City Region Deal Project Provides Vital Support to Fife Families Throughout Pandemic

The Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal’s Intensive Family Support Service is helping families in areas affected by low employment levels and higher poverty rates cope with the Covid-19 crisis.  The pandemic has created new challenges and worsened existing issues such as food insecurity, poor mental health and low income. These barriers create further disadvantage for children and young people. This means support is needed now, more than ever.

In Fife, ‘Making it Work’ for Families is being delivered to support vulnerable families with S1/S2 pupils living at home. Fife Gingerbread and partners provide holistic family support to lone parent and low-income families. Developed ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, the project has been adapted so that it’s delivered safely and effectively.

Laura Millar, Fife Gingerbread, said: “Problems beyond the classroom affect the ability of children and young people to be in school and ready to learn. Working with families is the most effective way to make real, positive change. The programme has been re-introduced at a challenging time for lone parents and families in need. It is a privilege to get to know families and provide support that we hope can be a catalyst for change. There is an opportunity to work across the City Region and continuously improve our approach to deliver the best possible support.”

One in five children live in poverty across Fife, but this rises to almost one in three in some places1. ‘Making it Work for Families’ is focused where child poverty issues are most widespread, starting with families connected to Levenmouth Academy and Viewforth High School.

Fife Gingerbread, Citizens Advice & Rights Fife, Clued Up and Fife’s Intensive Rehabilitation & Substance Misuse team are working together to provide support to meet the needs of families, including: 

• Emotional support for parents/carers through 1-1 support

• Support for young people focused on wellbeing and personal development

• Financial inclusion activities, income maximisation, housing support and budgeting

• Crisis interventions to ensure families are safe, warm and fed

• Training such as confidence building, cooking and career development

• Connecting families to job opportunities across the City Region.

Fife Council Co-Leader David Ross said: “The Intensive Family Support Service within the City Region Deal is a great opportunity to bring together a wealth of expertise and approaches across Edinburgh and South East Scotland to improve the lives and opportunities for our region’s families.”

Fife Council Co-Leader David Alexander added: “The Intensive Family Support Service’s ‘Making it Work for families’ programme has adapted to provide vital support to vulnerable families during lockdown and help end disadvantage. By reaching out to families most in need of support and helping pupils attend school Fife’s children and young people can make the most of their education.”

Over recent weeks and months most support has been delivered online, with families supported to overcome digital exclusion barriers.

Bridging the gap between school and home life
One Fife family was referred by a high school during the first lockdown in 2020. The young person in the household was having difficulties engaging with and attending school, and had not been participating during school closures.

During an initial home visit the 39-year old lone parent revealed health conditions that were impacting on the family. Family relationships were often strained, and this was something the parent wanted to improve on.  After that, weekly contact via phone or video calls provided essential emotional support. This support was tailored to the individual, with a combination of texting, messaging and video calls.

The family was struggling on a limited budget - so providing a financial review and practical advice supported the family and relieved a great deal of  financial strain.

As well as practical support – making sure the young person, aged 14, had a device to engage with online learning during lockdown – a focus was  on reducing feelings of isolation during lockdown. A dedicated youth worker supported them with their mental health, confidence, self-esteem, emotions and helping them achieve their aspirations through a trusting and non-judgmental environment.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the young person and their worker met on a weekly basis to go for a walk. Changes were put in place to encourage positive thinking and school attainment. This has included video chat to support the young person with home learning challenges whilst not in school. 

During this second lockdown the family continues to receive support through mental health services and financial and budgeting advice to achieve greater financial stability. The young person continues to get help in building their confidence and aspirations and is now engaging well with school and is much more positive about their future.

Contact Information

Jenny Murray

Communications

Fife Council

03451 55 55 55 ext. 44 26 06

Jenny.Murray-crm@fife.gov.uk

Podcast: Can data help families in the City Region escape poverty and social isolation?

The latest instalment in the podcast series between the City Region Deal's Data-Driven Innovation programme and the Scotsman examines how data can support families in the Edinburgh city region suffering from poverty and social isolation. 

A new project, the City Region Deal's Intensive Family Support Service, is harnessing data to ensure the benefits of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal - especially new job opportunities  - are fairly spread throughout society. 

Sarah Galey-Horn of the University of Edinburgh discusses how the new project is seeking to find great examples of family support, and to share that brilliant work across the region.  She is joined by Kate Kelman of the Capital City Partnership and Laura Millar from Fife Gingerbread to explain how data is used and how expertise is pooled to make the lives of families across the city region better. The panel also explore how the pandemic has changed their approach to tackling this issue. From Fife Gingerbread organising evenings for lone parents on zoom to parents building support networks online. 

To listen to the podcast, please click on this link.

Work Gets Underway on City Deal Project in Kirkcaldy

Fife’s flagship Industrial Innovation Investment programme has now begun construction work on seven single storey business units on land to the east of Midfield Drive, within Dunnikier Business Park, Kirkcaldy.

The modern buildings include solar panels and are located at an established and popular business location in the town, close to key transport links including public transport.  The units are scheduled for completion in the autumn, and will boost economic development opportunities within Kirkcaldy, and provide small business space to local enterprises with growth ambitions. 

The project is part of a wider investment programme, the Fife Industrial Innovation Investment (i3) programme, which will deliver new buildings and serviced sites across Mid and South Fife.  It will support the creation of 1,000 new skilled permanent jobs and almost 600 short-term construction jobs.  It also aims to attract around £30 million in private sector investment. This will be facilitated by joint working between the region’s universities, Fife businesses and Fife Council to deliver high value jobs. The programme is part of the £1.3 billion Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, a partnership of local authorities, universities and colleges, and the Scottish and UK Governments to deliver a 15-year programme that will transform the regional economy.

