East Lothian Partnership initiated a child poverty self-assessment process to identify good practice, opportunities, challenges, and potential for innovation in their collective approach to tackling child poverty.
The first session, held in October 2023, set out the process and discussions were held around the four themes of the self-assessment:
- Understanding child poverty in East Lothian: how effectively we measure and track child poverty in the county, how well we understand poverty, how poverty affects people with different characteristics.
- Use of resources and policy: that we strike the right balance between long-term action and short-term intervention, use all policy levers at our disposal, and that our actions are effective and embedded.
- Understanding our progress: long term outcomes are identified and reported against, progress is scrutinised, and accountability is clear.
- Ways of working: the right people are involved in planning and executing, adequate resources are made available, work is joined up and prioritised.
The East Lothian Partnership conducted three development sessions centred around the structured self-assessment framework. The sessions were facilitated by colleagues from the East Lothian Partnership, which includes the local authority, health and the third sector. Hanna McCulloch, National Coordinator for Local Action on Child Poverty, contributed to the sessions by providing guidance and supporting the development of an improvement plan based on survey responses. At the sessions, there was representation from a wide range of services such as customer services (libraries, SWF, housing and homelessness), children's services, education, Midlothian Drugs and Alcohol Partnership, housing strategy, employment support and the third sector.
As the sessions concluded, the East Lothian Partnership formulated its improvement statements and outlined actions to achieve its goals. Its focus included enhancing data usage, engaging with lived experiences, building relationships with low-income families, supporting affordable housing, and providing awareness and anti-stigma training for all staff. It also seeks to develop a clear framework that defines responsibilities and highlights contributions to poverty outcomes alongside integrated service delivery with a place-based focus to support families.
The self-assessment was a catalyst for a lot of difficult but useful conversations. [...] It started within the context of child poverty and led to discussions about improving community planning partnerships.
Outcomes
The self-assessment served as a catalyst for challenging yet important discussions about the ways of working in East Lothian. It highlighted the specific challenges they face and encouraged collective thinking about how these challenges could be addressed more effectively. Importantly, the process created a much-needed opportunity to reflect on poverty in East Lothian as a shared issue, breaking away from siloed approaches to foster collaboration and joint problem-solving.
The process led to strategic shifts, improved collaboration and refined data strategies. They have also received funding from the Scottish Government to improve the way they collect and use data in East Lothian through the What Matters? Collecting, measuring and using data that is meaningful to families in East Lothian project.
Insights from the development sessions will inform East Lothian’s latest Child Poverty Action Report, reflecting on the successful adaptations initiated by the process.
Challenges and improvements
When completing the survey and during subsequent discussions, there was varied understanding of terms like Community Planning Partnerships amongst stakeholders who were not part of existing local stuctures. Lucy Higginson, Equalities and Tackling Poverty Officer at East Lothian Council, highlighted the importance of clear communication and adapting terminology to local contexts.
She acknowledged the challenge of difficult conversations about improvements but saw the process as worthwhile. It brought colleagues across the East Lothian Partnership together, revealing untapped potential and offering a clear framework for future progress.
Further information
If you have any questions regarding the process in East Lothian, please contact Lucy Higginson: lhigginson@eastlothian.gov.uk
If you would like to learn more about the self-assessment process, please contact Hanna McCulloch, National Coordinator for Local Action on Child Poverty: Hanna.McCulloch@improvementservoce.org.uk
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