We are delighted to share our second Quality Framework Annual Summary Report, created in collaboration with colleagues from all areas of Future Pathways.
As a service that values learning and growth, we are continuously motivated and committed to driving improvement and maintaining quality. The whole team at Future Pathways is involved in contributing to changes and improvement.
Our summary report includes:
- Our approach to quality
- How we track quality at Future Pathways
- What we learned across improvement, development and training
- The principles of trauma informed practice in action across the service
Find out more about how our quality framework contributes to our overall evaluation, helping to show the difference we make and how we make that difference.
Being There looks at the prevalence of multiple unmet basic needs among people we support. The report also considers the barriers people face when accessing support and how we can help people to navigate these barriers.
Our findings show that many people supported by Future Pathways experience multiple unmet needs. This can include living in areas of high multiple deprivation or facing challenging life experiences such as homelessness. These circumstances can affect engagement with support and the nature of support itself. There are times when support must, by necessity, focus on responding to basic needs rather than working in an outcomes-focused way.
We also see that people with unmet needs face barriers when seeking to access support from other services. People can find it difficult to engage effectively with services that do not flex to individual needs. Experiencing such difficulties with services can result in people being unable to access support or sustain relationships with services. This can compound the very inequalities for which people are seeking support.
Barriers can erode a person’s sense of autonomy, choice and self-efficacy, leading to feelings of powerlessness, insignificance and worthlessness. For many people, such emotions are associated with previous experiences of abuse and neglect. It is crucial, therefore, that services develop an understanding of the signs, symptoms and impacts of trauma.
At Future Pathways, we find that a trauma-informed approach can effectively respond to the needs and outcomes of people with lived experience who are facing multiple unmet needs. Indeed, our approach can also create a bridge, connecting people to services beyond our own. By building trust, we can support people to engage meaningfully with other services, improve their relationships with those services and have their needs met.
The life experiences and personal outcomes of people supported by Future Pathways are significantly affected when people also experience multiple unmet basic needs. We are committed to learning more about this so that we can improve our service and ensure people can access the support that is right for them.
We also hope that by sharing our learning, we can advocate for positive change across other services. An inclusive, flexible, trauma-informed approach to support is essential if we are to help address the many inequalities experienced by people with lived experience.
As the year draws to a close, we want to thank our valued Delivery Partners for working in partnership with Future Pathways in 2024.
Our work together this year
- We worked alongside a network of 51 Delivery Partners offering a wide range of different types of support.
- At least 118 people registered with us – 15% of people accessing Future Pathways – were accessing Delivery Partner support.
- At least 10 people accessed support from more than one Delivery Partner.
- At least 75 people started accessing support from a Delivery Partner.
We also asked our Delivery Partners for feedback through our annual Delivery Partner Feedback Questionnaire. We wanted to know more about what it is like for Delivery Partners to work with Future Pathways, and about the impact of our work together. We received responses from 18 Delivery Partners providing a range of different types of support such as counselling, housing support, and trauma support work. Here are some key findings from the questionnaire.
Our approach
Most respondents told us that working with Future Pathways is different from working with other services because our support is focused on the person; we communicate effectively with our partners; and we are supportive of the work our Delivery Partners do. Delivery Partners used words such as “responsive” “supportive” and “caring” to describe our approach. But the most used word to describe our approach was “collaborative”. This word cloud shows the words our Delivery Partners used to describe our approach.
Our impact for Delivery Partners
One of Future Pathways’ outcomes is to make trauma informed support more accessible to people registered with us. And we can see from the feedback we received that this is a big part of the difference we make for our Delivery Partners.
“I have learned that trauma can cause a wide range of physical and emotional symptoms” – Delivery Partner
“I notice that I encourage clients to believe in themselves and to analyse what parts of their lives they feel are challenging” – Delivery Partner
Future improvements
Feedback from our Delivery Partners has also helped us learn how we can improve. While most of the feedback we received was complementary, we also received some suggestions about how we could improve. For example, considering when we review contracts with our Delivery Partners and looking at how we can best measure progress towards people’s goals.
We look forward to continuing to work alongside our Delivery Partners to develop our service, and enhance the support accessed by people with lived experience in 2025.
Find out more about the difference we make
Pathways to Change is our latest impact report. Here, we take an in-depth look at the work of Future Pathways from April 2023 to March 2024. This report helps us to gain a deeper insight into how we make a real difference, and where there is scope for improvement.
