New Children and Families Plan to help children thrive

North Ayrshire Council's Cabinet has endorsed a new Children and Families Plan, which sets out a shared vision to make North Ayrshire the best place to grow up.

This new three-year plan will bring together services and support for children, young people and families, helping ensure every child has the best possible start in life.

It combines three important areas of work into a single, joined-up approach: children's services planning, child poverty action and children's rights. The aim is to strengthen support for families, improve outcomes for children, and make it easier for organisations to work together around the needs of local people.

Developed by North Ayrshire Children’s Services Strategic Partnership, the plan is built around four core values:

• Protecting, promoting and enhancing rights
• Acting early to provide support and safety
• Making things fairer and providing opportunities
• Improving wellbeing

Together, these priorities will guide how local partners design and deliver services over the next three years.

A major focus of the plan is providing support earlier, before challenges become crises. This includes continuing investment in early intervention services, strengthening support for families with young children, improving access to childcare, and ensuring families can get the right help at the right time.

Reducing child poverty also remains a key priority. While progress has been made in recent years, around one in five children in North Ayrshire still experience poverty. The plan commits partners to working together to improve family incomes, increase access to employment opportunities, maximise benefit uptake and reduce financial pressures on households.

It also builds on successful work already taking place across North Ayrshire. During 2025/26, the Money Smart service received more than 6,000 referrals and secured £20.7 million in financial gains for residents. Programmes such as We Work for Families also helped parents move into employment, training and paid placements.

Children's rights are another central theme, with the plan supporting implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and seeking to ensure that children's voices are heard in decisions that affect them.

To strengthen this commitment, a new youth scrutiny group called Youth ARE Leaders will work alongside the Children's Services Strategic Partnership. The group will help hold partners to account, gather feedback from children and young people, and influence how services are designed and delivered.

The plan has been shaped through extensive consultation and engagement with children, young people, families, communities and partner organisations. It also supports wider national priorities, including Scotland's commitment to reducing child poverty, delivering whole family support and ensuring children grow up loved, safe and respected.

Councillor Jean McClung, Cabinet Member for Education and Young People, added: “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.”

Published: 30 October 2026