Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund evaluation: final report

Annex A: Full Project Summary Round 1 Projects

All project reports below have been updated since the interim report, to include key End of Project findings reported by project teams in May 2025.

Round 1: South Lanarkshire Council Project

'Paths out of Poverty' - empowering parents/carers of disabled children through an innovative, holistic, strengths-based approach.

Priority Family Group/s Targeted: Families where someone in the household is disabled. However, this category also includes other priority groups

Project Design: The South Lanarkshire project provided intensive, targeted support to eight isolated families, each with a household member with a significant disability. Through a partnership with third sector partner COVEY, the project employed a whole-family wellbeing approach, addressing emotional, social, and financial needs. The goal was to improve resilience, independence, and overall family functioning. The project included financial support through Money Matters, helping families access benefits and financial assistance.

Project Implementation Referrals to COVEY were made through schools, targeting families with complex needs. The support involved home visits, travel assistance, and advocacy. Each support session lasted 4–5 hours, reflecting the complexity of the families’ circumstances. Challenges included overcoming families’ distrust of services, geographic isolation, and complicated support processes to navigate. Flexibility and adaptability were essential in tailoring support to individual family needs.

Project Impacts:

• Financial gains: All 8 families improved their financial position following rapid income assessments and supported applications with Money Matters. In several cases, the uplift was substantial — for example, one household’s combined disability awards increased income by around £1,200 per month.
• Mental wellbeing: Average parental scores on the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) rose from 35.5 to 43.1, indicating a clear improvement in parental wellbeing and confidence.
• Reduced isolation and stronger connections: Regular one-to-one support and flexible contact reduced isolation for parents/carers; children and young people in the households benefited indirectly from increased stability and support.
• Better access to services and school: Parents reported easier access to health and social care (e.g., GP, CAMHS, psychological services, housing) and improved engagement with education through more confident liaison with schools.
• Practice learning: A trusted third-sector navigator (COVEY) working alongside Money Matters was pivotal in converting complex needs into concrete gains and sustained engagement.

Future of the Project:

• Embed the model: Incorporate the trusted-navigator approach, fast-track links to Money Matters, and flexible, home-based support within Whole Family Wellbeing and children’s services pathways; share learning across local partners and with other authorities.
• Maintain continuity: COVEY has identified an alternative funding stream that may enable ongoing support for current families; capacity will need careful management to balance existing caseloads with new referrals.
• Practical next steps:
  • Create post-project plans and warm handovers for each family;
  • Strengthen Money Matters presence in everyday settings (schools, HV clinics, family hubs) to catch issues earlier;
  • Refresh GIRFEC training to flag early vulnerability and the added value of third-sector coordination;
  • Map demand and capacity (including rural travel/venue constraints) to size a realistic ongoing cohort.
• Constraints to plan for: Long benefit decision times and rural logistics increase time per case; these should be built into capacity and funding assumptions if scaling the model.

Round 1: Inverclyde Council Project

Parent Centred Early and Intensive Intervention – supporting parents with children and babies under 5 years

Priority Family Groups: All covered, but particularly families with a child under the age of 1 and/or have a member of the household who is disabled.

Project Design: The Inverclyde project expanded Home Start Inverclyde’s support for families with children under 5. The project provided volunteer befrienders, welfare advice, and targeted support for financial stability. This provides a whole-family wellbeing approach. This includes a standing offer of weekly parent and parent and child groups to attend. Two new roles were created from the funding to oversee volunteer relationships and provide direct intervention for complex cases. The aim was to strengthen family resilience and financial wellbeing. It also involved more specific integration of an income maximisation offer than has typically been standard for Home Start. This CPAF-funded strand was one of four projects used to test the emerging ‘Inverclyde Approach’ — a whole-systems, whole-family model that prioritises trusted relationships, safe places, and joined-up support.