As 2024 draws to a close, we want to take this opportunity to reflect on the support people have accessed at Future Pathways, and the difference this has made to people’s lives.
Our latest impact report published this year showed that our support is vitally important to many people registered with us for many reasons. For example, we know that many people we support experience multiple health and social inequalities, such as living in areas where services can be more difficult to access.
Our work focuses on addressing these inequalities so that people with lived experience of in-care abuse and neglect can live full, healthy and independent lives. While each person’s journey at Future Pathways is unique, this snapshot of our work this year shows that our support has, in different ways, helped many people find their own way to a better life.
This data was drawn from January to November 2024.
People continued to register with and access support at Future Pathways. This year:
People continue to give us feedback that our trauma informed approach is effective.
People continued to access a wide range of different types of support through Future Pathways.
People continue to share that our work contributes to a big difference in their lives.
“Future Pathways […] provided all the necessary tools and support for me to make massive changes in my life. Future Pathways supported me in having a voice and I am forever grateful for the support emotionally and practically. This has given me the confidence to speak up for myself and all survivors and to progress forward with a sense of worth and purpose.”
(Person supported by Future Pathways)
The feedback we received has also helped us reflect on how we could improve.
In 2025, we are looking forward to:
- exploring what peer support will look like at Future Pathways
- creating more opportunities for people we support to influence how we develop
- learning more about the impact of our work with existing services, such as statutory and third sector services
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to share their experience with us this year. Your feedback helps us understand the impact we make and to keep learning and improving.
Find out more about the difference we make.
Pathways to Change is our latest impact report. Here, we take an in-depth look at the work of Future Pathways from April 2023 to March 2024. This report helps us to gain a deeper insight into how we make a real difference, and where there is scope for improvement.
We want to hear from you
You can give feedback about Future Pathways at any time by filling in the form on the website: www.future-pathways.co.uk/feedback
If you would like to get a copy of the feedback form by post instead, you can let us know by:
- emailing engagement@future-pathways.co.uk
- phoning us for free on 0808 164 2005 (open Monday-Friday, 10am to 4pm)
- writing to us at Future Pathways, 40 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh EH2 4RT
- speaking to your Support Coordinator
If you fill in a feedback form, the answers you give will be anonymous. This means that you do not have to provide your name or any personal details.
We are pleased to share our latest report The Meanings of Funded Support. This looks at key aspects around our Discretionary Fund (which offers funded support to people working with us).
We see how accessing funded support can help people achieve their goals, work towards their outcomes and create change in their lives. We also look at the complexities around accessing funded support, such as the ways negative self-perception or complicated interactions with money can create barriers and prevent equity.
The report draws together learning from previous evaluations, such as how we manage funded support in an accountable and equitable way, and how funded support can make a difference. It was also prompted by reflections from within the Future Pathways team around the challenges that can arise when supporting someone to access funding. For example, discussions around funding can, in some instances, detrimentally effect the relationship between the person and their Support Coordinator.
The context within which people access material support at Future Pathways is nuanced. A person’s financial circumstances and relationship with funded support can be affected by their previous experience of trauma. We must, therefore, be aware of such barriers and how we might achieve equity for people we support. This is particularly important in the context of working with people who may have experienced multiple inequalities in their life, and who may have conflicting feelings about accessing funded support.
Given that relationships are at the core of our support, it is vital that we acknowledge the complexity, nuance and dynamics involved in accessing funded support. We see that prioritising transparency, self-awareness and active listening can help mitigate potentially negative experiences of associated with accessing funded support.
This is especially significant given that we know that funded support can make a real impact in people’s lives. It can support a person in achieving their goals and reaching their intended outcomes, such as improving overall wellbeing, self-worth, self-esteem and confidence, and gaining increased independence and freedom.
We hope that our Delivery Partners and other services that work with people accessing funded support or financial payments may also benefit from our learning. By looking in-depth at how people access funded support, and acknowledging the multiple complexities involved in this, we can work towards ensuring that people can access the support they need, tailor our support to ensure greater impact and help people make the changes they wish to see in their lives.
“It was huge. Future Pathways have been able to help with things I never thought they could help with. A lot of other services I have worked with could only listen. Nobody was able to do something. Future Pathways really did make a tangible difference in my life.”
(John, Person supported by Future Pathways)
“The cinema membership encouraged me to leave the flat and venture into town. When the cinema was quiet, I felt safe, like I didn’t need to scan the place. Then, I started going to other places in the city like the Gallery of Modern Art.”
