What is helping?
There are examples all over Scotland of work underway aimed at ensuring that the voices of children and families are listened to, embedded into service design, and influence decision making - with various methods for participation and co-design being developed or incorporated. This includes (but is not limited to):
- Champions Boards and lived experience panels.
- Planning, policy, training and operational guidance documents co-written by people with lived experience.
- Roles specifically focused on embedding the voice of lived experience into local area decision making and delivery of the promise.
- One-to-one support, such as mentoring.
- Informal events aimed at listening to children and young people with care experience and learning from their insights.
- Creating child-friendly complaints processes.
In March 2023 the Voice of the Infant: Best Practice Guidelines and the 'Infant Pledge' were created by a short-term working group for the Infant Mental Health Implementation and Advisory Group, a segment of the Scottish Government's Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board. These documents aim to guide professionals in both statutory and voluntary sector services, as well as in public spaces like shops, community centres and libraries, on how to consider infants' views and rights in all interactions.
In May 2023, Hearings for Children, the Hearings System Working Group‘s Redesign Report, included five recommendations about the voices and involvement of children and their families within Children’s Hearings:
- Include children and families in the decision making process.
- Help children and families understand choices around participation.
- The experiences of babies and infants must be captured.
- Commence provisions in s.3 of the Children (Scotland) Act (all children and families must be able to access the help and support they need in line with the promise).
- Examine the benefits and consequences of recording Hearings.
Recommendations were also made about the Reporter working more closely alongside children and families; listening to children and families’ voices, views and experiences; doing all they can to make connections between similar processes to avoid duplication, overwhelm and confusion; and reviewing the child’s plan (where one exists), to make sure there is an understanding of what helps and that support has been put in place for children and their families. In December 2023, Scottish Government accepted 63 of the recommendations and a Children's Hearings Redesign Board was established to provide oversight for delivering the necessary changes.
An evaluation of Children 1st’s Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) pilot in the Scottish Borders was published in February 2024. The aim was to enhance understanding of what FGDM looks like in practice and assess the impacts currently being observed, as well as to find out where FGDM is implemented and where there are gaps. It also explores the legal context of FGDM and considers whether it can be strengthened. Furthermore, the research looks at options to enhance the practice, legislative and policy framework and evaluate international insights that could support these decisions.
The National Family Group Decision Making Standards were launched in May 2024 by the National FGDM Steering Group, which set out a model for FGDM to operate in Scotland. They are intended to be implemented in practice to support consistency and quality and to incorporate into other existing relevant guidance e.g. Child Protection Guidance, Scottish Children's Reporters Administration (SCRA) Practice Directions and Children’s Hearing Panel Member National Guidance.
Work is underway to ensure the way Scotland understands its progress to #KeepThePromise reflects what matters to children and families, so that listening can be embedded in the design, delivery and monitoring of services that support children and families. This begins with the What Matters questions, a set of questions created from what children and families told the Independent Care Review was important to them, and which can be used as an improvement tool for both data and practice.
The Promise Progress Framework - developed by COSLA, Scottish Government, and The Promise Scotland - will assess how is Scotland doing in its progress towards keeping the promise? The Promise Progress Framework uses multiple data sources to guide a high-level understanding of the national story of progress across initial key aims of the promise. It uses existing data to avoid adding to the data collection burden and it will be openly available to support collective understanding and accountability for keeping the promise.