Project Implementation: The project built on existing anti-poverty initiatives and partnerships with the local welfare rights service. Challenges included initial staff hesitance due to concerns about damaging relationships with families by making referral for income maximisation support that have long delays. However, the team formalised a partnership route into Advice Services by agreeing a named contact, establishing regular case-discussions, and offering joint appointments in familiar Home-Start spaces. This reduced ‘referral drop-off’, let staff share updates directly, and made it easier for families to pursue income maximisation.

Project Impacts: Families experienced improved financial stability, increased confidence, reduced isolation, and greater trust in services:

• Scale and reach: 72 families engaged through the CPAF/Home-Start strand (within 375 families reached across the wider Inverclyde Approach).
• Wellbeing: In a Home-Start wellbeing survey, 100% of respondents reported improvements (to some extent) in emotional health; 89% felt less isolated and more connected to other parents; and 98% reported their children had grown in confidence through socialisation opportunities. Leisure activities such as a trip to the Zoo and a Christmas party were especially commented upon by families as a successful part of the service.
• Financial gains: In addition to the project’s previously reported £23,548 in gains for families (from the interim report), the CPAF-funded coordinators also secured at least £5,292 via hardship funds and small grants (e.g., Buttle Trust, Save the Children), while the Advice Services route added disability-related and other entitlements on a case-by-case basis.
• What unlocked engagement: Consistent “familiar faces” (Family Support Coordinator / Intensive Family Support Worker), safe group spaces with practical supports (e.g., hot food), and visible, low-barrier invitations to talk money matters were central to uptake and sustained engagement.

Future of the Project: Home Start has been working effectively with Inverclyde Council for years, and there is strong interest to continue that partnership. Looking forward, the project team identified opportunities for enhancing family support further, particularly around managing the financial gains families have achieved. They highlighted a need for additional funding or resources dedicated to guiding families in effectively managing their increased financial resources. This support would address ongoing cycles of disadvantage, such as reliance on expensive local shops or food delivery services, often driven by anxiety, mental health issues, or logistical challenges (e.g., managing a large family or children with additional support needs). The support delivered by Home Start is continuing in Inverclyde as part of the ‘Inverclyde Approach’ being taken forward as part of the Council’s Fairer Futures Partnership.

There is also an interest in expanding the project’s successful model to other service areas, such as Renfrewshire, where similar practices have not yet been implemented. Exploring possibilities for additional funding or integrating welfare rights advisors directly within Home Start’s team is something they would like to explore as a practical way to replicate and strengthen their support model.

The team also wants to consider more developmental opportunities for families beyond immediate financial stability. Families raised that they would like more support for transitions, such as children starting school, by facilitating engaging and enriching activities like visits to museums.

Round 1: City of Edinburgh Council Project

Income Maximisation Outreach

Priority Family Groups: All covered through Chill ‘n’ Chat. Income Maximisation approach targeted families where someone in the household is disabled.

Project Design The Edinburgh project focused on income maximisation and extending their Discover holiday programme through term-time Chill 'n' Chat sessions in four localities. The aim was to improve family financial stability and strengthen community support.

Project Implementation: Chill ‘n’ Chat sessions progressed smoothly, benefiting from existing Discover structures (with some variation in pace across localities). The income maximisation strand started later than planned, with the specialist Advice Worker in post from October 2024, leaving a six-month delivery/reporting window. In parallel, the advice sector faced funding and capacity constraints, and complex debt/benefit cases required multiple appointments over several months, limiting confirmed outcomes within the period.

Project Impacts:

Chill ’n’ Chat (engagement, wellbeing, learning links):

• 62 parents and 77 children took part across four localities. Parents consistently reported reduced isolation, greater sense of belonging, and practical support (learning opportunities, English language/parenting links, community activities, and regular food provision at sessions).

Income maximisation (early outcomes; work in progress)

• FAIR Advice & Information (Early Years): 38 clients / 45 cases supported within the period (including Adult Carer Support Plans and Disability Benefit claims). Confirmed financial outcomes to date: £27,115.68, with further applications pending decisions beyond the reporting window. New referral pathways with Health Visitors/midwives were established but need longer to fully embed.
• Citizens Advice Edinburgh (Debt/Type III Money Advice): 9 families with complex multi-creditor debt supported; £253,000 total debt identified; £19,000 written off to date; affordable repayment plans initiated using the Common Financial Statement. Given case complexity, outcomes are expected to continue accruing after project end.

