Child poverty pathfinders in Dundee and Glasgow: phase two evaluation

9. System change: Glasgow

Introduction

As described in chapter 7, the pathfinder in Glasgow was conceived as a ‘whole system change’ initiative. The multi-faceted nature of the Glasgow programme means there are numerous ways this chapter could have been structured. However, the structure adopted is informed by the themes that emerged most strongly from interviews, as well as key themes identified in both the evaluation theory of change and the pathfinder’s own assessment of the key barriers the system change work is attempting to address.

The chapter starts by summarising stakeholder understandings of system change within the Glasgow pathfinder, before discussing perceived areas of system change impact to date under the following themes:

• Collaboration and partnership working
• Culture and values
• Evidencing, building and embedding a NWD approach
• Understanding (and filling) gaps in services
• Effective use of data
• Funding flexibilities
• Performance management and accountability.

As discussed in earlier chapters, given the scope of Glasgow’s pathfinder, there will inevitably be elements not discussed in detail here. Specifically, it is worth noting that this chapter does not include a detailed assessment of the extent to which citizens have been engaged routinely with service development. Although interviewees did touch on citizen voice, particularly in the context of this being built into the ongoing development of the DoC projects, this was still at a relatively early stage by late 2024. As such, it was not covered in detail in interviews. The fact citizen voice is not a major focus in this chapter should not, however, be taken as implying it is not important.

This evaluation also took place at a specific point in time part-way through the Glasgow pathfinder’s programme of system change work. As such, it should be read as one part of the evidence on the progress of the Glasgow pathfinder’s programme of whole system change to date, and not as a full summative assessment of its impact.

Data and limitations

This chapter largely draws on qualitative data collected during three waves of interviews (including the scoping phase) and workshops with a range of external and internal stakeholders of the Glasgow pathfinder, as well as pathfinder theme leads and other members of the Multi Agency Change Team (MACT). While we spoke to a range of professional stakeholders, the very large number of Glasgow pathfinder stakeholders means it is possible that there are other views not reflected here. Where relevant, this chapter also references key documentation such as Project Initiation Documents (PIDs), progress reports or other research on the pathfinder (e.g. UofG reports).

Stakeholder understandings of system change within the Glasgow pathfinder

System change in the Glasgow pathfinder is not seen as an end in itself, but as a means to achieving the ultimate goal of eradicating child poverty. This was a recurrent theme across Glasgow interviews: the aim of the pathfinder is to eradicate child poverty, and the pathfinder intends to reshape ‘the system’ in order to do so:

“The pathfinder here is about simplifying and eradicating barriers to access and support for people in order to wholesale, ultimately eradicate child poverty in the city… the values, the objectives and the aims behind the overall aspiration is about how do we eradicate poverty and how do we get the key players and the key partners involved in doing that in the pathfinder.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

Key features stakeholders returned to when discussing the Glasgow vision for system change included:

• Its perceived level of ambition: Stakeholders recognised that the whole system approach being taken in Glasgow was ambitious in scope and scale. They cited, for example, the very large number of voluntary and public sector organisations in the city working with families who need to come together to make ‘the system’ work better, the large number of barriers that needed to be dismantled, and the scale of child poverty in the city.
• The long-term nature of system change: Interviewees for this evaluation repeatedly emphasised that system change in Glasgow is seen as a long-term project, expected to take at least 10 years. This commitment to longer-term change was seen as something new, and as something that required funding (and evaluating) over a longer period of time than a typical project:

“I think it's such a big, big task to create transformational change in Glasgow with the level of poverty and ill health and everything else that's going on. But I think they need to keep going […] [You] can't pull the money out if it's going too slow. Can't pull the money out if it's not churning out outcomes already. […] My hope is that the Government will have confidence in this, give it a chance, let it grow. I think it's the best thing and the most creative thing that's happened in a long, long time.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

• The learning approach required to achieve lasting system change: The pathfinder in Glasgow has involved ongoing intensive reflection on the way forward. Understanding and learning about the barriers to system change was seen as a central feature of Glasgow’s approach to achieving it.

