Overview
For Highlands Children 5 (FHC5) is Highland’s Integrated Children’s Service Plan. The plan outlines the commitments of Highlands’ Community Planning Partnership and identifies key priorities for improvement and the strategic objectives of the partnership for the period of 2021 - 2023.
The plan incorporates and builds upon outcomes identified within the previous iterations of integrated planning and is driven by the voices, needs and rights of children, young people and families across Highland.
The Performance Management Framework reflects themes developed for improvement since For Highlands Children 4.
The Planning and Operational Structure
For Highlands Children 5 uses a service improvement model to determine outcomes, identify priorities and quality assure the plan.
An Integrated Planning Board overviews the on-going work of the plan. This group has broad membership, including lead officers from Highland Council and NHS Highland, SCRA and Northern Constabulary. In addition there are staff representatives from NHS Highland and Highland Council, third sector partners and elected members.
Integrated Planning in Highland centres on improvement within the 6 priority themes identified. Strategic leadership to each of these themes is provided by the following Boards/Committee’s or Improvement Groups:
- Rights and Participation Improvement Group
- Child Protection Committee
- Poverty
- Corporate Parenting Board
- Highland Alcohol and Drug Partnership
- Health, wellbeing and mental health
You can review the structural chart which outlines reporting and governance arrangements.
Self-Evaluation
The leadership group and improvement groups use a self-evaluative approach to identify how well we are performing in relation to the outcomes we seek for children, young people and their families. This approach considers three key questions: how are we doing?; how do we know?; and what can we do differently or better to improve outcomes for children and young people? The process also describes how children and young people, their parents and carers and other stakeholders are consulted with.
The Improvement Framework
The achievement of better outcomes for Highlands’s children, their families and the communities in which they live is the overarching objective for children’s services.
The outcomes are designed to consider the ways in which;
- Children and young people receive the help and support they need to optimise their well-being at every stage.
- Children and young people get the best start in life and enjoy positive, rewarding experiences growing up.
Children and young people benefit from clear protocols, procedures and effective systems for recording observations and concerns which take account of best practice in information-sharing.
4.3 The outcomes relate to the impact of services on the well-being of children and young people using the SHANARRI indicators. It focuses on their experiences and the extent to which their lives and life opportunities will be enhanced to ensure they are;
- Safe
- Healthy
- Achieving
- Nurtured
- Active
- Respected and Responsible
- Included
Improvement Planning
Each improvement group has developed a workplan with a common format. The plans show all current improvement priorities, centred on the key outcomes.
The plans are dynamic and are monitored and updated regularly. Each plan is formally evaluated on an annual basis. Summaries of the improvement plans are maintained and updated on this Website.
Performance management framework
The plan provides a performance management framework for monitoring and scrutinising the outcomes. The framework articulates the mechanism agreed for evaluating and measuring outcomes, responsibilities and timescales.
The performance management framework contains a number of quantitative measures built around the fourteen outcomes.
