

Piloting a new service approach to engaging with vulnerable communities in Fife
Fife is a council area in Scotland home to 375,000 residents. The Plan for Fife 2017-2027 sets out a focus on “tackling poverty and inequality and preventing problems before they become too big and expensive to
fix.” The Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) has estimated that residents in Scotland are experiencing the biggest fall ( 3.3%) in living standards since 1998.
Fife Council has recognised that to do this it must work with individuals and families to address the root causes of the challenges they face, and that this will require a new approach. In doing so, the council proposed
the building of a “Prevention and Wellbeing Operating Model” designed first and foremost with people in mind.
The model sets out to keep people and families well and thriving, and to prevent or delay the need
for complex interventions. It is outlined in Fife’s “Getting it Right in Fife Framework” below:
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The objectives were:
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Design pathways to support a reduction in demand for complex services and statutory interventions for example homelessness demand, children in need and
health and social care.
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Ensure that residents who need support do not have to contact multiple teams for a range of services.
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Support for citizens to stabilise their situations and develop their capacity to help them become more resilient.
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Support the development of good relationships between citizen and officer to code-sign services and help improve outcomes.

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Ensure that core information and services provided are recorded and shared so that people don't have to tell their story multiple times.
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Develop a culture to share data across services so that the council can proactively make interventions earlier to improve outcomes for people and families.
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Agree a way to monitor outcomes so that the council understands how effective interventions are at meeting people's needs to support them to become self-sufficient.
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Enable staff to work collaboratively to develop creative, resourceful and persistent.
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We developed the following solutions:
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Set up a Data Framework; a structure that brings together and codifies essential datasets that can be used across the council and its officers.
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Used the Data Framework to bring together 86 disparate datasets that accurately reflect the wellbeing of the residents of Fife into a single visualisation, broken down into Fife’s 104 Intermediate Zone Areas.
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Advised and supported the design of an “Area Model”; a place-based service to support vulnerable people where they are as opposed to expecting them to navigate complex council structures.
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Trained council staff on Citizen-led Impact methods and approaches in order to deploy more impactful community engagement processes.
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Designed an “Enabling Team” that sits within the council in order to develop targeted interventions for the most vulnerable and monitor and record outcomes.