Social Needs Screening Tool (Perth and Kinross) - aiding frontline staff in identifying resident needs and referral to appropriate support services.
Category
- Promising Local Practice
Poverty impact
- Reduction
- Awareness
Poverty driver
- Non-driver - improving quality of life
Keywords
- Lived Experience
- Research, Data and Evaluation
- Family Support
Aim
The objective of Perth and Kinross Council’s Social Needs Screening Tool is to identify and overcome unmet needs in the area. It aims to help frontline workers identify the challenges parents with children in early years education are facing and refer them to subsequent support. It has also provided the Council with a level of detail about unmet needs in specific localities and schools they did not previously have.
Summary
The objective of Perth and Kinross Council’s Social Needs Screening Tool is to identify and overcome unmet needs in the area. The Tool has been rolled out to frontline workers to help them identify the challenges parents of children in early years education are facing and refer them to support. The Tool involves questions co-produced with parents with lived experience of poverty, specifically related to food insecurity, housing instability, utility needs, financial resource strain, employment and exposure to violence. It provides increased detail about unmet needs in localities and schools whilst guiding frontline workers with referrals to specific support services.
What difference does it make?
The project has made a difference in that frontline workers are now better equipped to refer those requiring support to appropriate services. Those requiring support are now able to get the help they need depending on the challenge they are facing. Although the Tool is a work in progress, it has provided the Council with new, detailed data on where specific issues are located and how best to tackle those obstacles.
Key take-aways
- Co-production takes longer and is more resource intensive, but it also builds support for the approach.
- Frontline workers/manager who were sceptical about the approach set aside their concerns when they found out it was the product of a robust co-production exercise.
- We are now using it in surveys as well as face to face which we did not anticipate.
How to guide
Additional information that may assist others to adopt this local practice
Learn more arrow_forwardOrganisations
Perth and Kinross Council, Perth Citizens Advice Bureau, Northern Star consultancy firm and Perth and Kinross Council’s Early Years Learning Service.
Location
Perth and Kinross.