“I guess the pathfinder, for me, is the big systemic stuff. ... Within that there will be activities that we do that will help us to understand what needs to shift and change, and what happens if we try and shift and change things in this way, as opposed to that way.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

• The right approach, but challenging to articulate and evidence: All of the features above were seen by stakeholders as meaning that both the nature of the pathfinder, and the progress made, can be difficult to articulate and assess. There was a widespread view amongst interviewees that “we are onto something here” or “something is different”, but also a recognition that this will be hard to evidence, at least in the shorter term:

“I know people might be thinking that the pathfinder in Glasgow has been very much a think tank. I don't agree with that … I know we're probably not the best at showing that I suppose as a whole because it's so big.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

At the same time, there was also a view that the pathfinder tended to use too much jargon and to present things in quite a complex way, which did not help with explaining its scope and aims to wider stakeholders:

“I think the pathfinder is very complex. I'm told it's not, but the diagrams tell me otherwise.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

More specifically, comments from wider stakeholders noted the potential for the ‘no wrong door’ concept to be misunderstood, or to lead to confusion about what exactly is being proposed, given that this phrase (‘no wrong door’) is not new and has been used in various related (but not always identical) ways in other areas. This is a topic we return to in the final chapter of this report.

Stakeholder perceptions on key areas of system change impact to date

Collaboration and partnership working

Collaboration and partnership have been central to the Glasgow pathfinder from the outset. The original design was developed after three workshops, each involving 50 city and national partners who had a stake in supporting families and children. The evaluation theory of change highlighted various intended outputs related to partnership working, such as new, agreed delivery and joint working arrangements. These were intended to facilitate related outcomes, including improved trust between partners and more effective joint working to support families.

Activity to support improved collaboration and partnership working cuts across multiple pathfinder workstreams and elements. In this chapter, we focus particularly on evidence of collaboration and partnership in the context of the MACT, cross-department working in Glasgow, collaboration with the third sector, and the relationship between Glasgow and the Scottish Government.

A key facet of collaboration and partnership in the Glasgow pathfinder has been the development and functioning of the MACT. The assembling of a multi-agency team with different backgrounds and skills is viewed as having been fundamental to the pathfinder’s work as a whole, and to putting partnership working at its heart. As one interviewee put it:

“Building the team is building the foundation”.

The MACT co-locates in a shared office one day a week, and participate in regular ‘Town Halls’, where teams come together to hear about and share progress. The MACT is therefore itself both an example of partnership and an enabler of cross sector collaboration, as it identifies and works with wider partners to deliver the pathfinder.

The MACT had also helped the pathfinder contribute to improved cross-departmental working within Glasgow City Council. For example, the Financial Inclusion and Transformation and Economic Development teams within the council both have remits for improving the financial situations of families and for employability. There are clear crossovers between these teams in terms of funding, activities and target populations; yet, in the past, the teams were not felt to have worked closely together. The pathfinder now part-funds a member of staff who sits across both teams and represents them on the Local Employability Partnership. This has enabled:

“Breaking down the silos, getting people to work together. Communication is one of the big things [that the pathfinder has facilitated]…making these links.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

This improved cross-departmental collaboration was also seen to have resulted in further investment from the council in the wards identified by the pathfinder as ‘booster’ wards with particularly high concentrations of child poverty, including committing funding to play parks and other improvements, as well as a more ‘poverty-informed’ approach to council employability activities (as described in the previous chapter in relation to ILMs).

