Engaging with families living in low-income households through system change, place-based initiatives

2. Defining engagement with families across system change, place-based approaches to tackle child poverty

Key messages

This chapter defines key concepts in the context of this report. These are: system change, place-based approaches and engagement.

• System change initiatives are ones which aim to make ‘structural and procedural changes’ to and within organisations that support families living in low-income households.
• Place-based approaches are underpinned by the Place Principle, with the recent Programme for Government highlighting the value of place-based approaches to the Scottish Government’s priority to eradicate child poverty.
• Engagement and participation are embedded through the Scottish Approach to Service Design and the Participation handbook. These are practical guides to support and enable the Scottish Government’s vision for public participation.

This chapter defines system change, a place-based approach and engagement in the context of this report which seeks to explore engagement with families living in low-income households through system change, place-based initiatives.

What is system change?

The analysis in this report is drawn from evidence on engagement with families living in poverty across system change, place-based policies. System change initiatives focus on making ‘structural and procedural changes’ to and within the organisations that support families living in low-income households and/or families living in poverty. This definition is adopted throughout the broader Evaluation where we note that such changes can include, but are not limited to, changes in:

• The types of services available
• The ways in which families are contacted and brought into the system
• The extent to which the right families are reached
• Methods of identifying and targeting families that need support
• The complexity and length of families’ journeys through the system.

The initiatives in scope for this wider Evaluation were selected as they seek to:

• Ensure the design and delivery of services is based on the distinctive needs of individual communities through a place-based approach
• Provide a holistic and person-centred approach to support that wraps around the needs of the individual
• Collaborate across the public, third and/or private sectors and between local and national partners, with join-up in the range of support provided to help move people out of poverty
• Move away from crisis responses towards more preventative action

What is a place-based approach?

In 2019, the Scottish Government and the Conventions of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) adopted the Place Principle which seeks to encourage a more integrated, collaborative and participative approach to services across all sectors. This approach recognises that places are shaped by the community around them and that those people in the community are essential to addressing the needs of the local area. Working across organisational and sectoral boundaries is a crucial part of this vision for collaboration and is the overarching principle for place-based working in Scotland.

In the 2024-2025 Programme For Government the value of place-based approaches were recognised in terms of their ability to provide effective whole family support and assist in helping in the Scottish Government priority to eradicate child poverty. In particular, place-based approaches were contributing to greater partnership working, providing improved support for families in need, and helping services to reshape and develop services to deliver effective, more sustainable support (system change).

What is engagement?

In 2024, the Scottish Government published a Participation Handbook which outlines good practices for public engagement. Participation is the overarching term used to describe how people are involved in decisions which affect and/or are important to them. Participation can be classified using the IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation. This is a tool which highlights the diversity and range of roles people can play in a government engagement process. Each level of engagement serves a different function with different levels appropriate at each point of policy development and decision-making. The levels of engagement are:

• Inform: providing the public with balanced and objective information to assist them in understanding the problems, alternatives, opportunities and/or solutions.
• Consult: obtaining public feedback on analysis, alternatives and/or decisions.
• Involve: working directly with the public throughout the process to ensure their public concerns and aspirations are consistently understood and considered.
• Collaborate: partnering with the public in each aspect of the decision including the development of alternatives and the identification of the preferred solution.
• Empower: placing final decision making in the hands of the public.

Additionally, the Scottish Government supports the National Standards for Community Engagement which sets out best practice for public bodies in engaging with communities. There are seven standards:

• Inclusion: we will identify and involve the people and organisations that are affected by the focus of the engagement
• Support: we will identify and overcome any barriers to participation.
• Planning: there is a clear purpose for the engagement, which is based on a shared understanding of community needs and ambitions.
• Working together: we will work effectively together to achieve the aims of the engagement.
• Methods: we will use methods of engagement that are fit for purpose.
• Communication: we will communicate clearly and regularly with the people, organisations and communities affected by the engagement.
• Impact: we will assess the impact of the engagement and use what we have learned to improve our future community engagement.

For the purposes of this report, engagement is defined as the involvement of families, adults and/or children and young people, in the design, implementation, delivery or evaluation of the initiative. This broad definition of engagement has enabled us to provide examples of successes and challenges in engagement with families which have emerged across the life cycle of initiatives.