Family Wellbeing Partnership in Clackmannanshire: evaluation

10. Conclusion

This project has evaluated the impact of the FWP on public service delivery and the wellbeing and flourishing of individuals and families and communities. The focus was on collecting systematic data across the original four key workstreams of the FWP – that is, STRIVE, the Child Wellbeing Partnership (CWP), Community Around The School (CATS), and Enhancing Employability – to determine whether the FWP has achieved its vision, including through an analysis of to what extent and how transformative change across the system has occurred.

Since 2020, a range of resources have been invested into the FWP so it can carry out a range of activities and projects to improve family wellbeing. These include the allocation of Scottish Government funding across a range of workstreams to support the adoption of wellbeing and capability approaches to transform public service delivery, the creation of an investment fund to allow citizens to turn their ideas for improving the lives of families into action, and the fostering of new collaborative relationships across the public and third sectors to improve outcomes for children, families and communities.

In this evaluation project, we analysed a variety of documentation and data linked to the FWP, and gathered new evidence from FWP staff and stakeholders as well as from families who have participated in FWP programmes and activities. The four workstreams analysed encompassed a range of diverse projects helping participants to advance different skills and experiences. These have ranged from the employability skills and confidence-building activities for job-seekers in the Enhancing Employability workstream, to the strengthening of relationships between young people, parents and carers, school staff and the wider community through the CATS workstream, the development of an inclusive and flexible childcare system through the CWP, and the development of coordinated multi-agency, preventative support for vulnerable residents in or at risk of crisis through STRIVE. Moreover, these workstreams have been developed in an integrated fashion, with multiple links across the projects, to develop a holistic and collaborative approach to family wellbeing.

Overall, we have found that the FWP has had a positive impact on the wellbeing of individuals and families in Clackmannanshire, and has led to innovative models of service delivery that are based on enhanced trust, collaboration and co-design with the community. These findings are based primarily on qualitative evidence gathered from staff, stakeholders and families, as well as some quantitative data gathered from the workstreams indicating positive short-term impacts. Limitations of the data collected include a lack of longer-term and quantifiable data, including on key long-term outcomes, which has resulted in a lack of evidence at this point about longer-term impacts on individual and community wellbeing.

The FWP approach holds important lessons for other communities across Scotland, in designing a wellbeing approach that is flexible, preventative, integrative and multidisciplinary. In particular, we have highlighted eight factors that have been crucial to the successes of the FWP approach in Clackmannanshire detailed throughout this report: 1) the leadership and governance of the FWP, 2) long-term, flexible funding, 3) local context and place-based approaches, 4) whole family systems approaches, 5) collaborative leadership and multidisciplinary service delivery, 6) co-design and empowering families to own activities, 7) communication and shared vision, and 8) data collection and management. However, caution and careful reflection are important when considering the comparability and suitability of emulating the FWP approach in other locations, to ensure that solutions are tailored to the needs of local communities, with their voices heard, and can enable meaningful change.