable the children to reach their potential Family: Supporting children and families who experience challenges due to disability and neurodiversity Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress Children and young people’s education and care needs are met, regardless of need. A large-scale Additional Support Needs (ASN) Education Review is underway looking at alternative curriculums, resource allocation, policy guidance and review, training and development and the ASN provision arrangements across Moray. This work incorporates reviewing options to extend nursery provision for children with complex needs. The process involves significant staƯ and parent consultation, and staƯ change management processes. The progress to date has been: A new procurement framework designed to make it easier for voluntary and third sector organisations to support the delivery of alternative education curriculums Moderation completed across all schools in Moray to understand need and a new formula agreed to allocate resources StaƯ change management and new provision planning underway New induction training programme planned for School Pupil Support Assistants to better meet the needs of children with ASN Work outlined in the strengthening family priority regarding nursery transition is also contributing to meeting early children with more complex ASN related needs. Work looking at the use of part-time timetables in education has begun with new procedures introduced prior to a part time timetable being introduced and tracking their use has been improved. Next year we will be investigating how this approach is working for children with neurodiversity-based needs. Parents and young people with neurodiversity challenges can access early help and support Parents and young people with neurodiversity Access to peer support Several projects have developed in this area, parents and carers have developed a social media community group which has 848 members ICON (Informing & Connecting Our Neurodivergent families in Moray) is a group for both parents and professionals meeting to share experiences, services or skills and access to advice The locality networks are exploring the option of developing a physical drop-in hub for parents regarding any support need this will be developed in partnership with numerous services. Page 95
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28 Family: Supporting children and families who experience challenges due to disability and neurodiversity Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress challenges can access early help and support (cont.) Access to support Funding has been secured from the Scottish Government Accelerator Fund to run a pilot over the next year exploring the eƯectiveness of the current financial system of support for families with disabled children. We will be designing and testing improvements to these systems to maximise the income of those families. A social work led disability pod for children with complex needs was established in response to consultation with parents and workers which evidenced a need to feel support was more connected. Work is ongoing to outline a clear pathway of support from universal services through to social work. A total of 89 children/young people were open to the pod at the end of March 2024, including 27 care experienced/looked after young people. The pod is enabling workers to share skills as well as knowledge of scarce resources and ensuring greater equity and consistency so that children and young people can receive the appropriate resources and services Access to sport Active Schools and the Sports Development Team are leading on developing ASN and disability sport friendly provision across Moray. When comparing the same term in 2022/23 to 2023/2024 they’re has been: 70% increase in disabled access 26% increase of children with ASN accessing the Active Schools sport-based sessions. The team have introduced ASN specific extra-curricular clubs in two schools this year. A targeted ASN cycling programme was developed with funding acquired from Scottish Cycling, providing 32 sessions across 8 schools with 104 young people taking part. 65 disabled adults included. New ASN friendly sessions have been introduced at the Moray Leisure Centre and within libraries both during term and holiday times for activities like ice skating, swimming and learning based activities. Page 96
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29 Family: Supporting children and families who experience challenges due to disability and neurodiversity Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress A Disability Sport Hub is being developed with the purpose of supporting sports clubs across Moray to respond and meet the needs of young people with disabilities and ASN. The Hub aims to develop a community of shared practice, support, training and education and in-turn improve access to the clubs through inclusion of self- directed support opportunities. Key partners from the start of this proposal have included Scottish Disability Sport and the Moray ASN Parent Action Group. Families can access a neurodiversity diagnosis in a timely way Progress on the development of the Grampian neurodevelopmental pathway stalled in 2022/2023. Moray decided to reinstate the ADAPT process previously used for diagnosing autism spectrum disorder while awaiting progress of the pathway. A Fast-track option has been developed and prioritisation agreed for those due to leave school. Processes have been developed in consultation with the Moray ASN Parent Action Group. 32 diagnoses have been made, of which 21 were fast tracked. This is a temporary reinstatement of ADAPT as the pathway work is now underway. Children with additional support needs experience a smooth transition to adult services. 3 areas of work are developing: A multidisciplinary transition group focused on young people who will require a high care package when they transition to adult services. This groups work connects to that of the disability pod that has been developing A pan-Grampian transition group has been formed to look at pathways from a health perspective, the focus is specifically on children with complex needs or multiple diagnoses. The aim is to develop transition frameworks in relation to young people’s health needs as they become adults. A local Task and Finish group has been established to explore the various transitions young people are experiencing and outlined within our children services plan. The group are focusing on identifying where young people’s needs were not as complex and may not have met thresholds for adult services however within a short period have seen their needs increase when children-based services and approaches are no longer available. Page 97
