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Intensive family support

Where is Scotland in 2024?

Efforts to embed intensive family support principles in Scotland are making some progress.

However, Scotland's families are currently facing significant challenges and demands for support are increasing due to the ongoing cost of living crisis, which affects both those in need, and the services helping. Local Authorities report growing complexity in family circumstances and an increasing number of families requiring more intensive support.

Despite efforts to provide support, challenges remain, particularly in ensuring equitable access across all areas and addressing gaps in service provision for specific demographics within the care experienced population. The availability of consistent funding and resources also impacts the sustainability and effectiveness of support initiatives.

Intensive family support

Where does Scotland 
need to be by 2030?

By 2030, whatever issues families face, Scotland will ensure intensive family support is available, proactive and characterised by 10 principles: community-based; responsive and timely; work with family assets; empowerment and agency; flexible; holistic and relational; therapeutic; non-stigmatising; patient and persistent; and underpinned by children's rights.

The explicit aims of intensive family support will be to:

  1. Keep families together and avoid children going into care
  2. Interrupt and address intergenerational cycles of trauma
  3. Sustain meaningful and loving relationships.

This means that Scotland will:

  • Recognise kinship, adoptive and foster families may need ongoing, intensive support. The principles for intensive family support that wrap around a family will be as accessible to kinship families as to families of origin.
  • Not abandon families if children are removed from the care of their parents. Families will continue to be provided with therapeutic support, advocacy and engagement in line with principles of intensive family support.
  • Ensure adopting parents have access to support at any point during the life of their child if they require it. That support will be available even if it was not initially required and will mirror the principles of intensive family support.
  • Ensure holistic family support and individualised planning with the principles of 'one family one plan' wraparound support is available for all families in and on the edges of care.
  • Ensure multi-agency partners plan strategically for both family carers and child services, based on outcomes from aggregated individual family and child plans. This will include robust concurrency planning for carers.
  • Support all families caring for disabled children and those with additional support needs. If families require intensive support they will get it and will not be required to fight for it.
  • Where a parent has a learning disability, care planning will be specific and supportive, working with their assets to build on their capabilities as parents.
  • Make every effort to avoid imprisoning people with parenting responsibilities. Where parents facing imprisonment have had no prior engagement with social work services, criminal Courts will actively consider the needs of children and young people and that there is wraparound support for families affected by parental imprisonment, with planning for the likelihood of imprisonment and clear support for children who are impacted. Parents facing imprisonment will be supported to make plans for their children and everything will be done to avoid emergency removal and a panicked response. 
  • Ensure services supporting parental substance use and statutory children's services compassionately collaborate with each other ensuring supports are in place that holistically assess children within their families and support them to stay with families whenever it is safe to do so.
  • Not penalise parents who are experiencing domestic abuse and recognise violence and abuse within the home happens across Scotland's communities.
  • Ensure support is available for families which is early, intensive and domestic abuse informed, rather than waiting for children and families to reach criteria thresholds to access support. There will be consistent practice across Scotland which holds perpetrators to account and enables effective interventions to create opportunities for change and desistance.
Where does Scotland 
need to be by 2030?

The route map to get there

Focus must be on supporting babies and infants. Scotland must support families at an earlier stage, so more babies and infants remain at home in loving, nurturing relationships. The barriers preventing this must be addressed quickly with appropriate and bespoke support. For progress to be made, family support must consistently begin pre-birth and focus on the needs of families with very young children.

A clearer, shared, understanding of what intensive family support is must be produced, and the additional resources required to support the workforce and to uphold children and families’ right to intensive help and support must be identified using it.

The policy development around a proposed Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill will continue.

The Practice and Procedures workstream of the Children’s Hearings Redesign Board will progress recommendation 11.16, ‘if families are not engaging in the support that is available, the tribunal must inquire about the circumstances surrounding this and seek to understand what alternative provision may be more appropriate’.

Recommendation 11.18 from the Hearings for Children report states: ‘appropriate evidence-based help and support should be available to help families recover and rebuild their lives after a child has been removed from their care’. This will be explored by Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government will reflect on the findings of the Supporting Roots research. The findings should underpin the ongoing development of support services for birth families in Scotland and act as an aid to practice and policy. In particular, Children’s Services Plans must ensure support is available for families even when a child is removed.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a statutory review of Children's Services Plans on behalf of ministers. The analysis and review will be completed with feedback provided to Children’s Services Planning Partnership (CSPP) areas by April 2024 and a national report of themes and findings will be published in Summer 2024.