Collaboration with the third sector was central to the development of the NWD network. Interviews with both NWD network members and wider pathfinder stakeholders highlighted the positive impact the pathfinder is seen to have had on joint working between the council and the third sector. This was seen as a particularly challenging area to influence in Glasgow, given the very large number of third sector organisations in the city and a relationship with the council that some interviewees said had been historically poor. However, the NWD network was believed to have led to improved joint working and greater trust between the two:

“The nature of the relationship has maybe changed from transactional, i.e. (the) council funding them, to more of a joint approach.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

A third sector interviewee acknowledged that various attempts at working collaboratively had been tried before, but felt that the pathfinder had greater impact by actively involving the third sector in co-developing priorities and models of working, and giving them more agency:

“I do think this is different. And being asked to sit around the table certainly feels much less like a tick box exercise.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

There was also a sense that staff at the council were more open and receptive to input and ideas from the third sector as a result of the work of the NWD network and its links with the wider pathfinder. While interviewees recognised ongoing challenges – not least around the power dynamics between the council and the third sector, given the council often funds third sector activities – there was a shared perception that the pathfinders’ approach had started to break down barriers.

More broadly, the activities of the NWD network were also reported to have improved collaboration and joint working between NWD member organisations (which included third sector organisations, Registered Social Landlords, and public sector organisations, like Police Scotland), by improving knowledge of each others’ services, strengthening relationships and trust, and providing opportunities to develop new referral pathways:

”Sixty organisations came to this networking event, and it was something like 70% said they'd learned about other organisations they didn't know about. 60% had arranged a follow-up meeting with other organisations, and [over] 40% … had set up referral pathways as a direct result of being brought together.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

Finally, the Glasgow pathfinder was also felt to have benefited from, and contributed to, improved joint working between the council and the Scottish Government. The pathfinder has had substantial involvement from the Scottish Government, from funding and oversight, to agreeing and planning activity, to supporting implementation. The Glasgow pathfinder was described as an opportunity to test “the different kind of relationship” between central and local government required to implement public service reform.

In terms of key gaps where it was felt the pathfinder had further to go in building or supporting partnership working in order to better address child poverty in the city, it was suggested that both health and housing could be more actively involved in the pathfinder at various levels. This echoes findings discussed in the previous chapter on barriers to positive impacts for families, as well as observations in previous ‘Gateway’ reviews of the pathfinder, conducted by the Improvement Service and UofG. However, it was reported that the pathfinder had made some progress in 2023/24 in engaging Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) more actively in the pathfinder, particularly through the NWD network, but also via seconding an RSL housing officer to Glasgow Helps.

Culture and values

In addition to promoting joint working and collaboration, the Glasgow pathfinder has had an explicit focus on establishing shared culture and values across all the organisations with a role in ending child poverty in the city. Accountability and Culture was identified as one of the three ‘key challenges’ the pathfinder would need to address in the original PID, and developing ‘shared culture and values’ was identified as a medium-term system change outcome in the evaluation theory of change.

Work to develop a shared culture was felt to have underpinned all of the pathfinder’s activities, and cut across all its workstreams, although it was perhaps most often discussed, in interviews for this evaluation, in relation to NWD. Establishing a common culture across partners was seen as being the foundation for the changes in practice required to support system change. As one interviewee put it: “Culture change leads to system change.”

Developing a shared vision and values was the starting point for the NWD workstream. Collaboration, coordination, and a shared commitment to positive impact were highlighted by NWD partners as part of this common ethos, alongside transparency, respect, trust and putting the citizen at the centre of efforts to transform the system:

“To me the key values are that the citizen’s at the heart […] It's about again creating a system that isn't confusing for people.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

The NWD network was felt to be promoting culture change both through bringing network partners together and by taking a ‘co-creation’ approach to developing the network’s vision and workstreams, so that the network is actively thinking about their culture of working together as they develop specific activities and priorities. Interviews indicated a strong alignment between network partners, the MACT, and wider partners on the NWD vision at the heart of both the pathfinder and the network:

“I think ‘no wrong door’ is trying to achieve a more cohesive, collaborative approach to supporting those most in need in our city and making sure that that work is holistic, is well-rounded, [is] funded, is able to be adaptable, doesn't have as much red tape, [and has] more flex to help alleviate child poverty as the ultimate goal.”

