EARLY YEARS FRAMEWORK - BACKGROUND INFORMATION PAPER

A.POLICY DEVELOPMENT PHASE - OVERALL STRUCTURE

1.Following the launch of the joint policy statement on Early Years and Early Intervention, the Scottish Government and COSLA now want to move forward to the next phase of more detailed policy development.

Programme Board

2.A programme board, jointly chaired by the Scottish Government and COSLA, including representation from the NHS and the voluntary sector; the chairs of the task groups (see paragraph 3); ACPOS; and specific individuals chosen for their expertise, will oversee the development of the early years framework over the coming months. The programme board will provide overall strategic direction for the development of the framework and will be a high level forum to provide advice to Scottish Ministers and COSLA.

Task Groups

3.The detailed work will be developed by four task groups, each taking forward consideration ofone of the themes for the framework. The Task Groups will be the real power house of this development phase. The four themes they will cover are:

  • Building parenting and family capacity pre and post birth
  • Creating communities that provide a supportive environment for children and families
  • Delivering integrated services that meet the holistic needs of children and families
  • Developing a suitable workforce to support the framework

These task groups will involve a broad range of stakeholders, from the full range of early years interests, including all sectors and all levels. The groups will be supported by a team of policymakers, service managers, researchers, economists and statisticians from within the Scottish Government and local government. They will report to the programme board.

More detail on the aims objectives and on the remit of the task groups is set out in section B below. Instructions on how the task groups will function are set out at section C and the proposed membership of the task groups, programme board and virtual team are at section D.

Policy Team

4.The programme board and the task groups will be supported by the policy team, which will comprise policy officers from both the Scottish Government and COSLA. The policy team will be involved in all the task groups to provide a degree of co-ordination in policy terms. It will synthesise the outputs of the task groups for consideration by the programme board and will manage the interfaces with other major policy developments.

Virtual Team

5.This team will consist of a wide range of senior policy officers from across the Scottish Government who have an interest in the early years agenda and in the framework. Members will act as a source of reference for the task group chairs and for the programme board. They will be a valuable resource to task groups to enable them to understand the wider policy context within government. They will also ensure that developments in the Early Years Framework and thinking emerging from the Task Groups are reflected back into policy thinking elsewhere.

B.AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF TASK GROUPS

Aim

To develop jointly an early years framework document, within the context of early intervention, based on the themes of

  • building parenting and family capacity pre and post birth
  • creating communities that provide a supportive environment for children and families
  • delivering integrated services that meet the holistic needs of children and families
  • developing a suitable workforce to support the framework

Objectives for each individual group

To

  • set its work clearly within the context of the Government’s Purpose[1], the strategic objectives and Government Economic Strategy;
  • identify how its proposals will contribute to the achievement of the Purpose and the national outcomes;
  • consider allocated tasks from the list agreed by main stakeholders, basing considerations on available evidence;
  • use existing networks of contacts to ensure that as broad a range of stakeholders as possible are enabled to contribute to the discussion;
  • develop creative policy proposals on how each task could be accomplished, identifying any barriers
  • make clear recommendations on the means of delivery, addressing resource issues in doing so;
  • ensure that the proposals put forward take account of equality and diversity principles;
  • in the context of the Concordat, identify ways in which success could be effectively measured.

Inputs

The final agreed list of tasks will be sub divided under the themes of the framework and allocated to the appropriate task group by the Programme Board.

Scottish Government analysts and HMIE are producing a starter pack for each task group that will summarise key research evidence, statistics and examples of innovative practice. This will provide an underpinning evidence base to support discussions but the key input will be the skills, knowledge and experience of task team members and their networks. Team members will be expected to make a time commitment to the task and will be expected to contribute to development of papers and/or discussion of those papers.

Outputs

Each individual task group will be required to produce a report on the tasks allocated to the group, relating the tasks to the theme; identifying barriers and challenges and identifying how these barriers/challenges can be addressedin the short, medium or long term; and making recommendations on the means of delivery.

Timescale

Final policy proposals from the task group to be with the Programme Board by end June 2008.

Overall output

The outputs from each task group will be integrated and reviewed by the Programme Board which will include the chairs of each of the task groups. The Programme Board will be responsible for putting forward proposals to Scottish Ministers and COSLA for consideration for inclusion in the final framework document. The final decisions on what the framework document will contain will be for Scottish Ministers and COSLA to determine.

C.INSTRUCTIONS FOR TASK GROUPS

1.Each task group will be provided with a starter pack of evidence related to the tasks assigned to their group. Each group will also have the support of an analyst from the Scottish Government, who will ensure that the discussions and therefore the findings of the group are evidence based as far as possible. The findings of the groups will be informed and tested against a user focus group that will run in parallel with the groups.

