North Ayrshire Council Unveils New Children and Families Plan
A three-year strategy aims to create the best environment for children to grow up in North Ayrshire.
By Kirsty Lennox
••3 min read
AI
Generic image of a group of children and young people in a community setting.
North Ayrshire Council has endorsed a new three-year Children and Families Plan, aiming to make the region the best place for children to grow up by integrating services and support.
The plan, developed by the North Ayrshire Children’s Services Strategic Partnership, consolidates children's services planning, child poverty action, and children's rights into a unified approach. Its core values include protecting and promoting rights, acting early to provide support and safety, ensuring fairness and opportunities, and improving wellbeing.
A key focus is early intervention to prevent challenges from escalating into crises. This involves continued investment in early intervention services, enhanced family support, improved childcare access, and timely assistance for families. The plan also prioritises reducing child poverty, with commitments to increase family incomes, employment opportunities, and benefit uptake, addressing the reality that approximately one in five children in North Ayrshire experience poverty.
Building on existing successes, the Money Smart service secured £20.7 million for residents in 2025/26, and programmes like We Work for Families have helped parents into employment. The plan champions children's rights, supporting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and ensuring young voices influence decisions affecting them. A new youth scrutiny group, Youth ARE Leaders, will work with the Strategic Partnership to ensure accountability and gather feedback.
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"Every child deserves the opportunity to grow up healthy, safe, supported, and able to achieve their potential, regardless of their circumstances. This new Children and Families Plan sets out a clear vision for how partners will work together to improve the lives of children, young people and families across North Ayrshire. By bringing together our work on children's services, children's rights and child poverty into one joined-up plan, we can make better use of our resources, strengthen partnership working, and focus on what matters most - improving outcomes for local children and families."
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"This plan reflects a shared commitment across all our partners to work alongside children, young people and families to deliver the support they need, when they need it. The engagement carried out during the development of the plan has given us valuable insight into the experiences and aspirations of local families, helping to shape priorities that are informed by what matters most to them. By listening to children and young people, and strengthening collaboration across services, we can continue to create opportunities for every child to flourish and reach their full potential."
The plan was developed through extensive consultation with children, young people, families, communities, and partner organisations, and aligns with national priorities for reducing child poverty and providing whole family support.