Future of the Project:

Chill ’n’ Chat: continuation and refinement: There is a joint wish to continue subject to funding. Edinburgh plans to maintain groups in all four localities, with a pause/adjustment to review the model and to standardise simple evaluation tools across sites for consistent outcome tracking.

Income maximisation coordination: continuation subject to decision; longer runway needed: Partners aim to continue the model using alternative council funding (decision expected end-May 2025). To realise the model’s potential, the report recognises the need for a longer embedding period, stable advice-sector capacity, and sustained referral pathways (Health Visiting, early years). With these in place, the existing caseload should convert to higher confirmed financial gains (benefit awards, debt write-offs, sustainable repayment plans) over time.

Round 1: Midlothian Council Project

Midlothian Peer Research – A Case for Change through a Place Based Approach Building Skills and Influencing

Priority Family Groups: All covered through the research and by the Lived Experience Researchers themselves.

Project Design: The Midlothian project involved recruiting community researchers to capture lived experiences of poverty. Sure Start facilitated the project with council support, focusing on informing the Child Poverty Action Plan through community-led insights. Thirteen community researchers (all parents with lived experience) were trained through a bespoke, university-supported ethnographic course co-designed with Midlothian Sure Start, Midlothian Council and partners.

Project Implementation Recruitment and training of community researchers involved structured support from Sure Start and local university partners. Researchers completed training and safeguards (including ethics support and reflective practice) and then conducted outreach in everyday settings (school gates, pantries, local networks) to reach families who are often under-represented in formal consultations. Challenges included managing researcher wellbeing and establishing clear ethical boundaries for the work. Researchers conducted over 60 interviews and created installations for Challenge Poverty Week. The team found the model feasible but resource-intensive: additional facilitation, CLD worker time and access to therapeutic supervision were important to sustain researcher wellbeing.

Project Impacts:

• High-quality evidence at scale. The team collected 62 in-depth family stories, ensuring coverage of priority groups (lone parents, families with disabilities, young parents, migrant families, in-work poverty). These insights were synthesised in the Our Voices report and shared with local decision-makers.
• Capacity built in the community. 13 trained peer researchers gained accredited skills, confidence and a clearer route to continued civic participation (e.g., contributing to a lived-experience panel and future research). Paying the Real Living Wage reinforced the value of their expertise.
• Actionable themes for policy and practice. Cross-cutting findings highlight: the “poverty hole” created by benefit design and low wages; childcare cost/availability as a work barrier; housing insecurity and high private rents; food insecurity with pantries as de-stigmatising anchors; and the tight link between poverty, mental health and domestic abuse. These themes now inform local planning and quick-win improvements (e.g., communications on entitlements; sharing lived-experience stories in frontline training).
• Early influence pathway. Findings are being routed to the Child Poverty Working Group via a themed action plan; services (Council, Sure Start, NHS) are using evidence to shape reviews on family support, childcare flexibility, mental health and housing.

Future of the Project:

• Embed learning in core plans. Midlothian Council will table a themed action plan (child poverty) and integrate insights into service reviews (family learning/support, childcare access, mental health, housing). Frontline teams will use project stories in staff training to strengthen trauma-informed practice.
• From project to platform. Partners intend to formalise a lived-experience panel, with recruitment supported by an ongoing poverty course co-run with peer researchers; creative dissemination (e.g., a locally produced film) is being explored to keep evidence in view for practitioners and elected members.
• Sustain the peer-research capacity. The model is considered replicable, but continuation requires modest, predictable support (coordination time; supervision/therapy access; participant payments). Follow-on funding would accelerate the panel and enable targeted follow-up studies (e.g., mental health, housing insecurity)

Round 1: Perth and Kinross Council Project

Beyond Emergency Support to Sustainable Livelihoods – Capacity Building Programme for Local Communities

Priority Family Groups: All.