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30 We want to make sure families can access the help they need, where and when they need it. Family: Strengthening family support Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress Children and their family’s needs are addressed early through implementation of effective child’s planning processes We are enhancing the Child Planning Process in Moray to improve families’ access to support. We are doing this by: updating the Child Plan documentation and guidance for practitioners with test pilot areas planned increased the availability of solution orientated meeting training with 107 practitioners trained over the last year developing a toolkit of resources for hearing and gathering the voices of children and young people that will accompany the guidance when fully introduced a GIRFEC website including a central repository drawn from the ALISS platform has been financed, the aim is to have one place that will support both the named person and families directly to understand processes they may be experiencing e.g. child planning and the support available to them Wellbeing Coordinators role development has included coaching and supporting the Named Person and Team Around the Child, including attending 228 child planning meetings (including 52 review meetings) this year. going forward we will redesign the role of both the Multi-Agency Support Hub and Multi-Agency Performance Hub to lead on developing a self-evaluation calendar for child planning to ensure the process is meeting the needs of families. There is a clear pathway of non-stigmatised support available to parents throughout Moray and parents are supported to be the best parents they can. Work is ongoing to develop the local family support pathway. We have continued to deepen our understanding of families’ needs, enhancing current support and developing new intensive family support provision. Work undertaken includes: completing families journey mapping work in partnership with Children 1st and Quarriers Arrows (Drugs and Alcohol support service) alongside considering the recommendations of the research of Children 1st Moray (part funded locally) which focused on supporting birth parents who no longer have care of their children Our Lives, Oor Ane Summary Report Page 98
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31 Family: Strengthening family support Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress There is a clear pathway of non-stigmatised support available to parents throughout Moray and parents are supported to be the best parents they can (cont.) Feedback from parents on what they like about PEEP: “My children have become a lot more confident” “Learnt something new about your child development at every session and the time with other mums” “Catching up with other mums and socialising my wee one” utilising CORRA funding to contract Aberlour Trust to complete an assessment of Moray’s current family support provision. Through engagement that included 24 families and 80+ professionals’ recommendations were formed. Key themes are to improve the accessibility of support available and the co-ordination of support when families need assistance from multiple agencies. key learning is being taken forward in the continue development of the wellbeing coordinator’s role, (part of our locality planning model) The following new intensive support provision and enhancements of current provision on the pathway have taken place: Developing prevention/early intervention family support for early years families PEEP is a family learning programme designed to help parents understand their child’s development and how as a parent then can create everyday opportunities to support their development. We are developing a universal PEEP pathway for families with children 0-5 years. Work to date has included: increasing PEEP activity by growing the number of groups running from 6 to 12 over the year introduced ante-natal PEEP groups in Moray through partnership working between health and early years introduced targeted individual family PEEP sessions delivered by our Scottish Government funded Equality & Excellent Leads within our Early Years Intervention Team our partnership model has developed to include 8 member organisations we have been confirmed as 1 of 10 local authorities taking part in the Scottish Government Whole Family Wellbeing Funding (WFWF) family Learning Together programme with PEEPLE (training planned for next year) AB56 (a targeted family support service for families with at least one child under 5 years) has continued to develop using both parenting and cognitive behaviour therapy-based approaches to support the wider wellbeing of Page 99
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32 Family: Strengthening family support Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress There is a clear pathway of non-stigmatised support available to parents throughout Moray and parents are supported to be the best parents they can (cont.) “ Emma has changed my life, from a parent struggling to cope with his behaviour that happened nearly daily to maybe one, twice a week!” Parent Parent feedback to Locality Networks reference increases activities in area: 'Great to see organised acƟviƟes to for me and me 2- year-old as travelling to access these is not an opƟon for me. 'Regular weekly opportunity to get out with my child and meet other parents in Buckie is great. families. They continue to work with 30 families at a time, with 50 families supported over the last year. (Funded through Moray Council Early Years team) Increasing early intervention support available and at the right time by: Wellbeing Co-ordinators (key roles central to the development of our family support pathway) have worked alongside social work and the named person to develop family support packages through the child planning process. The co-ordinators are identifying families where we feel an enhanced support provision could prevent social work-based intervention. Family/community hubs have been developing within schools in 4 school areas (utilising both PEF/SEF funding). Using a hub and spoke model they are developing to reflect the uniqueness of the locality and the families within those areas. The next step is to introduce a further 3 community hubs and extend the support available through the 4 hubs, utilising components of our Whole Family Wellbeing Fund An example of a hub is outlined within the poverty priority Our children & families locality networks have continued to develop, highlights this year include: the introduction of paid 3rd sector chairs, engagement shaped around the priority areas of our CSP, collating the lived experiences of families and front-line professionals to further inform how the plan is delivered and consider the impact of work as its undertaken. This ensures all the children’s workforce, but especially the 3rd sector, is central to the progress of the CSP Attendance is continuing to increase, bringing in a more diverse range of services/organisations ensuring eƯective communication and reach supported the develop of solutions to emerging community-based issues, for example the rise of anti- social behaviour by both bringing together evidence of the issue and supporting partnership working. An example in practice was facilitating a multi-agency response in one locality led to a temporary youth Page 100