(Glasgow professional interview, NWD partner)

However, there was more scepticism expressed among some NWD partners about how ‘new’ this vision was; partners generally felt the network’s values were similar to their existing organisational values, something which had factored into their decision to sign up. At the same time, NWD partners also expressed some doubts about how much progress had been made with fully embedding culture change across all partners, commenting on the number of different organisational cultures the pathfinder is seeking to bring together. One partner, reflecting on their own organisation’s internal progress towards embedding the pathfinder’s vision and values, felt that “we’re still a million miles away” due to the magnitude of the shift needed from their current culture (though they felt things were moving in the right direction).

Beyond the NWD network, wider partners (both within and outside the MACT) discussed their belief that the work around the pathfinder felt different from previous efforts at collaboration. There was a perception that the pathfinder’s activities were encouraging partners to commit to long-term public service reform and raising aspirations around the possibility of doing things differently.

“[We’re] trying to get everybody in the system to think about the necessary cultural change, but also then to think about the change that needs to come from within and from that individual … So, you're in a sense asking people to become much more deliberate about what's working in the system, what's not working in the system, and where they can …do things differently.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

In addition to the NWD network, the Research Practice Collaboration (RPC) with UofG was also felt to have played a pivotal part in both enabling the MACT to reflect on how the pathfinder was influencing culture change and to articulate this to its partners. Further insight and discussion around culture change is included in the various UofG reports for the pathfinder (see References).

Evidencing, building and embedding a NWD approach

NWD was a key workstream in both the original and revised PIDs for the pathfinder/programme, though the focus of activity has expanded over time. The evaluation theory of change included short-term aims around engaging more partners with NWD and involving them in creating the NWD model, and medium-term outcomes around the implementation of the NWD model.

As of late 2024 there were 183 NWD network members. The MACT has taken both a systematic and an opportunistic approach to growing the network, starting by targeting key third sector organisations working with families in the city, but subsequently broadening out to include RSLs, Police Scotland and Health Visitors. The pathfinder supports the network through regular newsletters and two big events each year, which are reported to be very well attended, as well as meetings of the sub-groups focused on the two NWD workstreams described below. There was a broad consensus across stakeholder interviews that bringing this number of different organisations together, many of whom have competed with each other for resources in the past, around a shared goal, was a major achievement of the pathfinder to date and a key stepping stone towards system change:

“We're really looking to change things. So, I think that creates that safe space for people to work together far better than we have in the past. There's nothing that I can think of that's pulled together the different sectors in the past before, that we've all sat down collectively around the table to address an issue.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

At the same time, the volume of services in Glasgow (there are estimated to be over 4,000 organisations in the third sector alone^[32]) implies there is still considerable scope for future expansion to bring in further partners with a role to play in supporting families on low incomes into this NWD network.

While the growth in members and the volume of activity associated with the NWD network provides evidence of the pathfinder reaching its short-term aims around engaging more partners, the impact of that activity in embedding the NWD model is more important in the longer-term. In part, the impact of the network on partnership working and culture change is in itself seen as evidence of progress towards this, since collaboration and a shared vision are central to the NWD model. The two workstreams developed as part of the NWD network (see below) were also seen as practical steps in advancing the longer-term vision of embedding a NWD approach across Glasgow.

• The first of these workstreams, ‘Tell your story once’, is intended to develop solutions to the challenges families face around having to repeatedly explain their situation and needs to multiple partners. The pathfinder had facilitated workshops and discussions with network partners to consider challenges around capturing and sharing data on clients’ needs in a coordinated way. Fully developing, testing and implementing solutions across different partners (all of whom have their own case management systems and processes) was expected to take time: a 2024 paper following a network workshop set out a range of further actions over a 6-48 month time period, including considering whether AI might be able to play a role (Whiteside, 2024).
• The second network workstream is focused on developing early intervention strategies so that network partners can help families access support before crises develop. NWD partners and stakeholder interviews indicated that this was at an earlier stage of development when evaluation interviews took place (late 2024).