Project Design: The Perth and Kinross Council project had three key components:

1. Social Needs Screening Tool (SNS): A person-centred tool designed to assess unmet needs, support financial conversations, and guide referrals. The tool was informed by codesign workshops with input from families and frontline staff to ensure it was adaptable to local needs.
2. Support and Connect Training: Delivered by Perth Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), this programme trained over 150 frontline workers in using the SNS.
3. Building Resilient Families (BRF): The aim was to set up groups which might provide direct peer-led support for priority families. However, the programme faced implementation challenges that led to a shift in lead partners. This component will be delivered through Early Learning Centres (ELC) after the conclusion of the CPAF funded element.

Project Implementation: Co-production workshops in early 2024 shaped the SNS and training. Support & Connect then rolled out in cohorts, with 90 frontline workers trained by April 2025. A shared referral system (FORT) underpins the model, with 50 organisations signed up and a searchable Support & Connect directory now live to help staff find the right local help quickly. 157 referrals had been made by 11 April 2025. Regular partner meet-ups have helped onboard services and monitor early use. The SNS questions were also added to the Early Years parents’ biannual survey, feeding insights into the Children’s Scorecard. The BRF strand was delayed by staff turnover; moving delivery into ELCs is now the route to continuity and reach.

Project Impacts:

• Quicker, clearer routes to help. Staff can screen needs across six life areas and make referrals on the spot; 157 referrals have already moved through the system, with 50 services available and more joining.
• More confident conversations about money and wider needs. Workers report feeling readier to raise financial issues, ask the right questions and connect people to support beyond immediate crises (e.g., employability, safety, baby essentials). Training feedback highlights simpler signposting and better local networks.
• Early signs of “hidden need” being picked up. The SNS prompts have normalised broader discussions; case studies show clients receiving joined-up help (e.g., benefits checks plus baby bank and micro-grants alongside food support).
• Organisational ripple effects. Teams are embedding SNS prompts in supervision and team practice; managers are seeking further training (e.g., domestic abuse, trauma) to handle sensitive topics well.

Future of the Project:

• Keep Support & Connect running and expand its scope. Funding is secured for 2025/26 and 2026/27 (Whole Family Wellbeing Fund). Phase 2 will add employability pathways; Phase 3 will add wellbeing services.
• Integrate with Fairer Futures Partnership Work. A joint planning day has taken place to align screening, referrals and local delivery.
• Test child-led screening. A pilot with Methven Primary will let pupils design their own “what poverty looks like” tool and survey their school.
• Evidence the preventative value. A preventative spend study (with QA support from Scottish Government and the Improvement Service) is underway.
• Keep building the network. Monthly sessions for FORT partners and practical follow-up training “in situ” will help every team member use SNS and referrals as part of routine work.

Round 1: Moray Council Project

Improved identification of families affected by disability and delivery of support to maximise income

Priority Family Groups: Families where someone in the household is disabled. However, this category also includes other priority groups

Project Design The Moray project targeted families with additional support needs, focusing on financial barriers. This involved initial open-ended conversations with families across Moray, and later the parent-run Moray ASN Parent Carer Action Group provided insights into family challenges, informing project design and implementation. The aim was to improve income maximisation and support access to services. However, the project became as much about a capacity building approach for engagement with families to understand and support the needs they see as most important to them.

Families’ insights coalesced around four intertwined issues: costs of health access (travel to Aberdeen and private top-ups), constrained education timetables, complex Self Directed Support (SDS)/benefits processes, and lack/price of inclusive activities.

Project Implementation Initial delays occurred due to recruitment challenges and staffing issues. However, the council facilitated open dialogue with families to understand challenges and ran multiple events to bring financial advice and support to families who need it. The team used drop-ins and surveys (face-to-face and online) to gather lived experience, briefed service managers on the evidence, and co-ran drop-ins with multi-agency partners. Unfortunately, attempts to secure a Social Security Scotland local representative were unsuccessful.