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33 Family: Strengthening family support Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress There is a clear pathway of non-stigmatised support available to parents throughout Moray and parents are supported to be the best parents they can (cont.) “Having the family meeting was really helpful. It gave other people in the family an opportunity to talk about their concerns.” Family Aug 2023 “It has been good to hear the kids views and to be able to talk to them about what they had said” Parent October 2023 “I feel like finally our family is on the path to a place we want to be” July 2023 space being developed and 55 young people were engaged with, forming part of the actions that lead to a decrease in anti-social behaviour in that specific area Bringing in £1,8000 of funding to support the continuation of early years provisions like Active Start Gathering Feedback from parents attending the activities to share to wider forums Locality Networks remain key to ensuring we are identifying emerging issues, often prior to data and wider intelligence being available so we can response swiftly through early intervention and prevention to limit them escalating. We also have key areas of focus outlined in the CSP for the networks to explore partnership-based solutions to address at the earlier stages, examples being addressing anxiety while it is low and looking for gaps or locality specific issues requiring family support. Developed intensive family support oƯers through: the commissioning of two intensive family support services and trial extension of a drugs & alcoholic based family recovery Families Together provided by Children 1st includes whole family support and a financial wellbeing provision, in operation since May 2023 they have worked with 44 families. Families have gained by a total of £103K through debt management, income maximisation and help with energy bills. 72% of the families receiving family support reported feeling safer, with 75% reported improved wellbeing. Family Functioning Therapy provided by Action for Children, is support for families with children over 11 years where a risk has been identified to the stability of family life. The aim is to prevent care placements, improve school attendance, reduce oƯending and improve family dynamics by working with families in their home. 14 families have been working with the service since its launch, with reports available outlining how the families are doing better on a range of factors covering family dynamics, level of family conflict and parenting capacity. Page 101
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34 Family: Strengthening family support Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress There is a clear pathway of non-stigmatised support available to parents throughout Moray and parents are supported to be the best parents they can (cont.) Arrows Drug & Alcohol Service Children & Families Recovery Team An intensive whole family approach was trialled during this year using Whole Family Wellbeing Funding to work with families with a member receiving support for drugs & alcohol use. Support was provided to other adults impacted, to children & young people through intensive family support, 1-1 work and group work. Holiday based activities were also provided to the families. 86 families were supported over the year and 60 new referrals were received Additionally, we have looked to introduce resource to develop practice across our children’s workforce, developing three additional roles, a trauma informed practice workforce development role (filled at the end of this period) a multi-agency learning & development co-ordinator to ensure a workforce wide approach is taken to training (recruited post this reporting period) Family Wellbeing Manager role is to manage and continue to develop the family support pathway and to address any barriers to access to services in communities (still to be recruited) Children’s transition into Nursery is consistently good I personally feel it has had a significant impact; it gives us a much greater insight into the family’s background.” A Moray Nursery Manager Work was needed to improve the planning for and meeting of children’s needs when transitioning to nurseries, especially when there was early evidence of developmental delays, possible neurodiversity or those with disability. A protocol for information sharing between Health Visitors and Early Years settings has been developed and tested in one associated school group (ASG) area. A second test of change is planned at the next nursery entry point. “We have a child whose parents had behavioural concerns and had approached the HV…….. once he started with us we began to pick up on areas, where he required further support, largely emotional regulation. The information sharing has supported us to implement support strategies including Zones of Regulation and Emotion Coaching…….. The child has responded positively in nursery, knowing that ELC and Family are sharing information and working together.” A Moray Nursery Manager Page 102
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35 Case Study from the Arrows Family Recovery Team When R initially began attending the parent support group facilitated by Arrows children and family’s team, she admitted that she was only attending because she had to, to get social work off her back. However, she remained coming to the group and through this R has developed more confidence in her parenting skills and has a greater awareness of the affect her own and her partners substance use had on her ability to parent her children. She is developing strategies to help her children deal with their emotions and she is more interested the work I do 1-1 with her children to explore their emotions following a traumatic period. Through the group, R has also offered peer support to other s and built new connections and friendships with people who have had similar experiences as her. It is noticeable at child planning meetings now that R is confident in her ability to advocate her children’s needs and opinions, and she has more awareness of her children’s developmental successes Page 103