Overall, the NWD network and working groups were seen as having strong potential to embed the NWD model more widely across services in Glasgow, though more concrete outcomes in terms of shared processes and tools were at a relatively early stage. In terms of increasing the impact of the NWD network, it was suggested that more information on what the network will be focused on in the coming years would help individual partners to better plan when would be the best time for them to be more or less involved. Capacity and a lack of direct funding for time spent on pathfinder activities were also cited by partners as barriers to getting more involved in the activities of the network. There was also a suggestion that, as the network develops, it might need more specific actions, outcomes, and assigned responsibilities, in order to translate its vision into practice.

Moreover, while overall, views of the network’s potential to further embed a NWD model were positive, partners also reflected on how much difference it was actually making to their own individual ways of working, highlighting the importance of recognising where the pathfinder is building on existing good practice by partners:

“Being aware that it's there has maybe given us a degree of optimism in terms of how we deliver the work that we do. It hasn't really had any impact on [our work with families] because we're already doing what they're talking about and what they want to work towards. And that's the bit that's frustrating because there are examples out there, including us, that are already doing it.”

(Glasgow professional interviewee)

Understanding (and filling) gaps in services

The evaluation theory of change identified filling gaps in services as a medium-term system change aim for the Glasgow pathfinder, supported by the cross-cutting aim of continual learning, including learning about gaps that may need to be filled. Again, various different workstreams were expected to collectively contribute to this, but the examples discussed in interviews particularly related to the NWD network and Data and Insights.

With a city the size of Glasgow, and the sheer number of services and providers operating across the city, identification of gaps is a challenge. However, the pathfinder was helping to identify gaps in a variety of ways, including through:

• Glasgow Helps. Where Glasgow Helps staff find it difficult to meet a need or navigate services, it can be assumed that citizens, including families on low incomes, will experience a similar challenge. The close links between Glasgow Helps and the wider pathfinder mean that these gaps are fed back and inform the efforts of the pathfinder to close them.
• The wider NWD network. Many NWD partners already work closely with families on low incomes and are in a strong position to recognise gaps in provision. A more formal part of the NWD work to date has involved mapping relevant partners’ services, by asking network members to consider their purpose, service offer, reach, funding and sustainability. This has enabled GCC to work towards building a better picture of the services available in the city.
• Data insights work. There is ongoing work within the data insights stream of the pathfinder to enhance the administrative data available from DWP and other sources in Glasgow’s Child Poverty Dashboard by ‘layering on’ additional data about service provision. This has been used to examine the availability of relevant services within walkable distances in areas with the highest concentrations of child poverty. Analysis of this data in combination with census data has highlighted limited language service provision in areas with higher levels of English as a Second Language (ESL).
• Citizen engagement. As noted, learning from citizens is a key focus in the 2024-2027 programme plan. The DoCs were building this in from the outset, to gather richer data about the unmet needs of parents on low incomes to help shape their delivery plans.

In addition to examples of how the pathfinder was supporting learning about gaps in provision, interviewees also provided examples where this learning did seem to be leading to gaps being filled, including:

• Targeted work to start building capacity with members of the community to become qualified in delivering ESOL provision, following on from the data insights work noted above.
• ILMs as examples of where the pathfinder had helped highlight the barriers parents faced to entering or re-entering work (generally well-known ones, such as transport, childcare, suitable clothing, and the transition from benefits), and then brought together NWD partners to provide a package of support to address these (see previous chapter for further discussion of ILMs).
• Identification of a gap around access to suitable clothing for families on low incomes who were missing out on the school uniform grant, which had led to the pathfinder finding funding to provide families with vouchers to purchase ‘pre-loved’ items through ‘ApparelXChange’ (a NWD partner and one of the top referral partners for Glasgow Helps). Glasgow City Council had also allocated Tackling Child Poverty funding to ApparelXChange; a professional we interviewed thought this may have been in part due to the influence of the Pathfinder on their priorities and of the No Wrong Door approach, more generally, including the networking opportunities it provides.

Effective use of data

The pathfinder has had a data workstream from the outset, now separated into data insights and data sharing, and the evaluation theory of change identified a medium term aim that data sharing barriers would be overcome. Some of the key learning, progress and challenges around data use and sharing have already been discussed, so we cover this relatively briefly here.