Neil Crooks, Convener - Kirkcaldy Area Committee, Fife Council: "I am pleased that this project is now underway, and that Kirkcaldy is one of the first towns in Fife to benefit from investment from the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal. 

“Our focus in Fife is firmly on fairer economic growth, where everyone benefits from good employment opportunities.  I’m looking forward to seeing tenants getting in and getting going when these units are finished next autumn.  That’s what this investment is really about, supporting growing businesses that can invest in their workforce to create and sustain good jobs.  The properties themselves are being built with future challenges and opportunities in mind, so the companies locating here will have premises that can adapt with their business model.”

The Fife Industrial Innovation Investment programme will be delivered in three phases. Phase one, which runs until March 2022, includes projects Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy, Lochgelly, Dunfermline and Dalgety Bay and will deliver a mix of completed buildings to let and serviced land available for immediate investment by new or existing businesses.

Altany Craik, Convener - Economy, Tourism. Strategic Planning & Transportation Committee, Fife Council, added: “This project is the first visible sign in Kirkcaldy of the positive changes that the City Region Deal will bring to Fife.

“Through the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal regional partners will secure more than £1.3 billion of investment for the city region over the next 15 years.  We believe that this can create clear opportunities for genuine inclusive economic growth and investment in Fife. 

“The Deal focuses on growing the regional economy through collaboration and by being outward-looking, building on the region’s existing strengths in key sectors and industries. Our Fife Industrial Innovation Investment programme will increase the supply of serviced employment land and new industrial, office and business space in Fife.

"Through the wider City Region Deal Fife businesses will have increased opportunities to build-on the value they generate from their data by adopting digital technologies, and use this to create new products, and generate both new supply chain arrangements and new business models - creating and safeguarding jobs."

Leasing enquiries can be made to business.property@fife.gov.uk

Contact Information

Fife Council

01592 583312

Fifecouncil.news@fife.gov.uk

Doing Data Together - Ethical collaboration through Covid-19 and beyond Virtual conference

Friday 6 November 2020, 10am-4pm GMT

Register for the free-to-attend event: scotsmandataconference.co.uk

City Region Deal partner the University of Edinburgh will hold its third Data-Driven Innovation conference (held jointly with the Scotsman newspaper) on Friday 6 November 2020.

Join experts from inside the City Region, and beyond, to hear about the enormous challenges - and real opportunities - in our increasingly data-rich world.

Covid-19 is the first pandemic where the response has been truly data-driven, with real-time information at the heart of life-or-death decisions throughout the crisis.

How did Government, health services and other public bodies collaborate - often at great speed - to inform those decisions? What lessons have we learned to help us emerge from the pandemic and ensure we share and analyse data more effectively in future?

We’ll be addressing these and many other questions with an excellent programme of speakers, including:

• Ben Macpherson, Minister for Public Finance and Migration

• Professor Shannon Vallor, Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh

• Dr Kenneth Meechan, Head of Information and Data Protection Officer Glasgow City Council

• Professor Alexander Pentland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Professor Devi Sridhar, Chair of Global Public Health, University of Edinburgh

• Timandra Harkness, writer, broadcaster and comedian

• Professor Jason Leitch, National Clinical Director, Scottish Government

The Data-Driven Innovation initiative is a key deliverable of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, and comprises a network of innovation hubs that bring researchers together with businesses, charities, and the public sector, at the crossroads of data science, research, and real-world challenges – where exciting innovations can take place.

Register for free: scotsmandataconference.co.uk

City Region Deal help for family support services

Intensive family support services across South East Scotland are receiving a boost from the City Region Deal.

The Deal’s Intensive Family Support Service will help families in areas of chronic worklessness and poverty, bringing together the third sector and all six local authorities in South East Scotland with research expertise from the University of Edinburgh.

The first phase has launched in South East Scotland, covering Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, Fife, Scottish Borders, and West Lothian.

Capital City Partnership has engaged leading charities Children 1st, Barnardo’s and Fife Gingerbread to partner with local authorities in delivery of the services.

Rona Hunter, Chief Executive Officer, Capital City Partnership, said:

The Intensive Family Support Service within the City Region Deal is a great opportunity to bring together a wealth of expertise and approaches across Edinburgh and South East Scotland to improve the lives and opportunities for a number of families. Harnessing local efforts under a regional framework, it establishes how we can make a difference in the long term to bring about sustainable change. I’m looking forward to seeing the project develop and for further knowledge to emerge so that we can continue to improve pathways out of poverty and inequality.

Focus areas include: supporting lone parent and low-income households affected by worklessness; helping adults to provide a better environment for their young people; and ensuring families can benefit from job opportunities created through the City Region Deal.

Families will receive support for core issues that affect everyone in the household to create stability and increase independence. They will receive help to engage in employment or employability-related activities, and receive advice on welfare and income maximisation.

Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity, Michael Matheson said:

City Region and Growth Deals will be a crucial part of our economic recovery from coronavirus (COVID-19) as we work towards a fairer and more inclusive Scotland. We are investing £300 million over 15 years to the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal across transport, housing, culture, innovation and skills to help achieve this.

The Intensive Family Support Service will demonstrate that we can achieve more by working together in partnership and in turn, be able to provide support and opportunities for those that need it most in these challenging times.

Sarah Galey-Horn, University of Edinburgh, is helping the service look at how organisational and social interactions promote economic mobility in low-income families. Sarah commented:

I see family support programmes like IFSS as part of a broader trend towards community-based social policy that puts human relationships, rather than individual outcomes, at the centre of social services. The research project uses a method called social network analysis (SNA) that focuses on analysing and building relationships that reduce poverty-related vulnerabilities. This approach will help us identify practices that facilitate trusting, supportive relationships with families and to share those practices across the six local delivery partners.