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36 As Corporate Parents we are committed to working together in partnership to ensure our children and young people with experience of care receive the right support to reach their full potential and can be all they want to be Care: Improving Outcomes for looked After and Care Experienced Children and Young People Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress The gap in educational outcomes of looked after and care experienced young people is reduced. Scottish Attainment Challenge Funding has been used to recruit a Virtual School Head Teacher to drive forward improvements. Moray’s Virtual School Head Teacher took up the post in August 2023. Key improvements include the: development of a robust data set to identify and track all care experienced children and young people corporate Parenting Leads identified in all Moray schools development of a self-evaluation toolkit for Corporate Parenting Leads to quality assure all aspects of education for care experienced children and young people. This includes attendance, attainment, exclusions and child planning processes development of a trauma informed support plan for children and young people introduction of Education Scotland Promise Award. Our local data continues to evidence gaps between care experienced children and young people and their non- care experienced peers. The data shows that we are not yet closing the attainment gap. More focused work and commitment is needed to ensure we get it right for our care experienced children & young people. Looked after and care experienced young people enter and sustain education, training, or employment after leaving school. The Moray Pathways (local employment partnership) received 45 referrals for care experienced young people to support employability and positive post school destinations to ensure our care experienced young people have the same lifelong opportunities as their non cared for peers. Over the last year our Mentoring Young Talent Programme re-launched across schools supported by our Virtual Head Teacher to target care experience young people who would benefit from the programme. Outcomes include: • 100% of the school leavers involved with the programme have moved into a positive destination. • a total of 16 school leavers are still maintaining a supportive relationship with their mentor. Page 104
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37 Care: Improving Outcomes for looked After and Care Experienced Children and Young People Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress • in total 28 care experienced young people who have participated in the mentoring programme voiced that this support has improved their wellbeing and helped them gain valuable skills needed to for their future. • data evidences an increase in attendance for care experienced young people matched with a mentor Examples of young people’s feedback on receiving mentoring: “She has been great; she listens and gives me the best advice & she also enjoys baking. She has helped me through college during the lows. She helped me job search for a little Saturday job and I now work in a kitchen which has been really great for my confidence and giving me experience in catering”. (Young Person) “He has made me feel more confident & independent & I realise that I can achieve my goals. He supports me and is helping me put a business plan together, he believes in me.” (Young Person) The health needs of looked after children and young people are met. Every child and young person who becomes looked after receives an Initial Health Assessment. An audit of those Initial Health Assessments which have not been completed within national agreed timescales has led to the following improvements being introduced: School Nurse teams introduced a single point of contact for all Initial Health Assessment Referrals. Strengths and DiƯiculties assessment tool training has been delivered to all staƯ. annual Information sessions in relation to Health Assessments for Looked After Children has been delivered to teams. This has resulted in an increase in the number of children receiving their Health Assessment within 4 weeks from 47% to 56% and within 8 weeks from 75% to 88%. Looked after and care experienced young people, and their parents/carer feel their voice has been heard through the provision of independent advocacy. Care experienced young people were involved in the commissioning of a new single service advocacy provider in Moray for children and families. As part of the commissioning process young people from Moray Champions Board: evaluated the applications and provided feedback were involved in shaping the service design, method of delivery and created a logo for the service Page 105
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38 Care: Improving Outcomes for looked After and Care Experienced Children and Young People Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress participated in the recruitment process of Children’s Rights Workers. Moray Children’s Rights Service launched in October 2023. Since launch 62 Care Experienced Young People and 14 members of their family have been referred to the service. Looked after and care experienced young people, and their parents/carer feel their voice has been heard through the provision of independent advocacy (cont.) The Better Meetings Practitioners Guides have been implemented across Social Work as a tool to support children and young people to fully participate in their meetings and hearings, the guides have now formed part of the Social Work Induction for all new social workers. “The Better Meetings Guides supports the meeting to remain child centred and allows the child to voice who they want at their meeting, it’s a great tool”. (Social Worker) “Great reminder that you don’t need to be formal”. (Panel Member) “My meeting was easier because there wasn’t so many issues to talk about and they were talking to me more and I spoke more than I usually do”. (Young Person) The number and range of placements available meets the needs of children and young people in need of care The carers recruitment campaign has been active over the last year. We have worked with current foster carers to co-design an online social media campaign and ran targeted information sessions focused on the positive experiences of fostering. During the last year we have increased the number of fostering households from 34 to 37 (8.87%) households. The carer recruitment campaign for foster carers and supported lodgings has continued to broaden placement options and reduced the need for agency/out of area placements. In Kinship Care the number of kinship households has increased from 28 to 30 (7%) In supported lodgings the number of households has increased from 4 to 7 In continuing care, the number of placements has increased from 7 to 9 a rise of (28%) providing young people with stability and continuity as they transitioned into adulthood. Page 106
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39 Care: Improving Outcomes for looked After and Care Experienced Children and Young People Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress Transitions feel and are experienced as integrated, with maintaining relationships being paramount. We successfully gained funding from the Corra Foundation following engagement work with young people to explore how we can better support them to sustain relationships with the people who are important to them. Our care experienced young people identified this as their top priority area for improvement. They shaped the funding bid and will lead this improvement project going into 2024-2025, being fully involved in the development of a local Maintaining Relationships policy. Our Through Care and After Care team have recently introduced a new pathway planning tool, ‘My Future, My Plan,’ which looks holistically at young people’s needs throughout their journey and into adulthood. Young people have shaped the development of a new ‘Care Leavers Housing Protocol’ and the introduction of 2 new (CEYP) Housing Support OƯicers to help young people with the transition from care and be a single point of contact for young people living in their own tenancy. Action For Children have introduced the role of ‘Transition Worker’ to support care experienced children and young people and those on the edge of care overcome barriers and experience successful transitions. During the last year 21 young people have been supported. 9 young people living in a residential children’s house have been supported with their transition both into and from care. 12 young people have been supported in the community. Support includes transitioning from school into training and employment and transitioning into their own tenancy. Siblings are supported to maintain positive relationships with one another. The rolling out and embedding of the Together or Apart Assessment for siblings within Social Work has led to improved practice and recording. Keeping brother and sister groups together safely is a priority and recent reporting has evidenced that in foster care placements 9 out of 10 (90%) brother and sister groups are kept together, which is an improvement from the previous year of (68%). Page 107
