Foreword
Our Integrated Children's Services Plan for 2021-2023 identifies our priorities for supporting children, young people and their families. These priorities will be carried out in collaboration with a range of agencies and partners and reflect the needs identified by us and in consultation with them.
Our joint plan for 2021-2023 will be reported through our Nurtured Delivery and Improvement Group to the Community Planning West Dunbartonshire Management Board. Nurtured Group membership consists of partners from Educational Services, HSCP, Housing and Employability, Police Scotland, third sector partners, our Youth Alliance, Champions Board, SDS, Our Communities team and The Scottish Children's Reporter and we will work in partnership to deliver our priorities over the next three years.
Our Plan embeds the principles of Getting It Right For Every Child and ensures the United Nations Convention of Children's Rights is central to the development of our supports, services and engagement with all stakeholders.
Our plan was delayed as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to allow us time to evaluate its impact on our communities and to re-align our focus reflecting identified needs. It is clear the impact of the pandemic on our children, young people and families will continue to influence our planning and focus for time to come. We know through experience and consultation that more families are in need of help to mitigate against the impact of poverty, that the emotional well-being of our children and young people and those who care for them has been impacted and that the repercussions on child development, attainment and achievement will continue to become more evident over time. Therefore, our plans and priorities will remain agile to address these issues.
We will continue to work together to develop a West Dunbartonshire where all of our residents are:
Flourishing Independent Nurtured Empowered Safe
Laura Mason Jonathan Hinds
Chief Education Officer Head of Children's Health, Care and Justice
West Dunbartonshire Council Chief Social Work Officer
West Dunbartonshire Council and Social Care Partnership
Consultation and Decision Making
Our Integrated Children's Services Plan has been informed by a range of consultation with children, young people and their families. This has ensured we are reflecting the voice, views, experiences and contributions they can make to our plans. Members of our Youth Alliance and Champions Board are integral to our Nurtured DIG and central to the review and evaluation processes of our plans as we progress.
We have used information and data gathered from a range of consultation processes.
Our Cost of the School Day survey for parents, pupils and staff informed our understanding of the challenges families face and informed interventions to mitigate against the impact of poverty on health and wellbeing and engagement in school and the community.
We used local and national information from surveys of the impact of COVID on our children and young people to identify issues pertinent to them and which they feel have impacted on their lives. It is clear from these that we need to ensure a continued focus on supporting mental health and our responses to the trauma they have and are experiencing.
family help
When reflecting upon engagement and involvement, children, young people and their families identified the opportunity to engage in a range of local out of school and extra curricular opportunities was valued. Our SHINE programme (Summer Holidays Involve Nurture Engage) and wider partner holiday programmes were recognised as being valuable means of supporting fun family holiday activities which were free and provided an opportunity to access healthy food across the community. In collaboration we identified families most at risk, who benefited from this support and engagement over the holiday periods. We will continue to develop and extend this reflecting the current challenges presented by the Pandemic.
supporting those with additional needs
Our continued focus on supporting families with early help has been a successful means of ensuring timely and effective supports.
In evaluations, families report they feel enabled and more able to manage the challenges they are presented with. They recognised the value of the range of parenting supports provided by partners, across the age ranges of children and young people.
The consistent local ELC provision as a result of the Early Years Expansion has provided increased opportunities for them to access education and work.
We know families have been challenged as a result of the pandemic in a range of ways. Financial worries, support mechanisms, change, loss and trauma experiences have increased stress on them. We will use this information to ensure our plans provide the earliest help by those closest to them.
Reflecting national findings about involvement and engagement of children, young people and families with additional support needs, it is clear from our consultations that opportunities to be involved and included in activities as a family and out of school are important and valued but not happening often enough or varied enough. Collectively we will address this as part of our new plan.
Our support for transitions to adult services has been good and developed well over recent years; with increasing numbers of young people accessing appropriate supports and destinations supported by multi-agency planning. However, evaluations by all involved identify we could continue to develop our transition processes ensuring all young people, regardless of setting are supported appropriately to their next destination.