A consultation on revised guidance for Part 3 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 on children’s services planning will take place.

The Scottish Government is taking forward work to better link the use of the My World Triangle and National Practice Model within the work of the Reporter and Panel at Children’s Hearings, as recommended in the Hearings for Children report (recommendation 11.15).

The Scottish Parliament will consider the Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill, which aims to allow people who have been diagnosed by a health professional as being addicted to either alcohol or drugs, or both, to be provided with a treatment determination and appropriate treatment. The Bill is currently at Stage 1.

A delivery plan for the refreshed Equally Safe Strategy (published in December 2023) is expected to be published by Scottish Government and COSLA.

The Scottish Government is expected to publish a progress report on the Violence Prevention Framework actions and consider next steps for delivery along with funded partners.

As part of the policy development work around the Promise Bill, the Scottish Government is likely to explore the current statutory framework around supporting families. This should include consideration of whether Part 12 (Services for children at risk of becoming looked after) of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 requires amending and updating to ensure it is being fully implemented.

The recommendations contained in Staying Connected, a joint research project between the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) and Families Outside (a national charity that works solely on behalf of families affected by imprisonment), which published its findings in November 2023 should be considered in full. The research sought to address gaps in knowledge around children and young people’s experiences of separation where their brother or sister is in prison or secure care. It highlighted the detrimental impact this had on children who took part in the study. The report makes 42 recommendations, outlining the key points for further action needed from organisations to fulfil their duties within the relevant policy and legislative context.

The Delivering Equally Safe Fund is being maintained and will run until March 2025. The Fund is providing support to a number of organisations working with children and young people affected by gender-based violence. 

The current cycle of Children's Services Plans ends in 2026. The next planning cycle provides opportunity to consider linkages with adult services and whole family approaches. 

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s Strategic Plan 2023-27 states it will transform the way domestic abuse is prosecuted and sets out three priorities for the years ahead: improving the experiences of women and children within the justice system; improving communication and the support offered to the most vulnerable service users; and achieving quicker conclusions to criminal investigations.

The actions outlined in the Voice foundation are fully embedded at every stage to progress actions on Intensive family support. 

What is helping?

Support for kinship, foster and adoptive families

The Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, Natalie Don, stated that the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring all adoptees and adoptive families can access the support they need, when and where they need it throughout life.

The Kinship Care Collaborative, established in 2020, has been instrumental in prioritising what needs to happen for kinship carers to ensure they are supported to care for the increasing number of children who live with extended family and friends. The work of the Collaborative includes updating the guidance for Part 13 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 to provide better clarity to professionals and kinship carers and developing an assessment framework for kinship carers which links to the national practice model and children’s plans.

The Kinship Care Advice Service for Scotland (KCASS) provides free, confidential, impartial advice to kinship families and those working alongside them.

Support for families once a child has been removed

Since 2022 over £1.2 million in grant funding has been made available to organisations to support birth parents during the Hearing stage. Organisations can bid for a “diagnostic” fund involving research into child removal and what can be done to support parents. Alternatively, they can bid to an “action” fund (the implementation of findings from the diagnostic research). The fund is managed by Corra on behalf of the Scottish Government.

£800,000 in grant funding has been made available to help support birth parents whose child(ren) have been permanently removed from their care. The successful applicants were awarded funding in 2022 and 2023. The participants in the programme will be undertaking tests of change, listening to the voice of lived experienced of birth parents and using this learning to identify what supports birth parents if their child is permanently removed from their care.

Earlier this year, Parenting Across Scotland commissioned The Lines Between to review research focusing on the lived experience and needs of parents and those in a parenting role in Scotland in 2023. The purpose of this research is to understand the key issues, challenges and priorities faced by parents and those in a parenting role in Scotland today.

The Scottish Government’s Supporting Roots research provides a broad picture of the needs of birth parents who have lost a child or children to the ‘care system’.

Planning

In September 2022 refreshed GIRFEC policy and practice guidance materials were published. In October 2023, the GIRFEC Child's Plan Practice Statement was published to communicate current policy intention regarding roles and responsibilities of practitioner’s involvement with the development and monitoring of a Child's Plan.