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40 Care: Improving Outcomes for looked After and Care Experienced Children and Young People Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress We have seen a rise in the number of care experienced children and young people accessing independent advocacy in relation to their sibling rights, this evidence children becoming increasingly aware of their rights to sibling relationships. Children and young people seeking asylum are fully integrated into school and community life. Moray is part of The National Transfer Scheme and during the last year has supported 15 unaccompanied asylum- seeking young people who have arrived in Moray without their parents/carers. All children and young people who have come to stay in Moray are living in dual occupancy accommodation or supported lodgings and where appropriate are accessing education. We have developed new processes to ensure all children and young people arriving in Moray have timely access to Health and Wellbeing support and transition into Education and training. Looked after and care experienced young people are not overrepresented in the criminal justice system We have continued to embed a whole systems approach to reduce the number of care experienced young people entering the criminal justice system. Over the last year we have: continued to deliver Scottish Fire and Rescue Youth Scheme for young people in Moray, Police Scotland Youth Volunteers Programme - targeting care experienced young people. our Youth Justice Team have delivered a range of early and preventative approaches, interventions and used an open-door relational approach for young people at risk of re-oƯending. Police Scotland Harm and Reduction OƯicer continues to provide a single point of contact for our local children’s houses including bespoke development sessions with foster and kinship carers. currently (8%) of open cases within justice social work and youth justice care experienced young people, this is a slight decrease from (10.4%) the previous year. As we continue to uphold children’s rights and strive towards a reduction in the use of restraint and seclusion we have continued to roll out and embed trauma informed practice alongside robust monitoring on its use. Over the last year our local children’s home has seen a 100% reduction in the use of restraint. Next steps include the roll out of a new Safer Working Policy across the Health and Social Care Partnership. Our improvement activity is shaped by the voice of our Moray Champions Board continues to thrive and during the last year has been the driving force behind events which have enabled young people to connect with their peers, develop new and valuable skills, and be involved in the co-production and decision making of services. Key achievements include: Page 108
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41 Care: Improving Outcomes for looked After and Care Experienced Children and Young People Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress looked after and care experienced young people. Care Leavers Event supported by 15 Corporate Parents from across the partnership. Care Day Celebrations hosted by 10 care experienced young people and attended by 50 Corporate Parents. Participation in Moray Council Recruitment Process. 8 young people hosted a Summer BBQ which provided peer support opportunities for young care experienced children. Co-produced a new Care Leavers Housing Protocol and introduction of two Housing Needs Support OƯicers as single points of contact for care experienced young people. 3 young people created and launched a video addressing stigma in Education. 8 young people supported the joint inspection of children’s services by developing a welcome video for inspections and hosting an engagement event with young inspectors from the Care Inspectorate. Moray Champions Board took a lead role in the commissioning including service design and delivery of the new advocacy provider for Moray. 5 young people worked with Morays Promise Team to co-produce and submit a successful funding bid to Corra, to develop a local maintaining relationships project. We have developed a network of 45 Promise Keepers from across the partnership, including Health, Education, Social Work, Police and 3rd sector organisations. The Promise Keeper’s role is to support and report on Promise improvement activity within their department or organisation and coordinate the involvement of children and families in improvements to service design and delivery. The Promise Keepers network has supported a wide range of improvement projects including: Looked after children and young people involved in the service delivery plan for our local Children’s home. Recruitment of staƯ. Development of tools to gather the voice of care experienced young people. The use of stigmatising language across the care system. Page 109
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42 Care: Improving Outcomes for looked After and Care Experienced Children and Young People Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress The creation of a Promise wall in our short breaks service to strengthen our communication with children and young people who are non-verbal We have strengthened the voice of care experienced children and young people within our Corporate Parenting Strategic Group with the development of our Corporate Parenting and Promise Communication Plan and participation model. Page 110
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43 Our workforce includes all volunteers, carers and employees who have a role in improving the wellbeing of children, young people and their families People: Supporting Our Workforce Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress Integrated working practice is enhanced through joint development opportunities that supports our shared vision, core principles and values. A multi-agency learning and development strategy has been produced along with a training needs analysis undertaken with staƯ from across the workforce. A Learning & Development Coordinator job description was finalised, and the role has been recruited with a start date beyond this reporting period. Staff facilitate and enable the relationships, networks and connections that support our children, young people and families A Trauma Informed Development Officer role has been developed and recruited, starting in the next reporting year. All our multi-agency training has been evaluated to ensure it is strength based and relational Page 111