2.The chair will allocate tasks to sub-groups, determined by the interests and experience of the individuals. These sub-groups will identify, for their allocated task(s)

  • where we are now (based on the evidence supplied);
  • where we want to get to and whether these aims are for the short, medium or long term;
  • what we need to do to get there;
  • how we need to do it;
  • who needs to do what to ensure delivery;
  • what the resource implications are and how those resources will be secured;
  • what the barriers are; and
  • in the context of the National Conversation, those areas of reserved responsibilities where a distinctive Scottish approach would bring benefits and identify how this can be achieved.

Consideration of these will enable the subgroups to share their thinking and their proposals with the larger task group by an agreed deadline, probably mid-June.

3.Overarching tasks that all groups and sub groups will need to take into consideration in their deliberations are:

  • Making the links to the principles of Getting it Right for Every Child
  • Within the context of the Concordat, developing success measures and accountability arrangements for implementation of the framework.
  • Embedding equality and diversity principles within all the work on the framework
  • Developing an approach to support for disadvantaged and vulnerable families that integrates with the Government’s development of a framework for tackling poverty, inequality and deprivation.

4.Effective communication within the task groups and subgroups will be crucial and will need to be clear, with protocols agreed between the members at the initial meetings being help between 25 April and 2 May. In terms of practicalities, a substantial amount of communication following these initial meetings will probably be via e-mail, but each subgroup will also wish to identify dates for meetings as soon as possible. The chair of the task group, the relevant analyst and the relevant member of the SG/COSLA policy team should be copied in to all e-mails. We expect that discussion within the subgroups and within the task groups will be frank and open and on a confidential basis to the task group.

Where sub-groups are formed to progress individual tasks, these can include members from outside the task group but must operate within the same expectation of confidentiality.

5.In addition the chair will wish to consider establishing a co-ordination group from among the members of the task group. The co-ordination group will work with the chair to consider the reports from the relevant sub-groups with a view to making the links between their findings. This will clearly require a greater time commitment from those involved. It would also be helpful if dates for full meetings of the task group are identified at the very beginning of the process. The meetings should be the forum for the task group as a whole to come to their agreed position on each of the tasks.

6.The findings from the task group will be passed to the Programme Board by end June to form the basis of the final framework document. The findings will reflect the agreed proposals of the whole task group. For those areas where no agreement can be reached on what the proposals should be, this should be reflected too, along with members’ reasons for the lack of agreement.

7.Support for the task groups will be provided by SG analysts as set out at paragraph 1 above and by the Early Years policy team, made up of officials from SG and COSLA. A member of this team will be a member of each task group and they, along with the chairs of the task groups and the Programme Board, will ensure links are made across the task groups. In addition they will report progress to Scottish Ministers and COSLA and reflect their views back to task groups.

8.Although the main work of the task groups in this phase of development will come to an end in June, we anticipate that the policy team may ask for further input as the final version of the framework develops, through to publication in the autumn.

D.TASK GROUPS: MEMBERSHIP

1.Building parenting and family capacity – to be chaired by Malcolm Wright, NHS Education for Scotland

1

SG

John Froggatt, Child and Maternal Health

Jane Walker, Nursing Officer

James Cox, Getting it Right team

Dona Milne - Public health team – sexual health strategy

Gordon Currie - Parenting educationMargaret Tod, Support for Children and Families

Olivia Mcleod, Care and Justice

Morgan Jamieson, National Clinical Lead, Children and Young People’s Health

SG analyst

NHS

Jackie Mitchell, RCM

CPHVA

Zoe Dunhill

Judy Thomson, Director of Clin Psych, Yorkhill

Anne Maree Wallace, Director of Public Health

Vol.Sector

Homestart – David Milliken

Barnardo’s- Tam Baillie

Children 1st - Anne Houston

Parenting Across Scotland – Clare Simpson

COSLA

Lilian Goldie, West Dunbartonshire Council, ADES

Sandra Paterson, North Ayrshire Council, ADSW

Other

Alan Sinclair

John Carnochan

CPC chairs group-Maggie Tierney

SWIA –Gill Ottley

1

2.Workforce – to be chaired by Val Cox, Deputy Director, Workforce and Capacity Division, Scottish Government

1

SG

Ian Davidson - Workforce and Capacity team

Elinor Mitchell- NHS Workforce-

Liz Denny – Primary Care Nursing Team

Michael Kellet – Teachers Division

SG analyst

NHS

UNISON- Matt Smith

RCGP - nomination

RCN - Anne Thomson/Maxine Moy

NES – Mary Boyle

Vol. Sector

SPPA –Ian McLaughlan

SCMA –Maggie Simpson

CCPS –Adrian Snowball

COSLA

Peter Hay – Aberdeenshire Council (SPDS)