A review of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, Part 3 statutory guidance on Children's Services Planning is planned to consider if its content, scope and format remains helpful or requires amendments to better reflect the current policy landscape for strategic planning, delivery and reporting to further enhance the available support.

Support for families caring for disabled children and children with additional support needs

Self-directed Support (SDS) Statutory Guidance was updated in November 2022 and an SDS Improvement Plan (2023-27) came into effect from April 2023. This is supported by Scottish Government funding of £7.5 million for 2023/24 comprising a package of grants implemented by Social Work Scotland, In Control Scotland, Inspiring Scotland and the ALLIANCE. This includes a relaunch of the Support in the Right Direction programme, which commenced for three years from April 2024.

The Education, Children and Young People Committee has published a report on the findings of its inquiry into additional support for learning. The inquiry found there was a significant gap between the ambitions and implementation of a policy that aspires for children and young people with additional support needs to be taught in mainstream education.

The Scottish Government has published an engagement analysis report regarding feedback received on the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy: statement of intent. Following the Programme for Government commitment to introduce Scotland’s first National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy, an external strategic working group was established and this group co-developed a statement of intent which set out the proposed vision, scope and priorities for the strategy.

Care planning where a parent has a learning disability

In December 2023, the Scottish Government launched a public consultation on the proposed ‘Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill‘. A key objective of the proposed Bill is to ensure parents with learning disabilities are given the support they need and their children are not unfairly removed from their care. This includes provisions around independent advocacy, data collection and inclusive communications and support.

Parental substance use

In January 2021, the First Minister announced a new National Mission to reduce drug deaths and harms, supported by an additional £50 million funding per year over the lifetime of the Parliament (2021-26).
£3 million continues to be available to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to support local implementation of the delivery framework. 23 projects have been funded to date through Corra and administered via the Children and Families fund.

The National Development Programme for Family Inclusive Practice commenced in June 2023. Learning from this will support other local areas to develop pathways to meet the needs of families in their communities.

The Scottish Government is continuing ongoing work relating to impact of Minimum Unit Pricing and restrictions around alcohol advertising.

Domestic abuse

In 2022, the UK officially ratified the Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe convention on preventing and combating violence against women and girls).

In 2022 the Scottish Government published its Vision for Justice which sets out several priorities including trauma-informed, person-centred support for women and children who are victims and witnesses, including of domestic abuse. The Equally Safe Strategy (Scotland's strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls) was refreshed in 2023. Scottish Government’s ‘Delivering Equally Safe Fund’ currently provides support to a number of organisations working with children and young people affected by gender-based violence. Over the 2 years of the fund, £3.4 million is being provided to 12 organisations solely working with children and young people.

In May 2023, the Scottish Government published its Violence Prevention Framework, which seeks to strengthen Scotland’s response to tackling gender-based violence and support more targeted work to tackle hate crime, youth offending, poverty and inequalities.

Who must act?

Scottish Government

Scottish Government
Local Government

Local Government
Scrutiny

Scrutiny
Public Bodies

Public Bodies
Health

Health
Justice

Justice
Education

Education
Housing

Housing
Voluntary sector

Voluntary sector

Here is what matters to children and families

My family and I can explain our situation once to someone and work as much as possible with a single point of contact, even if we need help from lots of different teams of people. 

When plans are made to help me, those plans include my whole family, any support they need too, and how we live our life together. 

My family members can get therapeutic support to improve their wellbeing, so that they are better supported to manage if they are having any problems. 

Find out more about the what matters questions here.

Also connected to this theme

Documenting decisions
Listening
Participation and engagement
Poverty
Universal family support
Moving on and lifelong support
Where children live
Health
Justice

Mapping

This is how Plan 24-30 relates to other frameworks and plans

Independent Care Review conclusions  Plan 21-24 priority area
the promise pgs. 20; 53-55; 63; 67-68; 74-76 What matters to children and families
  Whole family support
  Supporting the workforce
  Planning

 

 

UNCRC GIRFEC
Articles 3; 9; 18; 19; 20; 22; 23; 24; 27; 33; 34; 39 Safe
Concluding observations 32a-c; 33a-h; 39a-b; 40a-d; 52a-c Healthy
  Achieving
  Nurtured
  Respected
  Responsible
  Included



Plan 24-30 foundations