Whole Family Wellbeing Funding Programme
A national programme for strengthening whole family support in Scotland
The Scottish Government’s Whole Family Wellbeing Funding programme is helping local authorities and partners across Scotland strengthen early, holistic support for families — so every family gets the right help, at the right time, for as long as they need it.
These pages provide an overview of the programme, along with insight into how national policies, principles and ambitions for whole family support in Scotland are being translated into meaningful support for families at a local level. They also highlight how learning and progress in local areas are, in turn, helping to strengthen whole family support across Scotland.
Since October 2022, East Lothian’s Children’s Strategic Partnership (CSP) has been working in partnership with the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding programme’s National Support Team that is made up of improvement and implementation advisors from CELCIS and the Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative (CYPIC).
Find out about how CELCIS and CYPIC have been working alongside partners, and how improvement work has been developing in East Lothian. Watch short videos featuring leaders and practitioners as they share their approaches, experiences, and insights. We also explore a range of improvement frameworks, tools and techniques that have helped East Lothian introduce and embed new ways of working.
This improvement work has shaped the development of Families Together East Lothian, a voluntary, family-led service that builds compassionate relationships, upskills families, strengthens confidence and connects families with local resources. The service reflects a deliberate shift from reactive, fragmented provision towards earlier, community-based support and brings to life key national ambitions for children, young people and families in Scotland.
Links to these tools are includes on our learning and resources page.
View our learning and resources page
What is the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding programme? The Whole Family Wellbeing Funding programme is a key part of Scottish Government work to keep The Promise of the Independent Care Review and sits alongside work to reform Scotland’s system of public services and eradicate child poverty. The Promise says that Scotland must do all it can to keep children with their families and strengthen support for families within their communities.
The programme seeks to overcome long standing challenges in Scotland’s support system, where many families face barriers such as limited awareness of available help, fragmented services and support that often comes too late.
Its aim is to help families thrive by transforming how support is delivered - shifting practice towards prevention and early help, and ensuring whole family support is joined up, easy to navigate and responsive to what families need.
Guided by National Principles for Holistic Whole Family Support in Scotland
The Whole Family Wellbeing Funding programme supports the delivery of the Scottish Government's vision for holistic whole family support in Scotland. It is informed by a ‘Routemap’ and National Principles of Holistic Whole Family Support (‘the National Principles’), which provide the framework for achieving this ambition.
The Routemap sets out four key drivers of change:
- Ensuring children and families are at the centre of decision-making and change
- Availability and access to services across communities
- Using a whole system approach and joined up support
- Supporting workforce development and culture
The National Principles were developed with children and families and support the development of consistent standards of whole family support across Scotland, helping to improve outcomes for children, young people and families.
Scotland’s approach to holistic whole family support recognises that children’s wellbeing is shaped by their family relationships and wider circumstances. Supporting children effectively often means supporting the whole family.
Since 2006, the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) National Practice Model has set out a national commitment to ensuring children, young people and families receive the support they need through a holistic, whole family approach across ‘universal’, ‘targeted’ and ‘intensive’ services. In Scotland, universal support refers to the everyday, easily accessible services available to all families, without exception, to promote health and wellbeing, such as GPs, schools, and health visitors.
Targeted and intensive support is directed at a specific family or individual, where a highly focused approach is required. GIRFEC emphasises early intervention, joined up working and a focus on wellbeing.
In 2020, The Promise of the Independent Care Review strengthened this approach by reinforcing the importance of early, relational support - helping someone through a positive, trusting relationship rather than just providing a service or solving a practical problem - that helps families stay together where safe, and calling for systems to adapt to families rather than expecting families to navigate fragmented services.
Together, GIRFEC and The Promise provide the foundation for Scotland’s continued focus on holistic, whole family support.
How is the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding programme set up and delivered?
The Whole Family Wellbeing Funding programme is designed to support whole system change in family services through a combination of local partnerships, targeted capacity-building, and national collaboration and learning. Following engagement with stakeholders, including The Promise Scotland, third sector, health services and local government, the Programme was split into three distinct Elements:
• Element 1 – Providing direct support to Children's Services Planning Partnership (CSPPs): with funding allocated across all 30 CSPPs to build local service capacity and transform family support services. Each CSPP is responsible for collectively deciding how to spend this allocation in line with Scotland’s Routemap and National Principles of Holistic Whole Family Support.
• Element 2 – National support for local delivery: a package of activity aimed at supporting local transformation, including collaborative partnerships with up to three CSPPs; a Learning into Action Network to share learning, facilitate peer support and collaborate; a Knowledge Hub; as well as a commissioned evaluation, research and learning partner work for the programme.
• Element 3 – Taking a cross Scottish Government approach to system change: including funding approved for 12 projects led by wider Scottish Government policy teams which will progress the aims of the programme.
Read about Whole Family Wellbeing Funding
Driving system change through Collaborative Partnerships
The Whole Family Wellbeing Funding programme aims to transform family support by helping services work together to provide holistic, joined up support tailored to the needs of individual families. Through Collaborative Partnerships, Children’s Services Planning Partnerships, third sector organisations and a National Support Team combine local experience and insight and national expertise to identify challenges, opportunities and priorities, and design, test and implement improvements based on local needs.
The National Support Team
The National Support Team is made up of advisers from CELCIS and CYPIC with specialist knowledge and experience in quality improvement, implementation science and system change. Working in partnership with local leaders and practitioners, the team provides tailored coaching, mentoring, facilitation, training and practical support to help build the capacity, capability and confidence needed to design, test, implement and sustain improvements in family support services.
The Learning into Action Network
A key feature of the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding programme is its focus on learning and collaboration. Its Learning into Action Network provides opportunities for leaders and practitioners to share experiences, exchange learning and explore effective approaches to delivering holistic whole family support. Through regional and national events, stakeholders work together to address common challenges, share good practice and strengthen collaboration across Scotland's Children's Services Planning Partnerships.
Read about the Learning into Action Network
Improvement in practice
East Lothian’s Children’s Strategic Partnership has been part of the Whole Family Wellbeing Funding programme and working in a Collaborative Partnership with the National Support Team since 2022.
Learn more about the work of the East Lothian Collaborative Partnership
Looking for more information or support?
Get in touch with our Whole Family Wellbeing Team [insert hyperlink], we would be delighted to hear from you.