Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme templates: year 3 analysis - 2024-2025

2. Children and families at the centre of service design

Introduction

This chapter describes the activities funded by WFWF which progress outcomes under the core component of ‘Children and families at the centre of service design’.

Reporting templates provided detailed examples of engagement methods and described the principles behind engagement with children, young people and families. Many also provided evidence of how feedback and data collected has been utilised to inform service design and delivery.

Engagement methods

Templates described a broad range of processes and methods which have been used to involve children, young people and families in service design in Year 3 of WFWF. Many involved formal consultation methods, analysis or feedback mechanisms, and evidence of more informal ways in which children, young people and families have influenced service design was also provided. Further, some CSPPs have recruited specific posts to support participation and engagement with children, young people and families.

The most common engagement methods described in the templates are summarised in Table 2.1 below.

Table 2.1: Ways children, young people and families have been involved in service design

Method

Surveys and questionnaires

Description and examples

One of the most common data collection methods referred to in templates. Often used to gather quantitative data on a large scale. Examples included:

Edinburgh’s GIRFEC consultation involved a survey which received 500 responses.

East Lothian gathered parental feedback through the Family Life Survey.

Moray referred to surveys exploring parental wellbeing and resilience.

Scottish Borders used data from Bright Spots surveys: ‘Your Life Your Care’ for children in care aged 4-17 years old and the ‘Your Life Beyond Care’ surveys for care leavers aged 16-25.

Many templates referred to using feedback from evaluation forms to inform future service development.

Method

Panels and forums

Description and examples

Representative groups who meet regularly and provide a platform for regular feedback and discussion:

Many CSPPs described ongoing engagement with their local Champions Board (a panel for local young people with experience of care systems). Champions Boards are long-standing participation structures in many areas. WFWF has typically been used in year 3 to resource and extend how these Boards shape service design and commissioning locally. For example, in Stirling, WFWF funding has been used to appoint a Lead Officer for the Promise, embedded within Stirling Champs, to support co-production activities, including contribution to the authority’s new Promise Plan.

Collaboration with youth work services to gather insight from local children and young people. For example, Dumfries & Galloway mentioned partnerships with local youth work services including Listen2Us Youth Advocacy.

Falkirk’s Participation and Engagement Lead facilitated the development of Get To Focus, a group for parents with experience of child protection services.

Edinburgh have established a parent’s panel which provides a structured format for parents to inform service design by sharing their experiences of accessing support.

Perth & Kinross reported consultation with a local youth forum.

Method

Interviews and focus groups

Description and examples

Used to gather more in-depth insight and qualitative feedback from children, young people, parents and practitioners. Examples included:

Edinburgh’s GIRFEC consultation involved focus groups with professionals and parents.

Fife held interviews with 20 children and young people to explore reasons for school non-attendance.

South Ayrshire held a focus group of parents about support needs around primary to secondary school transitions.

Method

Workshops and events

Description and examples

Events of differing size and theme were described in templates. Target audiences were also varied, including both events for professionals and children, young people and families accessing services.

Scottish Borders noted that multi-agency events and workshops are held regularly to inform the direction of practice.

Attended by 160 young people and corporate parents, South Lanarkshire’s Care Day 2025 was co-designed by the Champions Board. The event celebrated achievements, showcased good practice, and amplified young people’s voice.

Through the Youth Beatz Fringe Programme, Dumfries & Galloway held an event for care experienced children and young people.

Method

Creative methods

Description and examples

Unique, innovative or non-traditional methods to gather feedback. Often used to engage younger children or people with additional support needs.

East Dunbartonshire has used Talking Mats to gather views of younger children and people with communication difficulties.

West Dunbartonshire’s 'Our Voices, Our Stories' pilot programme provided a platform for young people's thoughts, opinions and experiences of poverty to be captured through comic book design.

Other ways in which children, young people and families have influenced service design include more unstructured engagement methods, such as practitioners gathering insight from families through informal conversations on a one-to-one basis or in group settings. For example, South Lanarkshire’s ‘Pathfinders Programme’, which embeds 14 Youth, Family and Community Learning Pathfinder Officers in six local secondary schools, utilises home visits and parental engagement to ensure that support is tailored and reflects the needs of individual families.

“Young people and families are actively engaged in ensuring that the right supports are in place for them through informal co-design, and the development of positive relationships which develop into working in partnership with young people and families, to ensure that the work is relevant, meaningful, bespoke and holistic, and supports each individual young person and family appropriately.”