In terms of data insights, Glasgow’s Child Poverty Dashboard was widely seen by interviewees as a significant achievement, which the pathfinder had both contributed to and benefited from. This publicly available online tool, developed by the Centre for Civic Innovation, allows the council and its partners to easily explore data and trends around child poverty at a population level. It was shaped by the pathfinder’s views on how data insights could be better utilised, and its use has informed the pathfinder’s evolving plans, including the identification of ‘booster wards’ and the geographic targeting of the DoCs, as discussed in the previous chapter. It is also informing work outside the pathfinder, such as the location of Glasgow’s Early Adopter Communities for testing approaches to out of school childcare. Having better access to this data was felt to be making it easier to demonstrate the need for system change and gain acceptance of the pathfinder’s approach among wider stakeholders:

“I've seen a much more collegiate and corporate approach by elected members when they then see the data, it's when you're actually putting it into, you know, neighbourhoods, streets and families.”

(Glasgow professional interviewee)

There were plans in place in late 2024 to further develop the Dashboard, to improve the alignment of DWP and council data if possible, and to identify and add further relevant datasets, such as partner data on service provision and citizen satisfaction data.

Progress around data sharing has, as discussed in the previous chapter, been more challenging. While the pathfinder has been able to use data controlled by HMRC, DWP and Social Security Scotland for research purposes (including feeding into the dashboard), it has been more difficult to agree a legal basis for using it to contact families and offer support. There were indications from senior interviewees in late 2024 that there had been recent signs of movement on this issue, through active talks with DWP and Social Security Scotland. However, in the meantime it was felt to have hampered progress with the DoC projects and the ability of the pathfinder to gather learning on the effectiveness of direct work with families. There were also challenges around data sharing between third and public sector partners in the NWD network, with the pathfinder working on long-term solutions to this.

Funding flexibilities

Policy alignment and funding is a key workstream for the 2024-7 phase of the programme, building on the ‘Funding and commissioning’ workstream in the earlier phase. The evaluation theory of change identified securing funding flexibility and financial resources as a key system change output, rather than as an outcome, since the primary purpose of funding flexibility is to enable the wider transformational change the pathfinder is seeking. It could, however, be argued that creating new, more flexible funding pots is also a short-term system change outcome in itself.

The pathfinder undertook a period of mapping and discussion with the Scottish Government and key partners to identify various different funds that aim to address child poverty. This has resulted in the development of a “newly aligned change fund” (2024-2027 PID), called the Whole Family Early Intervention Fund, which brings together £22 million of separate Scottish Government funds seen as serving similar objectives. This includes the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund, Tackling Child Poverty Fund and No One Left Behind employability funding.

This area of pathfinder activity is viewed as particularly successful by both internal GCC and external stakeholders:

“I mean that's massive; if that's not changing the system I don't know what is.”

(Glasgow professional interviewee)

This change was expected to have a significant impact, not only for Glasgow but also for other local authorities now that Glasgow has demonstrated what is possible. The Scottish Government’s 2024 programme for government included a commitment to consider greater local flexibility in funding and reporting to achieve a more effective whole family approach:

“Over the year ahead, we will work with partners to introduce additional local flexibility in how existing budgets and services can be reconfigured in the pursuit of a whole family approach.”

(Scottish Government, 2024b)

However, although the funding flexibilities secured were seen as very significant progress, they had not gone quite as far as GCC partners would have liked. It was noted that the Scottish Government has stuck to annual funding for some funds, and that some quarterly monitoring and reporting requirements remained in place or were still being negotiated. There was a recognition that Scottish ministers are accountable to both parliament and to auditors, and that there is a balance to be struck here.

The pathfinder was investigating what further progress on funding flexibility could be made in the future, including looking at other ring-fenced Scottish Government funds, UK government funding, charity funding, and the council’s internal funds.

Performance management and accountability

‘Accountability and culture’ was one of the three barriers to system change identified in the original PID. The ‘accountability’ element of this focused on barriers related to where governance and accountability for tackling child poverty sits, alongside a perceived tendency to focus on outputs rather than outcomes.