It is clear from staff and parent evaluations that we are effective in meeting the learning needs of children with additional support needs. However, the increasing numbers of children identified with additional support needs necessitates the development of robust professional learning programmes supporting all staff understanding and skills in the range of social, emotional and developmental needs of children and young people.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
The UNCRC incorporation in Scottish Law requires us as an Authority to protect and deliver Children's Rights. To facilitate this process, we have aligned our implementation as an integral feature of our Children's Planning. We will continue to develop this via our implementation of the Promise recommendations and our Participation and Engagement Strategy. These will ensure increased levels of participation from all sectors of children and young people and will help to demonstrate the impact of co-production of strategic planning and participatory budgeting on decisions effecting them and their communities.
Our experiences and evaluations tell us COVID-19 has had a far reaching impact on our children and young people. We will use this information to plan with them how best to address their challenges as we progress towards recovery.
Supporting Children, Young People and Families Who Need It most
Children and young people who are care experienced or Young Carers recognised the value of being involved and included in exercise and out of extra-curricular activities can be compounded by challenges associated with their home circumstances. Partners have been innovative and committed to maintaining relationships and contact during the pandemic, however, it is clear this has proved a challenging and testing time for young people already marginalised. Together we will continue to plan supports to overcome barriers for learning, exercise and fun beyond the school day which can increase feelings of isolation and anxiety; ensuring they are provided with a range of support mechanisms to be involved and engaged.
In collaboration with The Promise Partnership Fund, we have created the posts of Promise Keepers. These postholders will work with partners across the Council to help us take the principles of the Promise to the heart of our work and plans. We are committed to ensuring transformational change to children, young people and families in or on the edges of care. Our plans will ensure care-experienced young people and families are central to our decision making processes.
Mitigating against poverty
Whilst our Education Service was very well placed to support children and young people continue their learning online, our experiences during the pandemic inform us there was a clear divide in terms of families' abilities to support their children's engagement with on-line learning. Those with limited digital resources or internet access struggled initially and were at risk of missing out and being isolated. In partnership with Scottish Government, Educational Services, Housing and Employability teams, HSCP and local partners have ensured connectivity and access to devices to all families considered in need either through deprivation, numbers in households, looked after status or other dividing means.
This facility has ensured continuity in education, mentoring opportunities, individualised supports and wider social participation. We will continue to engage with families for whom circumstances change; supporting accordingly.
Our Child Poverty Report has focused our joint work on supporting families to maximise income, supporting access to work, supporting the cost of living and in a range of other ways such as our Family Opportunities Hubs based in our local high schools and serving the local learning communities; supported by staff from a range of service areas.
We are clear the economic and social impacts of poverty on our communities have been compounded by COVID-19 and are likely to remain so for time to come. Reflecting local and National statistical analysis, we will continue to ensure our joint planning focuses support to help address this impact on our most vulnerable members of our community.
Continuing Collaboration and Engagement Processes
From necessity our means of networking, planning and engagement with children, young people, their families and partners has evolved.
The opportunities presented have ensured continuity in Child Planning Processes via remote meetings, continuity in collaborative planning, professional learning and the continued engagement with children and young people via a range of platforms such as googlemeet, zoom and micro-soft Teams. Feedback informs us these developments have suited some families and enabled them to engage in a way that is accessible and comfortable to them. For others it has proved challenging and face to face engagement is preferred. This on-line remote model has been beneficial and supported our employees in flexible working approaches. We will continue to capitalise on this whilst remaining agile to the evolving picture of our communities and their needs post pandemic.
Our strategic priorities 2021-2023
We are committed to Getting It Right For Every Child and our priorities for the next three years are based on these principles, reflecting our collective experiences of the impact of the pandemic. We will address the challenges of poverty, mental health and providing early family help; ensuring voices of those we serve are reflected in our subsequent actions; enabling them to be active participants.
The Priorities are:
Ensuring the wellbeing and safe care of all children and young people.
All children and young people have equitable access to appropriate health provision and advice.
Improved attainment and achievement for all children and young people.
Ensure all children and young people have a safe and stable home environment.
Respecting the voices of all children and young people in their life choices.
Developing the engagement and participation of children and young people in all aspects of their lives.
Ensuring all children and young people are empowered to overcome barriers to inclusion and have equitable access to opportunities