Collaboration with the ASN Parent Carer Action Group helped tailor support to family needs, and the Council regularly takes part in Action Group meetings to provide, receive, and pass on information.

Project Impacts:

What shifted for families so far:

• Clearer knowledge of what to claim and how systems work, plus regular, low-barrier routes to ask for help (drop-ins).
• Four families have already taken steps to apply for Child Disability Payment after support at sessions.

Families still report frustration about education timetables, respite, SDS complexity and service responsiveness, but value having named routes to share issues and see them escalated. CPAF here primarily built capacity for engagement and influence, with modest early financial progress.

Future of the Project:

Council- and system-side next steps (enabling change):

• Run a holiday-activity test of change in two low SIMD areas, with Disability Sport Scotland training for session leaders via Active Schools, and use learning to shape a 2026 programme.
• Move ASN drop-ins to monthly (from quarterly) to maintain momentum and access.
• Propose Whole Family Wellbeing funding to underwrite free activities and targeted support for families with disabled children.
• Share evidence with NHS Grampian (now progressing the HELP project on healthcare access costs) and with Social Work.

Parent-side priorities (protecting voice and pace):

• Keep parents’ pace central; support the ASN Parent Carer Action Group to consider formalising when ready (to strengthen voice, access funding and sit in decision forums).
• Press for practical fixes on SDS guidance/contacts and education timetables, with clear, plain-English communications and named points of contact.

Both perspectives agree that enhancing collaboration and creating a more inclusive and responsive support network are critical. The pathway forward includes structured dialogue, practical reforms, and ensuring parents are actively engaged in meaningful ways to shape future strategies.

Round 1: Aberdeen City Council Project

Data-driven identification of households experiencing child poverty, to inform and direct intervention and support

Priority Family Group/s Targeted: All

Project Design: The Aberdeen City Council project focused on transforming service delivery from a reactive to a proactive model using the Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) platform, developed by Policy in Practice. The platform aimed to identify and engage people eligible for, but not accessing, benefits and other forms of assistance — so residents receive support before reaching a crisis point. A key challenge was data-sharing constraints, which Policy in Practice supported in overcoming as part of the service they offer in developing LIFT across the UK. The data used was data within the control of the council, and that shared from the DWP. This approach aligned with the council’s broader ambition to improve social outcomes and reduce unclaimed benefits.

Project Implementation: Implementation involved securing permissions and managing data-sharing constraints. A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) was completed, and permissions were secured from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Aberdeen City Council’s internal systems. Policy in Practice integrated the data into LIFT, overcoming compatibility issues. Staff were trained to interpret platform insights and translate them into proactive outreach strategies. The council began running ‘Campaigns’ targeting households needing support. Some benefits can be delivered using existing data, while others require outreach to families to gain consent and other necessary application details.

Project Impacts (updated with end-of-project evidence, Mar–Apr 2025)

The project significantly improved the council’s capacity to identify and support at-risk households and has delivered measurable financial gains for families. Earlier, mid-year monitoring reported £43,000 secured through Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP). End-of-project reporting now shows the following:

• Households affected by the benefit cap (Universal Credit):
  • 96 households identified and contacted.
  • 45% engaged with the Financial Inclusion Team; of those engaged, 74% were supported to apply for DHP, with 3 more applying independently.
  • 5 households increased their income to a level where the cap no longer applies.
  • 29 DHP awards made so far, totalling £63,485.77.
• Households affected by the under-occupancy charge (the ‘bedroom tax’):
  • 63 households identified who had not claimed DHP.
  • 44 households were supported to submit DHP applications.
• Rent arrears relief (families in relative and fuel poverty):
  • 76 households received £69,125.28 from the Rent Assistance Fund to clear rent arrears.
  • As a result, 106 children are no longer in households facing the threat of legal action due to arrears.
• Children’s entitlements (Free School Meals and School Clothing Grant):
  • 1,282 children flagged by LIFT as likely eligible for Free School Meals (FSM); the council is moving to auto-award where eligibility can be confirmed from data.
  • 2,016 children flagged as likely eligible for the School Clothing Grant (SCG); families who have not yet applied will be contacted to provide details so payment can be issued.
  • Lists are being reviewed monthly, with follow-up to families who have not responded.