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44 We will strive to ensure that our governance, culture, systems and processed empower our paid and voluntary workforce and local communities to deliver the improvements children and young people have told us matter most to them ScaƯolding: Working in Partnership Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress As a partnership, we are aware of the changing needs of children, young people and their families. This year we have produced our adult Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and began the process of updating the children’s JSNA. We have identified a resource to do this and have published the 2023 version alongside our CSP 2023-2026 plan. We have a wider insight into the needs of our families and have used learning reviews to sharpen that understanding where we have identified a need for deeper insight. Examples of our responses to changes identified have included the introduction of Sudden Infant death awareness and safe sleep training across our workforce and we are currently joint working to develop an all-age Suicide Prevention Action Plan which includes new work to develop suicide safe school communities. We have established the strategic structure and governance to oversee the delivery of the various priorities within our Children Services Plan. There is work underway in most areas to develop datasets that will sit under our JSNA and ensure we are able to demonstrate the outcomes and diƯerences being made. As part of keeping the voice of children and young people at the centre of our approach and ensuring we are continuing our understanding of the impact of change on Moray’s children we have committed to repeat the Children’s Health & Wellbeing Survey every 2 years. This will also provide a valuable insight into if the work we are progressing is making the intended diƯerence to the experiences of our children and families As a partnership, we maximise all opportunities to lever in additional funding and work together to ensure it supports the delivery of our shared priorities. The partnership is making progress leveraging in additional funding to deliver our shared priorities. Examples during this year include: A successful bid to the Child Poverty Accelerator fund (£43,000) to explore the eƯectiveness of the current system of support for those aƯected by financial hardship, and maximise the number of families in receipt of Income Maximisation support Page 112
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45 ScaƯolding: Working in Partnership Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress Successful Corra Foundation bid (£150K) to explore better support to care experienced young people to sustain the relationships that are important to them. This includes the development of a local Maintaining Relationships Policy. Our 3rd sector partners have been securing funding to increase the capacity of children’s mental health services in response to demand through the Willamson Grant Foundation and in peri-natal mental health through Inspiring Scotland funding The locality networks have worked with smaller providers to secure £2300 of funding focused on community based early years activities to address locality-based gaps in provision outlined by parents in that area The YPZONE is a young people’s drugs & alcohol service within Moray, this is currently in its 3rd year of funding, this has been developed through our locality networks and is funded though match funding from a range of local sectors e.g. Education, Health, ADP, Social Work and matched by Corra. A review of all Scottish Government funding streams issues to single agencies and partnerships groups has been completed. We are committed to align our spending to the CSP priorities. Moray is successful at acquiring funding in but continues to experience recruitment issues in securing suitably skilled staff and to have the capacity to coordinate and report on these additional sources efficiently. The risk of silo working across children and adult services minimised. We have in place a clear governance structure devolved from the Community Planning Partnership to produce and deliver the CSP with the GIRFEC Leadership Group in place. The group is made up of senior decision makers from both the public and 3rd sector. Members of the strategic groups are from across our partnership, and we have clear terms of reference for each strategic group which are aligned to the various priorities. The GIRFEC Leadership Group has scheduled regular developments session to focus on the progress of the delivery of the Children Services Plan and there are quarterly Chairs Partnership meetings to ensure connection and to minimise silo working. Improvement OƯicers resourced from across the Children Services Partnership work across the priorities to reduce silo working and support the pace of progress. We more consistently and eƯectively measure impact of the actions we are taking Within our CSP we have considered how we will know if we have made a diƯerence by delivering the outcomes. Work is ongoing to establish datasets across the priorities to ensure we can evidence that diƯerence and establish performance measures. Page 113
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46 ScaƯolding: Working in Partnership Our focus for improvement Our actions and progress to improve outcomes for children, young people and families. We have a series of surveys and engagement work outlined in the plan to progress in year 2 and 3 to see if children and families feel we are having an impact in specific areas. Following our successful CSP launch we have committed to providing a public progress engagement event each year with both the workforce and families invited together to share their views. The next one is planned for September 2024. The co-ordination of continuous improvement activity improves Due to staƯ capacity and absences, we have only managed to complete a high-level performance framework in this first year, although we have identified a performance and self-evaluation framework to develop and embed. As outlined above in this first year we have: established a new governance structure with strategic groups focused on each of the priority area developed progress reporting processes in consultation with the chairs of the strategic groups established Partnership Chairs Meeting to ensure the intersectionality across our thematic priorities is well evidenced and work is co-ordinated. Page 114