A key area of activity under this theme has been the MACT working intensively within the Glasgow Community Planning Partnership (GCPP) to influence the priorities and shape of the Community Plan / Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP)^[33].

The 2023-2034 Glasgow Community Plan makes “addressing poverty the overriding priority of the Glasgow Community Planning Partnership” for the next decade and has set reducing “family poverty” as one of its priority outcomes. It recognises that “whole system change” is required to achieve this and also places “people-centred and place-based” principles at the heart of its approach (GCCP, 2024).

Stakeholders interviewed for this evaluation viewed the “centring” of family poverty within the Glasgow Community Plan as something that was both strongly influenced by the pathfinder, and as a major step in terms of securing city-wide commitment to implementing its vision. As one interviewee put it:

“Child Poverty used to be on the agenda, and now it is the agenda.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

As of early 2025, GCPP was in the process of agreeing a Performance Management Framework (PMF) to measure progress on the Community Plan over the next 10 years. Again, this was something that pathfinder MACT members were directly contributing to. This PMF is expected to provide the evidence against which the pathfinder’s ultimate success in demonstrating the benefits of PSR and the impact on families, including improved user voice, will be assessed. A draft as at June 2025, includes measures such as:

• The number of services employing tools that clarify an individual or family's needs, concerns and priorities holistically (as an indication of person-centred tailoring of support)
• Number of repeat crisis interventions being paid out to the same individual or family (as an indication of the extent to which the system is moving away from crisis support as a result of preventative work)
• User/citizen satisfaction with any support or service provided by an organisation within the CPP and the percentage of referrals taken up by citizens that lead to a positive outcome
• The number of co-located services in GCPP partner locations/premises across Glasgow

A total of 30 measures are proposed for the Framework to provide evidence of progress towards the outcomes. The measures use 25 different data sources, 17 of which are data that is already being captured, and 8 are new data sources that will require significant work to collect. The next phase between April to October 2025 will be on testing how the suite of measures will be collated and developed. The measures will be used as a means of describing the impact of the work and informing future work, and will be strengthened through qualitative insight and analysis in order to guide action. There is also recognition that the measures will need to evolve over time.

Facilitators and barriers to system change

All of the activities of the pathfinder were collectively viewed as creating the system change impacts to date, so it is difficult to single out ‘key facilitators’. However, specific recurrent themes in interviews were:

• The capacity provided by the MACT: There was a shared view across interviews with partners from different organisations that progress to date on system change in Glasgow reflected the focused effort and capacity the pathfinder had built in via the MACT. If the aim is to achieve ‘whole system’ change, rather than just to test individual interventions or discrete changes, this kind of resource was seen as essential:

“I think if we didn't have the dedicated resource to do that, if it was just tagged onto people’s jobs, and not the focus of the jobs, I personally don't think it would happen.”

(Glasgow professional interview)

• The role of the NWD network, in linking partners together, building knowledge and trust, and engaging them in co-creating the pathfinder (including drawing them into other elements, like the DoCs, which were being led by NWD network partners).
• The focus on culture: Culture change was seen as a key facilitator of system change. Fostering a joint vision, a commitment to continual learning and reflection (supported by the RPC) and the permission to innovate (and risk failures, which could be learned from) were all seen as necessary precursors to achieving system change.
• Senior commitment and leadership: The level of senior support and commitment to the pathfinder, from the top of GCC and the HSCP, as well as from elected members, and senior Scottish Government policy leads, was viewed as central to ensuring the pathfinder was able to progress its vision for system change:

“I think the involvement of the Chief Executive, getting sponsorship from the Executive Director [of Finance]. I think it's also changed our Community Planning. So, Community Planning's radically changed its focus towards the Child Poverty Pathfinder. I think the previous work of the Child Poverty (pathfinder) has become, I think, in a sense more owned by everybody.”

(Glasgow professional interviewee)

As alluded to previously, part of the aim of the pathfinder was to ‘turn barriers into enablers’. However, some barriers have proved harder to overcome than others to date, in particular those relating to data sharing.