South Lanarkshire Year 3 WFWF template

Additionally, Dundee’s school transition support programme, run by The Yard, notes that pupils’ suggestions for activities are worked into weekly session plans.

CSPPs have also used analysis of children, young people and families’ online behaviours to shape service planning. For example, Edinburgh has monitored trends in online engagement with their digital service directory and adjusted communication plans accordingly, such as offering information on domestic abuse and financial supports in January when demand for this type of support is typically higher and anxiety supports around exam times.

Principles behind engagement

CSPPs reflected on the key principles which underpin approaches to involving children, young people and families in service design.

Lived experience

A prominent theme within reports was the value of incorporating lived experience into service design. Many CSPPs described processes of consulting people with lived experience of poverty, the care system or accessing mental health support when planning and developing services. Engagement with those with lived experience often involved gathering real life stories, or mapping how families access services, drawing learning from both positive experiences and barriers faced.

Moray’s template included several references to incorporating an individual’s lived experience in service design, such as the development of a parent-led “experts by experience” group to shape future delivery of their Peep^[4] programme. Another example referred to participants in a mentoring programme influencing future delivery of the service, with the template noting that former mentees had helped “to shape a more responsive and impactful programme.”

South Ayrshire hosts a small grants programme which is led and co-designed by South Ayrshire Champions Board. The programme gives people with lived experience of the care system a say in how the small grants are allocated, with input throughout the process including the design of application forms and the review of submissions. This activity was described as a project which ‘exemplifies the principles of whole family support by placing the voice and leadership of those with lived experience of care at the centre of its design and delivery’.

Compensation was also noted as a consideration for incorporating lived experience into service design; Falkirk highlighted that WFWF has provided the capacity to flexibly remunerate those who bring their lived experience to improvement projects.

Continuous engagement

The importance of sustained and ongoing dialogue with children, young people and families throughout service delivery, as opposed to one-off consultations, was highlighted in templates. Examples of regular or continuous engagement with groups include Falkirk ‘Champs’, who are represented at every Corporate Parenting Board meeting, with updates from the group forming a standing agenda item. Other structures for continuous engagement were also described, such as East Lothian’s use of Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles to drive regular engagement and learning with children and young people to refine service planning and design.

The value of embedding feedback loops to allow participants to see the impact of their contribution, was also described. For example, South Ayrshire noted that the feedback loop they have incorporated into their ‘Empower Autism’ service is a continuous process and demonstrates that families feel included, understood and supported.

Alignment with other national policies and initiatives

In some cases, activities progressing outcomes related to ‘Children and families at the centre of service design’ were explicitly connected to, or discussed in the context of, other national policies and initiatives such as incorporation of the UNCRC into Scottish law.

Utilising feedback and data

Reporting templates contained strong evidence that data collected from children, young people and families is actively being used to shape service design and delivery. CSPPs provided examples of how feedback has informed the content and structure of programmes, shaped referral pathways, informed procurement and funding decisions, altered the physical design and location of service venues, and introduced more flexible delivery models.

“Feedback from parents has enabled the team to try different models of delivery to meet the needs of parents. Parents are often unable to commit to full attendance at some of the longer-term programmes. For example, the Fear-Less Triple P programme has been offered as a 7-week face to face programme, a 4-week option (longer sessions) and as an online self-directed option with telephone support.”

Perth & Kinross WFWF Annual report

Other examples of changes that have been implemented as a result of engagement activity and feedback include:

• Schools in East Renfrewshire identified a gap in support based on parental feedback, and in response, a new parental education session on supporting children’s emotional wellbeing was created.
• North Lanarkshire involved families in designing the specification and evaluation of tenders for the commission of the ‘Families Here and Now’ Service, which delivers a range of community-based support including 1:1 intervention, drop-in sessions, groupwork, activity-based groups and consultation.
• East Dunbartonshire noted how care-experienced young people influenced the design of a family hub to make it informal and autism-friendly.

Another way that children, young people and families have directly influenced service design throughout Year 3 of WFWF is through the delivery of participatory budgeting projects. According to reporting templates, these projects have aimed to give children, young people and families a direct and meaningful say in how WFWF money is spent, including decision making around small personal grants and new supports or services.

