Children and Families National Leadership Group - 5 December 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Laura Caven, CoSLA 
• Tracy Davis, Child Health Commissioners
• Lynda Fenton, Public Health Scotland
• Michael Wood, ADES 
• Mike Burns, Social Work Scotland
• Alison Gordon, Social Work Scotland
• Laura Lamb, SSSC 
• Charlotte Wilson, Care Inspectorate 
• Neil Hunter, Scottish Children's Reporter Administration 
• Lynne Harrison, Scottish Children's Reporter Administration 
• Carron McKellar, Police Scotland 
• Mhair Grant, Child Protection Committees Scotland
• Jude Turbyne, Children in Scotland 
• Kathy Henwood, Children's Services Planning Strategic Leads Network 
• Fraser McKinlay, The Promise Scotland
• Sarah Gadsden, Improvement Service 
• Claire Burns, CELCIS 
• Jane Scott, CELCIS 
• Dr Alex McTier, CELCIS
• Andrew Watson(Chair), Scottish Government 
• Gavin Henderson, Scottish Government
• Sara Hampson, Scottish Government
• Stephen Shields, Scottish Government 
• Dr Mariela Fordyce, Scottish Government
• Peter Donachie, Scottish Government
• Emily Aitchison, Scottish Government 

Items and actions

Introduction and reflections on Scottish budget announcement 

Andrew Watson updated the group on changes in membership. Louise Long will be handing over the co-chair role and SOLACE representation to Kathryn Lindsay, Chief Executive of Angus Council. Sheena Devlin will be replaced as ADES’s representative by Laurence Findlay, Director of Education and Children’s Services at Aberdeenshire Council. Joanna Macdonald is leaving Scottish Government and a new representative will be sought from the Office of the Chief Social Work Advisor. The group recorded their thanks to Louise, Sheena and Joanna for their advice and support.

Andrew noted that the Scottish budget announcement on 4 December maintained and protected core funding for children and family services. Additional funding has been provided for uplifts in the real living wage for ELC and CSC staff in commissioned services and for breakfast clubs. Positive engagement is taking place with local government on a range of funding issues including tackling child poverty and whole family support. The Scottish Government is also discussing with the UK Government the concerns and challenges that the increase in employers national insurance contributions will have for children’s services provision.

In discussion, members welcomed the funding for children and young people with additional support needs. Members emphasised the need for innovative and decisive actions to improve whole family support and reduce child poverty. This includes the need to link employability and other support more closely with provision for children and family services. A session on the work on funding flexibilities being developed in Glasgow would be arranged for a future meeting.    

Delivery 'getting it right for every child' (GIRFEC) through whole family support

Stephen Shields summarised the latest evidence and stakeholder feedback in relation to embedding the getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) approach across children’s and related services to help deliver whole family support.

The children’s services reform research published last year demonstrates that GIRFEC sets an overarching framework for the effective delivery of services which is in step with the best theory and practice from across the world. The embedding of GIRFEC across services is frequently referenced in joint inspections of services in community planning partnerships as having a positive impact on staff’s ability to meet children’s needs. These reports provide important information to understand how staff view the implementation of GIRFEC in their local contexts.

The Scottish health and social care alliance (The ALLIANCE) facilitated a series of online GIRFEC regional gathering insights events in Autumn 2024 with practitioners across the third sector and public services. Attendees fed back that, while GIRFEC remains the foundation of their work, better collaboration and workforce development are key to ensuring that Scotland delivers on the ambition of GIRFEC.  Families should be empowered to use GIRFEC to articulate the support that they need. The full report of the events will be published by the ALLIANCE before the end of 2024.

Evidence from the 2023-2026 national review of Scotland’s children’s services plans (CSPs) indicates that the incorporation of GIRFEC continues to be a key area of strength across CSPs. Despite this, as discussed at the leadership group’s meeting on 17 November, the number of CSPs which fully met the essential statutory criteria around GIRFEC has decreased slightly from the 2020-2023 review of CSPs. Following on from this, the children’s services planning strategic leads network (CSP SLN) discussed earlier this week the challenges of measuring and capturing data on what good implementation of GIRFEC looks like, particularly at early intervention.

The CSP SLN and GIRFEC learning network have also highlighted that stakeholders continue to experience the impact of a ‘busy’ policy landscape and lack of a clear strategic vision. Work is therefore required across the system to clarify and demonstrate how GIRFEC underpins and supports work on children’s rights, tackling child poverty, keeping the promise and children’s services planning. It is also crucial to retain the explicitness and emphasis on GIRFEC in referring to holistic, whole-family approaches to the delivery of services.