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47 Measuring Progress The progress made this year has been the following: Agreed that the Children and families Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) will be updated annually, secured a resource with this work ongoing The adult JSNA has been completed. There is now a holistic picture available of needs within Moray. This will help the identification of key areas where joint working between adult & children services will have the most impact Identified a performance management and self-evaluation framework we plan to embed across the partnership Our new governance structure is established with the diƯerent strategic groups developing priority-based datasets. These strands of work will come together to form a robust process for the collection and analysis of useful data and provide a set of data that will help inform the JSNA going forward a source of data has been identified for all the wellbeing indicators which includes a commitment to run the Health & Wellbeing survey across Moray schools every 2 years. The survey is scheduled to run again in the autumn/winter term this year. We aim to increase the percentage of young people completing the surveys, especially within our senior phase school population. Identified specific measures that demonstrate the 8 SHANARRI wellbeing indicators we will track. See http://www.moray.gov.uk/downloads/file150784.pdf Page 115
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48 Appendix I Moray’s Whole Family Wellbeing Fund Update Question 1. Activity Title and description Question 2: During this year, how has this activity contributed (or expected to contribute) toward one or more short term, intermediate or long term WFWF logic model outcome(s) identified in your WFWF initial plan. Question 3. Estimate of percentage of WFWF funding spent on this activity to date and estimate of percentage of this activity out of total WFWF budget Activities Undertaken Activity 1: build on the successes of the locality planning model as highlighted through the external evaluation of the pilot model Extension of the wellbeing co-ordinator’s post and further develop remit Roles have been extended for 2 years and the work has been developed to include more coaching and supporting of the named person and the Team Around the Child (TAC). This includes focusing on hearing and understanding children and family’s needs and voice and co- ordinating support packages and managing access to the early year’s based whole family support provision. Working with the social work access team to identify families not needing statutory intervention to coordinate support plans to meet their needs. These specific roles are: Contributing to removing barriers to existing support, Improving access to specific parts of our developing system which is resulting in increasing the number of families receiving support. The role is focused on ensuring the right support is identified and accessed. A total of 228 child planning meetings were attended in this reporting year compared to 40 in the previous year (470% increase) and there was a 4% increase in referrals received from social work Costs: £115,780 Year 23/24 (22% of annual funding) Activity 2: build on the successes of the locality planning model as highlighted Investment in 3rd sector to lead the locality networks. The networks are made-up of community organisations and frontline practitioners who have a remit to improve outcomes for children and families within the individual communities which make up Moray. Costs: £13,265 Yr 23/24, (2.4% of funding, expected to rise to 8.8% of next year’s funding) Page 116
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49 through the external evaluation of the pilot model The work of the locality networks is outlined in the strengthening families update. This has been positively impacted by the availability of 3rd sector chairs now that paid contracts have been established. The paid roles have been confirmed for a further year. There has been an increase in third sector and community group membership of the networks. Next steps of the networks are to focus on finding partnership-based solutions to low level needs identified within the CSP or to any emerging need coming through. Outcomes: 3rd sector partners are leading the networks, having a key role in the development of support at early stages. The increase in membership of the locality networks evidence more collaborative working developing Activity 3: Build capacity in the system to design and deliver holistic family support Recruit a senior manager to coordinate system design/re-design and implementation We have continued to experience challenges in capacity to move this forward, with some of our mitigating actions also impacted by staƯ absence. Work was outsourced to Aberlour Trust to continue progress looking at current provision and systems in place and to development the intensive support elements of our pathway. (Combined CORRA funding, community MHWB funding to complete this). We are still to recruit to this role which will be part of considering the sustainability of our progress going forward and post the funding period. Outcomes: Built on earlier family engagement to understand need by the provider engaging with 24 families and 88 professionals working with families. This builds on the work by Arrows and Children 1st described in the strengthening family’s priority update. This work has been led by a 3rd sector organisation ensuring they have taken a lead role in the development of holistic family support. Our strengthening family strategic group is in place and has overseen the work to date in this area. Delays in recruitment to role, mitigated by funding the 3rd sector by CORRA funding to undertake work Page 117
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50 Activity 4: build capacity in the system to design and deliver holistic family support Recruit a learning and development coordinator A coordinator has been recruited and is due to start post in the next reporting period. A Multi- agency Learning and Development Strategy including a training programme has been developed to support the coordination of training. The multi-agency learning and development group is established. Financial costs of this role will be within 24/25 years onwards (10.9%) Activity 5: development of intensive family support provision Investment in design and delivery of intensive holistic family support testing with families aƯected by substance use Quarriers Arrows drugs and alcohol service have piloted a whole family support service as part of their recovery service. Highlights of the services are outlined in the family priority update. Evaluation continues of the test of an intensive support oƯer for families aƯected by substance abuse provided by through an adult focused service. Outcomes: we should establish through evaluation of impact how we can combine adult /child focus services together, in turn informing both adult and children service delivery going forward. This represents 25% of the WFWF annual budget. £135K in Yr 2023/24 Activity 6: NEW development of prevention/early intervention family support Investment in 3rd sector to expand the provision of PEEP and contribute to development of universal pathway Within the reporting period we have committed to this and began the procurement process. Since the reporting period we have agreed a contract with Action for Children Outcomes: Parent surveys have evidenced how strongly parents value PEEP opportunities. Through the work we will be increasing access until we reach a universal oƯer for all families with children up to 5 years delivered within their communities. We have plans to work with the 3rd sector provider to sustain the provision through accessing other external funding sources going forward. Financial commitment has been made in this financial year will costs accruing from next financial year. Cost n/a in 23/24, 90K for 24/25, 17% 90K for 25/26, 17% Page 118