• South Ayrshire’s Champions Board small grants programme offers young people a say in how funding is spent. Grant recipients have used the fund for various personal expenses, including travel, driving lessons and a laptop for college. The Champion’s Board has carefully considered the application process, seeking to make it quick and user-friendly so that care-experienced young people would find it accessible.
• Falkirk’s WFWF funding panel involves participatory budgeting, with the majority (63%) of the panel made up of young people from the Champions Board and parents. The panel ensured that the voices of children, young people and families were represented in the decision-making process around bids. For example, the panel funded Breathing Space, a trauma-informed space designed to prevent crisis escalation within Social Work and Justice systems. This initiative was designed in collaboration with young people from the Falkirk Champs and Inside Out (steering group of young men in Polmont, run by the Children and Young People's Centre for Justice (CYCJ)).
• In East Lothian, a lived experience panel of three people was included in the funding decision making process for the 2025 budget. The Panel were offered bespoke training on topics such as confidentiality and impartial decision making and were allocated a 15% weighting for their decisions in the overall decision-making process.

Engagement with children, young people and families has also influenced governance structures and strategic planning. Examples of how feedback has been embedded into reporting cycles, Children’s Services Plans and guidance and referral criteria were shared in templates. For example, Falkirk’s template reported that guidance for ‘Family Directed Support’, which is used by Social Workers accessing funding to create and resource plans alongside families was developed by ‘Get To Focus’, a group of parents with lived experience of child protection processes. The template adds that the only strict criterion for this fund is that all spend must be directed by what families say they want, rather than based on a professional assessment of what they need.

Some areas have recruited staff to collate and act on insights from children, young people and families. Examples include Scottish Borders, who have appointed a full-time Promise Participation and Engagement Officer and West Dunbartonshire, who have recruited a Family Wellbeing, Participation and Involvement Officer. Both roles are funded through WFWF. CSPPs have also introduced thematic advisory boards with representation from children, young people and families to oversee strategic decision making and inform strategic priorities. Examples included:

• Young people in the Scottish Borders are currently engaged in the development of the Scottish Borders Corporate Parenting Strategy 2025-2028, and co-produced the Youth Engagement Listen to Learn (YELL) Strategy (the Scottish Borders Participation and Engagement Strategy). This engagement activity is coordinated by the Scottish Borders Promise Team, which has been enabled by WFWF.
• Through WFWF, East Renfrewshire has introduced a Promise Board, which is helping to ensure the voices of children, young people and families are heard by policy makers and elected members and will inform new service development and design locally.
• West Dunbartonshire’s Rights Advisory Board, which consists of a representative group of young people, has worked in collaboration with a range of Council Officers, gaining insight into areas of responsibility, giving feedback and contributing to surveys providing views on the places they live in and contributing to improvements. This work is supported by West Dunbartonshire’s Whole Family Wellbeing Support Officer, a role funded by WFWF.

Positive practice example: East Dunbartonshire

This section shares part of a case study on WFWF activity in East Dunbartonshire, based on information from the area’s Year 3 WFWF template and a follow‑up interview with staff involved in the local work.

East Dunbartonshire’s WFWF activity has placed children, young people and families at the heart of service design. Feedback gathered from various engagement exercises, such as work with parents, schools and the local Champions Board, has shaped the projects funded by WFWF. For example, families highlighted challenges related to accessing support for neurodiversity, school avoidance, and mental health, and these themes have become focus areas for new services.

Young people have also played a key role in the commissioning process for third sector services in East Dunbartonshire. These young people reviewed the bids, sharing their views on the different projects and highlighting the ones they saw most value in. It was noted that they favoured bids with direct impact on issues like drugs, alcohol or misogyny, reflecting a desire to address these issues at an early stage.

“When it comes to making the final decisions on funding, hearing that input from young people makes it so much easier because we've got that evidence to say, these are the projects that matter to them and what they can see having the biggest impact. I think a really great part of the project has been that involvement from the young people and families.” – Practitioner involved in WFWF activity

Feedback from families also contributed to the expansion of the remit of the local area’s coordination team. Traditionally, the core team has worked with individuals aged 14 and over who have already received an autism diagnosis, supporting their transition from secondary school to the next stage of life. However, through ongoing engagement with families, the team identified and addressed a gap in provision for younger people who are still on the waiting list.

Annex 1 contains a full case study exploring how East Dunbartonshire is utilising WFWF to build inclusive holistic whole family support systems which are shaped by the needs of children, young people and families.