(Anne, Person supported by Future Pathways)
DISCOVER MORE
In our latest impact report, Pathways to Change, we highlighted how data-driven improvement can help us to see how we can make a difference, map our influence and, crucially, further improve the support we provide.
Here, Louise Hall, our Impact and Evaluation Lead, looks at what we mean by data driven improvement and how we see it in action.
At Future Pathways, one of our service outcomes is to help make sure that people registered with us can access the right support for them. One of the ways we work towards this is by continuing to learn about our support. This includes what works well, how support can be improved, and the impact we have.
Over time, we have designed a bespoke way of assessing the quality and consistency of our support. We call this our Quality Framework. We use this to look at evidence from across the service so we can see:
- What is working well about our support
- The progress we are making
- Any gaps in our practice and processes
- How this impacts people’s experience at Future Pathways
- The steps we can take to improve
- The resources and/or guidance we might need to make changes
Our Quality Framework helps us feel more confident in what we learn through our impact evaluation and, together with our impact evaluation, it helps us make data driven improvements to our service.
Data driven improvement means pulling together different types of data from across the service – such as support plans and Delivery Partner contracts – to find out how we could improve. And it means using our evidence to inform and direct the changes we make at Future Pathways.
When we identify that something needs to be improved, we work together to make changes that will work practically and make a difference to people registered with us. Often, groups comprising team members from across the service pool their expertise to explore options and find the right way forward.
For example, since 2021, we have been working on improving our data system, Carista, to improve the efficiency of our processes. A group of Future Pathways team members have been working together, alongside our partner Rockpool Solutions, on this improvement project. The changes we have made so far have had many positive impacts, such as helping to make it easier for people to register for support, and giving us more confidence in our data.
We also seek input from Voices for a Better Future, our lived experience voice group. For example, last year members of the Voices for a Better Future group worked with us to co-design what peer support could look like at Future Pathways. Now, we are starting put the ideas of the group into action. We will share more about the peer support opportunities we will develop for people registered with us next year.
We have also worked with Voices for a Better Future to improve how we ask people registered with us for feedback and equal opportunities information. With input from people with lived experience and team members across the service, we launched our new approach to feedback and equal opportunities in 2023. Now, people registered with us have more ways to give us anonymous feedback about their experience. And we ask for sensitive equal opportunities information later in support, when people have had the time to build up some trust with their Support Coordinator.
We will continue to leverage our Quality Framework to drive improvement at Future Pathways. For example, our Quality Framework and impact evaluation findings showed that we could improve how we facilitate conversations at the start of support about what matters most to people registered with us. Given that all our support is tailored to each person’s own outcomes, we know that these conversations are important; they help us make sure that people can access the right support for them. So, a group of team members from across the service is working on this now.
It is our hope that by continuing to make positive changes and sharing the improvements we make, people can access the right support for them at Future Pathways and other services.
DISCOVER MORE
In this resource, you can read more about how we embed the principles of trauma informed practice into our approach to quality and improvement at Future Pathways.
At Future Pathways, we aim to take a trauma informed approach to every aspect of our work. Our impact evaluation shows that in doing so, we support people to gain a sense of purpose, freedom and independence; and we help make trauma informed support more accessible to people registered with us.
This guide is ideal for people who are interested in:
- evaluating complex relational and trauma-informed approaches.
- measuring the quality of your work and identifying improvement actions in a trauma-informed way.
- refining your approach to quality measurement so that you are focused on what matters most to your service.
Our first Quality Framework Annual Report was created in collaboration with staff from all areas of Future Pathways.
This overview of the year (2023/24) draws on our quarterly quality checks to give a holistic picture of the quality and consistency of our support. The report highlights the significant work of staff in driving improvement and maintaining quality.
Find out more about how our quality framework contributes to our overall evaluation, helping to show the difference we make and how we make that difference.
We are very pleased to support the publication Accessing Records in Scotland, a new report which brings together findings about what it is like for people with care experience to access their records.
Researched and written by Aberdeen City Council, the Champions Board of West Dunbartonshire Council, The City of Edinburgh Council, Future Pathways, Social Work Scotland and Who Cares? Scotland, the report focuses on what people with care experience tell us about the Right of Access. It also makes key recommendations for how the process can be improved so that anyone who chooses to access their records in future can do so in a way that is safe and supported.
The Right of Access gives each of us the right to obtain a copy of our personal data from any organisation which holds information about us. Accessing records can be particularly significant to people with care experience: records can provide information about their past which would otherwise be unavailable.
