National Public Protection Leadership Group: workplan

An introduction to this work plan

The National Public Protection Leadership Group (‘NPPLG’) has been established to provide national multi-agency leadership of public protection across Scotland. Representation on the group includes: Child Protection; Adult Support and Protection; Violence against Women and Girls; Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements; Alcohol and Drug related harms/deaths and Suicide Prevention.

Understanding and addressing the inter-connectedness of risk across these protection areas, and the implications for how we can best support vulnerable individuals and families, and the workforce is central to the Groups work.

The NPPLG will act as a multi-agency forum to drive continuous improvement of public protection arrangements across Scotland through creating a supportive environment for the sharing of best practice and the development of national initiatives, with due regard to system capacity particularly within local systems. It will provide a space for local and national public protection leaders to help bring more coherence and simplification to public protection policy, as well as ensuring its interconnectivity with related activity on prevention and early intervention, as part of Scotland’s whole systems approach to improving outcomes. The NPPLG is committed to embedding prevention within all priority workstreams, ensuring it is a central consideration in every aspect of our efforts. We are dedicated to incorporating the voices of lived experience into our work, recognising the importance of engaging not only those accessing public protection services but also a broader range of lived experiences to inform and enhance our approach.

The formation of the NPPLG is an opportunity to re-energise our leadership within the public protection system. It’s creation, development and effectiveness will rely on public protection leaders in Scotland all being committed to the purpose of securing improvements across Scotland, working in a genuinely collaborative way across local and national colleagues. The NPPLG is well placed to have a national view across public protection as well as, through the active engagement with local public protection partnerships, an understanding of the local picture, and of emerging risks. Members of the NPPLG have developed this workplan to help the group deliver on its purpose and responsibilities as set out in the NPPLG Terms of Reference. The NPPLG recognises that much hard work is already being progressed and we intend to actively engage with local partnerships with the deliberate purpose of seeking out the innovative practice we know is present in local arrangements and to use the platform of the NPPLG to help share and spread that innovative practice. It also recognises that we need to continue to work together across local and national systems to improve and ensure that our public protection systems support those in our society who are most vulnerable to harm, and whose needs cut across multiple parts of the public protection systems.

A collection of action and co-ordination is required to understand the risk factors which lead to vulnerability and to try and prevent the risk factors from materialising but in the event they do, to try and get upstream in our response before the devastating harm occurs. When harms do occur, it is crucial that individuals and families get the right support at the right time, and that the public protection workforce are supported and equipped to provide that support. This workplan tries to bring support to the local task of identifying and responding to harm, through 6 priorities. These priorities essentially try to make a contribution to:

National public protection leadership group

• Continuing to build a culture of learning within the field of public protection (priorities 1, 2 & 3)
• Tackling some of the “wicked” issues which we know local partnerships are wrestling with (priorities 4, 5 & 6)

Priority 1 - Enhancing our culture of learning through review

Priority 2 - Enhancing our culture of learning through the scrutiny and inspect

Priority 3 - Enhancing our culture of learning through supporting the public protection workforce

Priority 4 - Tackling the difficult issues of information sharing to enhance multi-agency oversight of chronologies

Priority 5 - Tackling the difficult issues of having the right data for improvement and assurance and risk escalation at local and national levels

Priority 6 - Tackling the difficult issues of transitions and pathways between services

This workplan was compiled during the second half of 2024, and was consulted on with Chief Officer Groups and organisations/networks/groups represented by NPPLG members. Over 80% of responders to our consultation on the workplan, confirmed that we had identified the correct priorities, though colleagues noted the ambition of the plan.

We will of course, continue to keep the workplan under review and will use the end of this 6th parliamentary term in 2026, to undertake a full review and commit to consulting formally on any significant revisions to the plan. Whilst we expect and hope that there will be some “quick wins”, many of the priorities outlined in the table below will take a concerted effort that will extend beyond this parliamentary term.

To further support thinking in relation to the development of the workplan:

• Annex A maps the NPPLG roles and responsibilities as set out in its terms of reference against the NPPLG workplan priorities.
• Annex B maps the NPPLG in relation to other key groups with interests across public protection.