In addition to the feedback from the CSP SLN and GIRFEC learning network, the Scottish Government is working with CELCIS to examine any further learning implications from the children’s services reform research. This will help to inform where the Scottish Government, alongside our partners, should target our offer of support and engagement with the workforce at a national level. As part of this and building on the work of the GIRFEC learning network, the Scottish Government is exploring options for regional learning events from Summer 2025 to facilitate collaboration and learning between practitioners, service managers and strategic managers within their localities. These events will also provide an opportunity for stakeholders to reflect on the key areas for improvement in embedding GIRFEC within services across their areas. New GIRFEC resources have also been launched this week. 

Members made the following points in discussion:

• there is a need to better promote GIRFEC across the breadth of children’s services including community and third sector services. This will help to improve multi-agency collaboration in developing the team around the child. Strengthening GIRFEC within children’s services planning and wider community planning is vital to achieving this
• funding streams are currently fragmentary and constrained.  Consideration should be given to how new funding flexibilities can help improve GIRFEC implementation
• there are opportunities from work on embedding UNCRC legislation to reinforce how GIRFEC supports and promotes children’s rights
• there is also potential to make better use of universal pathways including health visiting to help embed GIRFEC
• the pandemic had an adverse impact on implementing GIRFEC. The work that was stopped during the pandemic should be reviewed and where necessary restarted to help address the issues being raised by stakeholders. Information sharing and other work to support the named person role were identified as useful areas to explore. The new information sharing charter could also help to improve GIRFEC implementation and multi-agency working
• there needs to be a clearer narrative with more consistent language used around the relationship between GIRFEC, UNCRC, keeping the promise, GIRFE, whole family support and tackling child poverty.  For example, GIRFEC is the foundational policy and whole family support a practical means of implementing GIRFEC. The leadership group can help to develop this narrative
• there should also be a focus on better promoting GIRFEC through early career professional training
• the 20th anniversary of GIRFEC will provide a good focus point for re-energising implementation work

Update and proposed next steps on workforce development sub-group 

Dr Mariela Fordyce provided an update on the development of a workplan for the workforce development sub-group. Mariela reminded the leadership group that the theory of change and subsequent workplan would be structured around the five pillars of workforce planning: plan, attract, train, employ and nurture. It is essential to define clearly the particular sectors of the workforce to be encompassed within the workplan and this is underway. Most areas of the workplan would focus initially on the children’s social work and social care workforce. As work progresses, the scope would be broadened to encompass other sectors. Mariela also outlined gaps in workforce data, particularly for children’s social care and third sector whole family support services.

Dr Alex McTier presented findings from CELCIS’s review of workforce wellbeing data, evidence and resources. The research brought together published ‘workforce wellbeing’ information, with particular focus on the local authority children’s social work workforce. The research is testing whether the five pillars of workforce planning could also be used to create a “workforce wellbeing framework” or whether an alternative such as the Fair Work framework would be preferable. Irrespective of the framework used, the research identified data gaps at national level around sickness, absence and caseload levels. An issue to consider is whether there would be support for a national wellbeing survey of the children’s social work and social care workforce. The research had also found that, while a stronger evidence base is needed, there are a range of existing workforce wellbeing resources to build upon.

Members made the following points in discussion:

• SSSC offered assistance in developing the evidence base for workforce data. SSSC are also launching a “having your say” survey in January which will include wellbeing issues. SOLACE, the improvement service and SPDS (society of personnel and development Scotland) have published a report on the local government workforce overall
• there is a risk of conflating social care and social work. The proposed activity on defining the workforce can help to address this.
• the Scottish Parliament’s education, children and young people committee held an evidence session on 4 December on the promise – recruitment and retention. This re-emphasised the need to take action to address recruitment and retention issues within children’s social work services. The workforce development sub-group’s workplan therefore needs to set out a clear set of actions to be delivered over the short, medium and long term
• consideration should be given to including trade union representation on the workforce development group
• leadership group members are themselves employers and can use this expertise to help guide the sub-group’s work

In conclusion, the group supported the approach being taken. A revised terms of reference for the workforce development sub-group and presentation slides would be circulated to the group for more detailed feedback. A workshop would be arranged in Spring to further develop the actions that the sub-group should deliver.     

Review of impact and fututre of children and families national leadership group 

Andrew Watson invited members’ views on the leadership group’s impact to date and future direction. Members suggested that the group has to shift from “sense making” to “problem solving.” The group can help to address the concerns being raised about a cluttered policy landscape and unconnected initiatives by helping to ensure a comprehensive, linked and co-ordinated approach at delivery level. This would cover a common ethos, vision and delivery framework across services.

The “implications for Scotland” section of the children's services reform research concluding report provides a strong starting point for considering the group’s future priorities. The group should build on this to focus on a few key priorities and pursue these in-depth. A wider group of members beyond Scottish Government should be involved in planning the group’s work and frequency of meetings.

Date of next meeting

The Secretariat will contact members with the date for the group’s next meeting.