Conclusions and learning

Set out below is a summary of the evidence relating to system change, and wider learning and reflections on the findings in this chapter for other areas considering whole system change.

Interviews with professional stakeholders demonstrate positive early signs of progress on system change, including: improved collaboration and partnership working between GCC, the third sector, the Scottish Government and parts of the wider public sector; promotion of shared culture and values; progress on embedding a NWD approach across wider services; understanding, and starting to fill gaps in services; more effective use of data to target activities; achieving funding flexibilities; and progress towards a city-wide shared performance framework.

There was a strong consensus across interviewees that the approach in Glasgow was the right one in terms of the likelihood of achieving long-term reform, and that investing in the MACT to provide capacity to develop and drive this had been critical.

Whole system change is expected to take at least 10 years to achieve, so evidence on this longer-term outcome is limited at this point. Future evidence on how successful the DoC projects are in supporting families to become more confident and able to navigate services, and the further impact of the NWD network in linking families to services more seamlessly, will be important in this regard. The indicators included in the PMF, such as reduced use of crisis services, will also help assess whether the system has changed sufficiently to achieve this aim in the future

Wider learning and reflections: Delivering ‘whole system change’

• There was a strong belief across stakeholders interviewed in Glasgow in the value of having the Multi-Agency Change Capacity Team - a team drawn from different backgrounds and organisations - in establishing the vision, maintaining the commitment, and driving progress towards ‘whole system change’ in Glasgow. If the goal in other areas is similarly ambitious in terms of change to the system, the Scottish Government and other areas should consider how this central ‘change capacity’ can be resourced.
• Qualitive evidence from parents supported by Glasgow Helps confirms the potential for this approach to engage families who have struggled to access appropriate support previously and there are some signs from NWD partners that the pathfinder is starting to help join up services in a way that enables them to link families to the right support, more quickly. Parent case studies highlight the ways in which they have been able to move from addressing short-term financial needs to addressing longer-term barriers to sustainable outcomes, including health and wellbeing as well as support around employment and training.
• A recurrent theme throughout the evaluation’s work with the Glasgow pathfinder has been the long-term nature of system change. The evaluation indicates that Glasgow has made progress across a range of short- and medium-term system change goals, but also that stakeholders believe it is at a very early stage of its system change ‘journey’. It highlights the importance for other areas considering system change to be realistic about the time investment required, as well as how this links with evaluation timeframes and what evidence it is feasible to collect at different points.
• The Glasgow experience is founded on the principle that whole system change needs to involve cross-organisational and cross-sector partnerships. However, with any collaborative enterprise there is the potential for power imbalances between partners. In Glasgow, this is perhaps most obvious with respect to the third sector, where the council is taking a leading role and where third sector partners, who are often reliant on council funding for their continued operation, may be less able to commit at the same level financially or in terms of time. Navigating these potential tensions is likely to require ongoing reflection.
• Trying to implement the level of change Glasgow is aiming for is inevitably multi-faceted, involving many partners and multiple workstreams. However, in terms of gaining and maintaining buy-in for these efforts, there is also a need to be able to communicate with clarity. This includes avoiding jargon and explaining terms like ‘no wrong door’ that may be used in different ways by different areas and organisations. The pathfinder (and Scottish Government) should reflect on what constitutes ‘jargon’, since terms that are comfortable for government partners may be less transparent to wider stakeholders.
• The challenge of measuring ‘whole system change’ was highlighted repeatedly by Glasgow stakeholders. The Performance Management Framework being developed with GCPP appears to offer a way forward, from which other areas could take inspiration. The current draft includes some stretching quantitative measures of the extent to which the early signs noted in this report are being embedded across wider services, as well as plans to capture further qualitative evidence on a regular basis. However, it has taken time to develop this framework and the details are still being worked out. There is a need for clarity across all partners in any system change programme around expectations as to what change is intended and the type and level of data needed to evidence progress. This is something that needs to be considered from the outset and will likely need to be developed and iterated over time.