In short: data-led targeting has translated into cash to households, debt relief, and in-kind support.

Future of the Project: The future of the project involves further leveraging the capabilities of the Low Income Family Tracker platform, which are funded as part of Aberdeen’s Round 2 CPAF project. The next stage will particularly focus on:

• Focused support for high-need families: Aberdeen City Council is both codesigning an employability service for young parents through CPAF Round 2 funding, and organising further targeted ‘Campaigns’ to get better take up of support for people who need it most. There is a clear intent to concentrate efforts on the most vulnerable groups.
• Integration into broader strategy: The project's next phase will involve integrating insights from the Low Income Family Tracker platform into the council’s broader strategic planning and service delivery processes, influencing policies and approaches beyond the immediate scope of financial support. It will also involve engaging other departments to understand the full utility of the Low Income Family Tracker for Aberdeen City Council.

Current limitation to note (unchanged in principle): the absence of Social Security Scotland data (e.g., Scottish Child Payment, Best Start Grants) makes it harder to see full take-up and to identify families who may be entitled but have not applied. Work with relevant stakeholders to improve lawful data-sharing continues so the tool can reach its full potential.

Round 1: Argyll & Bute Council Project

Evaluating the usefulness of third-party datasets for identifying communities in need of financial support

Priority Family Group/s Targeted: All

Project Design: Argyll & Bute council aimed to assess the accuracy and utility of third-party datasets — CACI’s Acorn Household and Paycheck Disposable Income — for targeting child poverty interventions. The goal was to determine whether CACI data could provide reliable, household-level insights to inform welfare rights referrals and local policy decisions.

Project Implementation: The project adopted a hypothesis-testing approach, systematically comparing CACI data against known local datasets which enabled both broad assumptions (e.g. the rural and island living cost uplift) and household-specific information to be checked. The Data Programme Manager at Argyll and Bute Council led the evaluation, working closely with other departments and external partners to test the accuracy of the household-level data.

Early testing revealed data inaccuracies principally in rural and island communities, but even in more urban areas within Argyll & Bute, demonstrating specific weaknesses in CACI’s statistical modelling methodology. Specifically, CACI’s approach relies on taking relatively small scale but high-quality household-level surveys and extrapolating these up to a national, whole-UK scale. The evaluation found that while this approach may be relatively robust in communities with demographic distributions similar to the underlying reference surveys, when applied to islands and very rural communities less well represented in the underpinning surveys, some of the model outputs became less representative of the on-the-ground realities.

Hypothesis Tests and Key Findings:

1. Second Homes vs. Primary Residences – CACI data failed to distinguish some second homes from occupied residences, distorting poverty estimates.
2. Cost of Living in Rural and Island Communities – CACI data’s disposable income estimates did not account for the higher cost of living in rural and island areas, underestimating financial strain.
3. Tenure Type – Significant discrepancies between CACI data’s tenure classifications and the Scottish Household Survey (e.g. mortgage-paying households underreported).
4. Identifying Families with Children – CACI data misclassified known family homes as childless households, weakening confidence in data-driven interventions.
5. Residential vs. Commercial Properties – CACI data misclassified some residential properties as commercial and vice versa, undermining the accuracy of targeted financial support strategies.

Project Impacts: The project provided valuable insights into the claims and limitations regarding third-party data for household-level targeting. It showed the importance of triangulating data-driven insights with other sources of local knowledge and data before determining related strategy and action. It has established a model, and practical methods, for testing third-party data against local datasets, which could be adopted by other councils. It further strengthened partnerships between departments. The project findings have already influenced approaches by other councils in similar situations, and national data-sharing conversations.

Future of the Project: Moving forward, the council plans to continue looking at existing datasets and local data-sharing opportunities to support more proactive decision-making and support. They are engaged with the team at the Improvement Service which with Scottish Government support and funding is bringing Tameside and Sedgemoor Councils’ Scalable Approach to Vulnerability Via Interoperability (SAVVI) to the public sector. Working with the Improvement Service, Scottish Government and other Scottish local authorities, they have developed a proposal for an expanded data-sharing model with the DWP for improved household level data-sharing. This would provide a much more reliable understanding of which households in each local authority area could benefit from income maximisation advice and support from each council, being based on actual Universal Credit claimant data held by DWP, rather than more-or-less robust statistical modelling by private sector commercial entities. They are also advocating for finer-grained representation in national datasets such as the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), particularly in rural and island areas.

Round 1: North Ayrshire Council Project

Exploring the viability of a Single Shared Assessment data framework towards streamlining referral processes, access to support, and administrative efficiency within and between multiple council departments and services.

Priority Family Group/s Targeted: All

Project Design: The North Ayrshire project aimed to improve access to financial support through a Single Shared Assessment (SSA) model. The core objectives were to:

• Simplify applications through a single point of access for multiple services.
• Enhance service coordination through improved information management and consent-based data used
• Develop a more streamlined and consent-based approach to accessing support.

The project tested an integrated service delivery model combining financial inclusion, employability, and support services under a single corporate referral process.

Project Implementation: The project followed an incremental, test-and-learn approach between the council’s Customer services team, Financial Inclusion Team, selected third sector partners, and NHS Ayrshire & Arran. Four Tests of Change were trialled:

1. Corporate Referral Process (March 2024) – A single form linked to six services, reducing the need for multiple applications.
2. Free School Meals (FSM) and School Clothing Grant (SCG) Consent (June 2024) – A simplified consent statement allowed families to access additional benefits automatically.
3. Council Tax Discounts & Exemptions (September 2024) – Combined 17 forms into a single digital process, reducing administrative effort.
4. Consent Overlay (In Progress) – Aiming to create a single consent record for all means-tested benefits and services.

Project Impacts:

For Families:

• One simple way in. North Ayrshire introduced a single online form (also available via the Contact Centre) that connects people to multiple types of help. Between March 2024 and March 2025, 445 forms led to over 600 referrals for support.
• No more repeating the same story. When families applied for Free School Meals and School Clothing Grants, they were asked if the Council could reuse that information to check other help. About 97% said yes, which means staff can join the dots more quickly and families don’t need to re-apply repeatedly.
• Faster, more dignified support. The simpler process — and the ability to share information with permission — meant families were identified sooner and linked to the right service without the usual back-and-forth.

For the Local Authority:

• Fewer forms and less admin. For example, 17 council tax forms were replaced by one, and across Customer Services the number of different forms in scope was cut by about half.
• A clearer picture of local need. The Council now has an early version of a Tackling Poverty dashboard. It brings together data from the new forms and helps teams spot where take-up is low or needs are rising.
• ‘No Wrong Door’ becoming the norm. Staff training and simple guidance are spreading the single front door approach across services, so residents get help regardless of where they first make contact.

Future of the Project: The project team recognises the need to scale beyond its initial tests. The next steps include:

• Finish the “one-permission” record: The Council is building a single place in its new customer system to store a resident’s permission (consent) once and use it — safely — for connected services. Work will pick up again after the new system is in place.
• Join more services to the single front door: The next focus is to plug benefits processes into the new pathway, so that one application can automatically trigger the right checks and follow-up.
• Turn the dashboard into day-to-day action: Teams will use the poverty dashboard in regular cycles (e.g., monthly) to target outreach where it will make the most difference — and then feed back what worked, so the picture keeps improving.
• Keep building the culture and skills: The No Wrong Door approach will continue to roll out through short training, manager briefings, and simple playbooks — then extend to key third-sector partners so residents experience a joined-up system.
• Work with national bodies on the rules: The Council will keep working with the Scottish Government and others to keep data-sharing safe, simple and clearly explained, so families benefit from joined-up support without compromising privacy.