Kristine Johnson – Stirling Council (ADES Personnel Network)

Michelle Miller – City of Edinburgh Council (ADSW)

Other

EIS – Margaret Smith

AQNS – Kathlyn Taylor

SSSC – Edith Wellwood

1

3.Services – to be chaired by Julia Swan, COSLA

1

SG

Peter Willman - Getting it Right

Tim Wallace – Curriculum for Excellence

Robin Mckendrick- Support for learning

Rod Burns, Support for Children and Families

Alex McMahon, Mental Health Delivery and Services

Robert Stevenson - Child and Maternal Health

Healthcare in schools project officer to be identified (contact Jane Walker)

Don McGillivray/Maureen Verrall/Susan Neilands – Positive Futures

SG analyst

Vol. Sector

CALA – Ann Brady

SOSCN – Irene Audain

NCH – Andrew Girvan/ Anne Darlington

Aberlour – Ian Turner

COSLA

Kay Gilmour – East Ayrshire Council (ADES)

Helen Turley – Perth and Kinross (ALACHO)

Kenny Laing – Inverclyde Council (Child Care Partnership Officer Network)

Alison MacKenzie – Argyll and Bute Council (ADSW)

NHS

Derek Cox, Director of Public Health

Dawn Moss, Consultant Children’s Nurse, NHS Borders

Other

Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drugs Action Teams – CE

NDNA – Jacqueline Drinkwater

Care Commission – Alison Ryan

HMIE – Marion Burns

1

4.Community Capacity building - to be chaired by Martin Crewe, Director, Barnardo’s Scotland

1

SG

Mairi Tulbure - Getting it Right team

Sean Stronach – Community Learning and Development

Brian Dornan - Social inclusion –

Alisdair McIntosh - Housing regeneration –

Angela Wiseman, Rural Communities

SG analyst –

COSLA

Gus Collins – South Ayrshire Council (ALACHO)

Anne Rooney – Midlothian Council (ADES and Child Care Partnership Officer Network)

Safaa Baxter – East Renfrewshire Council (ADSW)

Vol Sector

Play Scotland – Marguerite Hunter Blair

Children in Scotland – Agnes Rennie (tbc)

Quarriers – Glynis Elgey

Other

Peter Hamilton - HMIE CLD

Community planning - Sue Bruce

Church of Scotland – Alan Staff, Crossreach

Community Development AllianceScotland - Stewart Murdoch

Community Learning and Development Managers Scotland - John McKnight,

ACPOS nominee

1

5.Virtual Team –

1

Colin Maclean, Director Children, Young People and Social Care

Maureen Verrall, Positive Futures

Don McGillivray, Positive Futures

Dr Peter Donnelly, DCMO

Derek Feeley, Healthcare policy

John Froggatt, Child and maternal Health

Boyd Mcadam, GIRFEC

Alan Johnston, Safer Communities

Claire Monaghan, Safer Children, Stronger Families

Val Cox, Workforce and Capacity

Shane Rankin, Organisations and Quality Issues

Olivia Mcleod, Care and Justice

Mags McGuire, Nursing

Pam Whittle, Public Health and Wellbeing

Kay Barton, Health Improvement

Frances Wood/Brian Dornan, Social Inclusion

Mike Gibson, Support for Learning

Rod Harrison, IAS

Alisdair McIntosh, Housing

Geoff Huggins, Mental Health Division

Tim Wallace, Schools Directorate

Zoe Ferguson, More ChoicesMore Chances

Jim Carle, GIRFEC, Domestic Abuse

Margaret Tod, Supporting Children and Families Team

Sean Stronach, Community Learning and Development

Karen McAvenue, Skills Strategy Team

Local Government Finance Team

Public Sector Reform Team

Robert Nicol, COSLA

6.Programme Board

Colin Maclean, Director, CYPSC joint chair

Rory Mair, COSLA - joint chair

Maureen Verrall, Depute Director, Positive Futures Division, SG

Gillian Tee, COSLA

Derek Feeley, Director Healthcare Policy and Strategy

Dr Linda de Caesteker, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

Romy Langeland

Tom Halpin, ACPOS

Bronwen Cohen, Children in Scotland

Malcolm Wright, Chair of parenting task groups

Val Cox, Chair of workforce task group

Martin Crewe, Chair of communities task group

Julia Swan, Chair of services task group

In attendance

Don McGillivray, Positive Futures Division, SG

Robert Nicol, COSLA

SG Communications Team

Rod Harrison, SG Analytical Services Team

Anncris Roberts, Positive Futures Division, SG

7.End users reference group

[tbc]

[1]The Scottish Government’s Purpose isto create a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth.