Learning from supporting Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) practice in Dundee
On this page
Introduction
What is ANEW?
Why early intervention?
More information on the evidence base
What framework was used?
More information on Active Implementation
What learning does ANEW offer?
Additional readings
Introduction
Welcome to our online resource. Here, you’ll find a range of information and resources about the Addressing Neglect and Enhancing Wellbeing (ANEW) programme. The information, recordings, and other resources on this page provide an overview of the programme and explain how CELCIS supported multi-agency partners in Dundee, one of the local areas involved in the programme, to make practice changes and strengthen the early support for children, young people and families.
What is ANEW?
Funded as part of the Scottish Government’s Child Protection Improvement Programme, Addressing Neglect and Enhancing Wellbeing (ANEW) was a programme which, in Dundee, evolved to support health visiting, early learning and school staff who hold the named person role to better understand and respond to children’s needs at an early stage.
In line with the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) approach, ANEW adopted a preventative, early intervention and rights-based focus so that children’s wellbeing concerns are understood and addressed before more specialist support is needed. The lens therefore shifted from responding to neglect to supporting the prevention of neglect by strengthening wellbeing.
The work started in 2017 in Dundee, Inverclyde and Perth and Kinross – the three local authority areas that came alongside CELCIS to form the initial ANEW partnership. The areas were supported to explore their local context, design change ideas, and develop their implementation capacity and expertise to facilitate practice change. As the programme progressed, Dundee became the main programme site which moved into developing and using practice changes that became specific to ANEW. Although CELCIS’s involvement in ANEW concluded in early 2023, the multi-agency team in Dundee has continued to use the practice changes developed in the programme.
Why early intervention?
All children have the right to have their needs met. Evidence tells us that when a child’s emotional, physical and/or psychological needs are persistently not met, their health, development and growth can be seriously impacted. The effects on children and young people’s wellbeing can last long into adulthood. While the importance of early intervention is widely known and Scotland has GIRFEC as a national practice approach, there are many barriers to effective early intervention highlighted within the evidence base.
More information on the evidence base [accordion function, text below will appear only if people click on ‘more information’] The evidence included the findings of Christie Commission (2011) on the delivery of public services, the Brock Report (2014) on safeguarding vulnerable children, the work of Professor Brigid Daniels (2015) on noticing and responding to neglect, and the Child Protection Systems Review (2017).
More details about the theory that underpinned ANEW are provided in the Additional Readings below.
In the ANEW Programme, strengthening the implementation of GIRFEC was agreed to be the key mechanism for responding to early wellbeing concerns and ensuring that children and families get the support they need, when they need it.
What framework was used?
To help bridge the gap between research and practice, CELCIS identified Active Implementation as the approach which would best suit this complex change programme.
Active Implementation helps organisations to effectively implement new practices to scale up and sustain complex interventions, and identify and address the barriers to effective implementation. It is based on decades of research and implementation practice activities.
More details about Active Implementation are provided in the Additional Readings below.
What learning does ANEW offer?
The experience of the ANEW programme offers valuable learning for colleagues involved in:
- strengthening early intervention and prevention approaches;
- defining practices and processes underpinning collaborative, multi-agency working;
- implementing strengths-based practice that listens to and puts children, young people and their families at the centre;
- advancing the understanding of what it takes to support complex change.
The learning from the ANEW programme can also support colleagues working to translate into action key policies and national strategic programmes, such as:
- Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC);
- Keeping The Promise;
- The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC);
- Whole Family Wellbeing Funding programme;
- Fairer Futures Partnership programme.
To tell the story of the ANEW programme and the complex change work it entailed, we have structured it under the following sections:
- Effective Practices, describing WHAT the vision for change was, and the strands of work and practices that were developed in the programme;
- The ENABLING CONTEXT required to support the change;
- HOW we supported the efforts towards an effective implementation of the change;
- The OUTCOMES envisaged by the change.
While the sections are presented in a linear manner, in practice we worked across priorities, attending to multiple aspects at once. We began with the end in mind and were always thinking about what needed to be done to make the envisaged change happen.
In this video Emma Hanley, Children's Services Implementation Lead at CELCIS, discusses the rationales, the evidence and the approaches underpinning the work.
Additional readings [downloadable documents]
Background to the ANEW programme: This tells the story of how CELCIS built the groundwork towards complex change, bringing together the evidence and theory that underpinned the programme.
Selecting a framework for innovation – Why Active Implementation? This summarises why Active Implementation was identified as a suitable approach for the ANEW programme. It introduces the Formula for Success and the frameworks used in Active Implementation.
