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

3. Availability and access

Introduction

This chapter describes activities funded by WFWF which progress outcomes under the core component of ‘Availability and access’.

Reporting templates detailed a range of measures which have improved availability and access to family support, including new pathways for accessing services, improved referral and signposting processes, flexible access methods, steps taken to remove barriers and increased organisational capacity.

Streamlining pathways for accessing support

Many reporting templates reflected how CSPPs are prioritising the streamlining or simplifying of pathways for children, young people and families to access support. Several templates described merging services or access routes into singular, centralised pathways, to simplify processes for families.

Both Aberdeen and Renfrewshire discussed testing and development of a ‘Request for Assistance’ system, producing a single pathway for families to access support services. These systems were also being developed to provide a resource for joined up working with third sector partners:

“Testing of the system has been progressing well with really positive engagement from third sector partners. The resource will be integrated into our existing systems to allow a single point of truth for those supporting families as well as a single point of referral. We are continuing to sign up partners looking towards phase 2 where families will be able to self-refer.”

Aberdeen City’s Children’s Services Board Annual Report 2024-2025

Edinburgh’s template described their Single Point of Access (SPA) approach to children and young people’s mental health support:

“The SPA has supported children, young people and families to experience services which are more accessible at the time of need. This streamlined, and centralised approach to de-mystifying mental health and wellbeing needs, in the context of family life has the beginnings of re-directing from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to responsive community supports without families feeling overwhelmed with systems. This is now rolled out across Edinburgh.”

Edinburgh Year 3 WFWF Template

Renfrewshire’s template outlined how they had merged three services: Families First, Home Link, and Care Experienced Home Link into one Family Wellbeing service with three teams. This was aimed at enabling families to access help where and when they need it and make direct requests for assistance through one application.

Several templates referenced use of the FORT system, a web-based system to track referrals between services. In their template, Perth & Kinross reported that piloting of the FORT system had streamlined referrals and noted that networking, through FORT partner meetings, had enabled wider awareness of the roles and activities undertaken by other partners.

New pathways for access

Measures to devise new ways of supporting children, young people and families or widening the reach of services were detailed in most templates. Falkirk’s CSPP described how Falkirk Community Partnership has funded sixteen tests of change, aimed at piloting innovative approaches to supporting families. All tests of change funded were new or additional family support activities, and designed to increase Falkirk’s capacity to provide this support. These pilots have included:

• A local mental health support service aimed at young people not engaged with school has capacity for approximately 200 more people to receive counselling.
• Grangemouth Family Support Hub has supported over 30 families on a one-to-one basis and more within group settings.
• Artwise: an art-based learning and family support promoting the development of healthy attachment between parents and young children
• Breathing Space: a trauma-informed crisis de-escalation space.

Pilot activities were also highlighted as a way to test the success of bringing support to communities that may experience barriers in access. For example, in Stirling, the Health Visiting Team had piloted facilitation of groups for parents/carers of children from 0-2 years within rural communities; the team has delivered over 70 group sessions to parents and carers in rural areas on topics such as weaning, toilet training, and baby massage. The template reported that the ability to access support within the community had significantly reduced the number of referrals for one-to-one support from the targeted area.

Some areas have introduced online or digital referral pathways to improve access to family support and relevant services. Examples of this included both new ways for children, young people and families to self-refer (e.g. website and online portals) and improved digital referral processes between services. Further detail on these processes is contained in Chapter 4: Whole Systems Approach.

“New local websites and digital pathways have improved signposting and access, including wider use of ALISS (A Local Information System for Scotland) across child and adult services.”

Moray Year 3 WFWF Template

Annex 1 contains a detailed case study on how Perth & Kinross have implemented the FORT electronic system to enable improved whole systems working and for families to access the support they need more effectively and efficiently.

Flexible, community-based support

Across all templates, a key theme in enabling children, young people and families to access support was increasing flexibility of services, putting a strong emphasis on making support available in ways and at times that suit families.

Consideration of the most suitable and helpful times for the availability of support was a significant element of improving flexibility of services for families. This included out-of-hours provision. For example, Stirling’s Family Wellbeing Team has provided support during the early mornings and evenings and has systems in place to provide weekend support where required. Stirling’s ‘Includem’^[5] service also factored in these considerations:

“Children's childcare reviews and child protection planning meetings have heard feedback from families that they value and make use of Includem support being accessible outside of social work office hours. This has enabled parents/carers to access real-time advice and guidance to respond proactively to challenges and behaviours that present risk so these do not escalate. Includem's direct work with families in evenings and at weekends ensures visibility and connection at times when families often experience more challenges and risk of crisis.”

Stirling Year 3 WFWF Template

Flexibility around location was also mentioned in many templates as an enabling factor for families accessing support. This involved considering and listening to feedback about the most suitable locations for children, young people and families, whether that was at home, school, libraries or foodbanks.

East Lothian’s template detailed their library drop-in service which provides specialist support and advice for families of children with suspected or diagnosed neurodiversity. This support is designed to be flexible in response to the needs of families.

“Drop-in sessions are held in libraries, are free to attend, do not require a diagnosis and do not require the attendee to register with either Salvesen Mindroom^[6] or FTEL^[7]. The support is available both in person and online. If families do not wish to, or would be unable to, attend the drop ins then there is the opportunity for them to receive 1:1 support at flexible times. Mindroom offer bespoke support based on parental need, not a prescriptive delivery model.”

East Lothian Year 3 WFWF Template

It was common for CSPPs to embed community support initiatives in schools. East Lothian described trialling an offer of mobile parental support drop-ins in schools during pick-up and drop-off times, and reported positive signs of early parental engagement. Fife’s CSPP had also embedded social work senior practitioners within schools to address attendance and behaviour.

Designing flexibility into community services was also frequently informed by feedback and data, or by employing co-design processes with families.

“The three West Dunbartonshire for Families Hub Sites across our communities continue to support our approaches to Tests of Change for Family Help; improving family support tailored to their needs, in dignified ways. Site location was informed by scoping exercises, community consultations and professional knowledge and dialogue of the Strategic Group. Support is easily accessible, stigma-free and located in places that work for children and families.”

West Dunbartonshire Year 3 WFWF Template

Removing barriers to accessing support

Across the templates, there was evidence of measures being taken to address barriers to accessing support, particularly in broadening eligibility for services and reducing the need for referrals and to join waiting lists. For example, Aberdeen City’s Children’s Services Board Annual Report 2024-2025 discussed their pilot testing of multi-agency support based in schools. Place2Be counselling has offered pupils the opportunity to attend drop-in counselling sessions, without the eligibility barriers of referrals and waiting lists. During the year, 116 pupils have been seen over 66 sessions.

Online platforms have also been used to address barriers for young people in accessing support. For example, East Lothian’s “Kooth” service provides online access to mental health and wellbeing support for 10-26 year olds, for 24-hours a day, 365 days a year:

“We have recently worked with the Educational Psychology team to procure an online digital support service which will be available outwith traditional office hours in order to provide mental health and wellbeing support for 10-26 year olds. We hope to use the data gleaned from the site over the year to help us to identify trends in the challenges faced by young people and use this to guide the decision making around service design and budget allocation in future in order to best meet need. Only an East Lothian postcode is needed to access the support, the content is all pre-moderated and there are robust safeguarding measures and processes in place.”

East Lothian Year 3 WFWF Template

Templates also included reflections on ways that CSPPs had worked to address stigma, preventing this from being a barrier to children, young people and families accessing support. Scottish Borders had published a ‘Reframing Our Language’ guide to raise the awareness of language’s role in producing stigma across agencies.

Targeted service delivery

CSPPs have been working to offer a wide spectrum of support, from universal services, open to all families, to targeted interventions for those with higher needs. Examples of how WFWF has been used to improve availability of and access to targeted support services are detailed in Table 3.1 below.

Table 3.1: Examples of targeted support services for specific target beneficiaries

Group

Children and young people who are care-experienced or on the edge of care

Example activities

Aberdeen has established support groups for kinship families.

Stirling has employed a 0.5 FTE Lead Officer to implement The Promise.

South Lanarkshire has recruited two support workers for care-experienced young people and families, including kinship, family placement and young carers.

East Renfrewshire has recruited a Young People’s Support Worker to work with young people with care experience or on the edge of care.

South Ayrshire’s Champions Board connects young people with care experience with other services (housing, employability, education, social work, corporate parenting) and charities.

West Dunbartonshire’s service managed by Includem has delivered 4,844 hours of support to children and young people on the edge of care, with the aim of preventing needs escalating and reducing admissions to statutory care provisions.

Group

Neurodiverse children and young people

Example activities

West Dunbartonshire is piloting support in three primary schools, which have been chosen to have enhanced support within P1 classes to facilitate supporting ASN pupils with complex neurodiverse profiles.

In East Renfrewshire, local data informed the creation of a Neurodiverse Children and Family Support Worker postholder, who can work with individuals at a variety of settings, including their homes.

Families Together East Lothian have commissioned specialist provider Salvesen Mindroom to provide drop-in sessions, one-to-one support, online and in-person support courses for children with suspected or diagnosed neurodiversity and their families.

North Ayrshire has established a Neurodevelopmental Empowerment and Strategy Team (NEST).

Group

Low-income families

Example activities

Stirling’s Family Flexible Fund provided grants to families who face financial hardship, enabling them to access leisure activities during school holidays.

North Lanarkshire’s ‘Cash First’ approach has been implemented for all early intervention supports, offering help via direct cash payments to families experiencing poverty.

West Dunbartonshire’s Family Opportunity Hub team offered personalised one-to-one financial and practical support, and learning and training opportunities for families, focusing on child poverty supports and alleviating immediate hardship.

Group

Families with children from pre-birth to age 3

Example activities

East Lothian has been running parenting support groups for young parents (aged 26 and under) with children aged 3 and under, aimed at building skills and confidence and expanding their peer support networks.

Angus’s Enhanced Whole Family Wellbeing Support project has been expanded to build capacity. The service offers support for families with children aged 0-3 years.

Impact of improved access and availability

CSPPs used a combination of qualitative and quantitative data to provide evidence of the impact of their WFWF activity under the theme ‘Availability and access’. Many templates included robust quantitative data, for example clearly reported referral numbers, volume of service engagement, and other monitoring figures. Qualitative data from services users also clearly evidenced progress towards outcomes under this theme. Qualitative accounts describe positive impacts for children, young people and families including:

• fewer escalations to crisis, more intensive forms of support or statutory services
• increased confidence and resilience
• improved school attendance
• improvements in family relationships
• improvements in health and wellbeing
• stabilised housing situations
• improved financial situations

While determining causation of these outcomes is complex, a few CSPPs indicated that WFWF activity is contributing to reduced pressure on statutory services. For example, Aberdeenshire’s CSP stated that the 11 projects funded by WFWF are “showing early signs of reduced need for statutory services.”

Positive practice example: Stirling

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

Stirling is a geographically diverse area, encompassing both urban centres and remote rural villages. One challenge that the CSPP has faced is ensuring that support is available to families in rural areas, where access to services is more limited and need can be less visible. To address these needs, Stirling has funded outreach activity designed to strengthen early intervention in these communities.

One example of this is allocation of funding to enable nursery nurses within the Health Visiting team to deliver sessions for families living in rural areas with children under the age of two. These sessions focus on early child development, nutrition, play, feeding and other key areas that support parents in the early stages of their child’s life. The groups also act as an entry point into wider support services, with health visitors involving other partners such as income maximisation staff or oral health teams depending on the needs emerging within each group.

This work was described as particularly valuable given the level of isolation experienced in some rural areas of Forth Valley. Practitioners highlighted that this approach helps address issues at an earlier stage, preventing escalation and reducing the risk of families reaching crisis point.

“Forth Valley communities are diverse, especially within the Stirling area which has both urban and rural areas…Previously the Health Visiting teams did not have a community group-based offer in the rural areas. As this is an area where we identified significant isolation that was impacting on a whole family’s overall wellbeing, the financial support offered by the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund(ing) has been instrumental in addressing gaps in provision.” – Practitioner involved in WFWF activity

Annex 1 contains a full case study about how Stirling is utilising WFWF to strengthen prevention and early intervention and keep families together.