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51 Activity 7: NEW development of early intervention support relating to family mental wellbeing Procurement of provision to support parents to understand and best support their child’s mental wellbeing including exploring their own mental wellbeing resilience Working with one of our MHWB providers we have developed an approach that enables parents to directly access support and advice on mental wellbeing issues which are impacting their family. The work includes supporting parents to self-evaluate their own mental wellbeing and resilience as part of the support provided. A pilot of this work was undertaken this year and is outlined in the mental wellbeing priority section, including a link to the report. In total 235 parents were involved in the pilot. The pilot is being extended for up to 2 years and will develop to include more rural based families, kinship parents and fathers in the support and developing links into adult MHWB services so we can establish an open door approach to accessing support. Outcomes: parents are shaping this provision to direct where the focus is and to develop this new type of support that incorporates the parent and child needs through the parents’ perspective and experience. Next steps include integrating this into the community hubs to widen access routes. Costs n/a for 23/24, forecast 60K for 24/25 11%, 60K for 25/26 11% Question 4: Overview of progress to date Progress remains slower than anticipated due to local capacity issues, recruitment challenges as well as significant leadership change. Recommendations from the external evaluation of the locality planning model have been taken forward. Tendering process have been planned to invite the 3rd sector to lead on the development and coordination of Moray’s universal oƯer of PEEP to all families as part of our prevention and early intervention oƯer and a successful pilot looking MHWB through a holistic family lens has been so successful other areas are approaching our provider to work with them. We have a family support pathway emerging from our exploratory work and pilot activity (PEEP test for change work, Drugs and alcohol-based family support, 3rd sector based system design project completed applying a system design approach) and have identified our next steps in that redesign. It’s important we take our time and pause where needed to collate our learning to ensure this remains a joint up partnership-based process. The flexibility in the WFWF funding criteria and Page 119
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52 timelines for spending are supporting this approach. We are utilising other funding streams alongside the WFWF in a bid to make changes more sustainable which results in our funding being allocated more progressively. Progress of our initial plans are detailed in question one and two above. The advancement on those activities includes the development of community hub and spoke models within 3 of our locality areas exploring using schools as the hub and reaching out into the community and other settings. We are now investing in family link workers to support the model to continue to develop further. Question 5. main successes to delivery and factors enabling nice successes Our successes to date have been our partnership commitment and working which includes several of our 3rd sector partners. The 3rd sector has been contracted to lead on parts of the designing/redesigning work to date. Th embedding of our revised governance structure including the multi-agency strengthening family’s strategic work. We have tried 3 variations on the hub and spoke model in different localities enabling three sources of intelligence to help shape our redesign further. The wellbeing coordinators roles continue to develop in response to the redesign and are central to ensuring our developing pathway feels connected. Question 6: main challenges to delivery and plans to mitigate Capacity to coordinate and recruit the right staƯ to undertake this work remains a key challenge. We have been experiencing and continue to experience: Senior leadership change across our partnership which takes time to embed, being a small local authority we have fewer leadership positions making this extent of change highly significant A lack of capacity in our current staƯ provision which is being further impacted by staƯ absences in key roles to lead this work but also in our day-to-day service delivery. Most senior staƯ hold a wide remit which leaves little capacity to cover absences Our larger 3rd sector providers also experiencing substantial senior management change which impacts there readiest to undertake new work or approaches which has limited its mitigating impact Mitigating factors going forward are that our new leadership team is now fully in place (although temporary) and that leadership team is committed to our children services plan. Our close partnerships with our 3rd sector colleagues mean we should be able to move forward quickly when they have stabilised Page 120
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53 Despite the challenges we have managed to progress key projects due to our partnership approach which has provided further intelligence and insight into need and access to support which we can now integrate into the developing pathway. Question 7: how have the activities and outcomes in section 1 have been informed by diƯerent stakeholders Our 3rd sector partners have been key to our progress so far support journey mapping and engaging families directly and we now have 2 further providers now contracted to provide support through our WFWF. The Intensive family support oƯer within our emerging pathway has significantly grown in the last year, it is not reliant on this funding stream but has been informed by the work undertaken and through benchmarking models in other areas. Any other comments The flexibility to carry over funding is crucial in the current environment and enables time to fully utilise service design and quality improvement methodology to develop theory of changes and apply them. Page 121
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54 Appendix II Photo Gallery Care Day Celebration- raising the flag ceremony Employability post school summer programme Elgin high School- Big Breakfast with STV Children Appeal Engagement at Children’s Services Plan Launch Event Page 122
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