This new report was made possible by participants with care experience who generously gave their time, knowledge and insights so that we might all gain a better understanding of how things are now and where changes need to be made. People described the deep personal significance of their records, that they contributed to forging, understanding and asserting their identities. It is essential, therefore, that services recognise why records are important to people with care experience.
It is also crucial that organisations understand how the process of accessing records can also have a serious impact. It is a significant decision for someone to choose to seek information about their time in care and the experience can be highly emotional at each stage, from the decision to make a request, to the process of receiving records, to reading them. People have described how important it is to feel informed, listened to, safe and supported throughout the process.
The process for people is significantly improved when there is good communication, access to support and full explanation from the record holders. It is essential that people are supported at each stage. The report aims to create a foundation for developing a consistent, trauma-informed, rights-based framework for anyone responding to Rights of Access requests.
Many people supported by Future Pathways seek support for record searches and it is consistently one of the most access forms of support from our Delivery Partners. We have supported over 750 people (around a third of people we support) to access their records by working with Delivery Partners, such as Birthlink and Wellbeing Scotland, who help to identify and find records, compile records, and support people throughout the process.
Future Pathways supports the recommendations made in this report. We believe accessing records is part of ongoing care; policy and practice must meet the needs of people with care experience. Clear and accessible information is essential – anyone who chooses to access their records must be supported to feel informed and empowered. We know that records can contribute to building identity and form part of the journey towards trauma recovery. Therefore, underpinning the process of accessing records must be a trauma-informed, person-centred approach that reflects choice, collaboration, trust, empowerment and safety.
We encourage all services, organisations and practitioners who are involved in working with people with care experience, record searches and trauma recovery to read this report. You will hear the voices of people with care experience throughout. Their insights into this key issue are fundamental in generating awareness, understanding and, ultimately, change.
You can view and download Accessing Records in Scotland from Social Work Scotland website here. Both a full report and shortform version are available. We encourage you to share this with your peers and networks.
We are pleased to share our latest report, Identity, Equality and Access: Learning about people we support. The report focuses on the demographics and life experiences of people supported by Future Pathways.
Through this research, we aimed to learn more about whether the population of people we support is representative of the wider population of people who have experienced childhood abuse and neglect. We believe that by learning more about this, we can make our support more accessible, both to people we support and people who have not yet registered with us.
Limited research has been undertaken about the demographics or life experiences of people who were abused or neglected in the Scottish care system. Future Pathways is one of the few services in Scotland exclusively supporting people with lived experience of in-care abuse and neglect. Although there are obvious limitations to our data set, we believe that this research is a valuable contribution to a currently under-represented area of research.
Identity, Equality and Access offers a starting point for services, including our own, to improve awareness about people who experienced in-care abuse and neglect. In addition, we hope this work prompts reflection from Future Pathways, our Delivery Partners and colleagues across the wider sector in how we can enhance access to support by considering people’s specific needs.
We are keen to consider how information people share can be leveraged to influence wider positive change in response to the impacts and inequalities of childhood trauma. Many people we support are keen to effect change, not just at Future Pathways but also to services and policies beyond. Gathering data and sharing our learning can help improve our own service and other services, enabling people to enact their rights to access the resources, care and support that is right for them.
This project has given us the opportunity to consider how we gather and record data, and how we can do this in a way that best suits the people we support. We encourage services to take a trauma-informed approach to data gathering and recording, acknowledging the specific needs or concerns that people with lived experience of in-care abuse and neglect might have in relation to their information and identity.
This research is part of a learning journey. We will continue to analyse the demographic and life experience data shared by people we support, and we will share our learning as our collective data increases. We remain committed to raising awareness and contributing to research that can benefit people with lived experience of abuse and neglect in the Scottish care system.
WHAT WE LEARNED
For example, we might not be reaching people who are transgender, people who are bisexual, gay, or lesbian, and people who belong to Black, Asian and mixed ethnic groups.
At least 15% of our respondents had difficulties with literacy. 74% of people registered with Future Pathways living in Scotland, were living in some of the most deprived areas. In the wider population, over a third of people who experienced childhood abuse by a family member were also abused by a partner as an adult.
People registered at Future Pathways were aged between 19 and 93 years old, and the average age of people registered with Future Pathways was 52. In the wider population, more older people disclose childhood abuse than younger people.
At least 48% of our respondents had a disability. In the wider population, people who experienced childhood abuse are at higher risk of anxiety, depression and psychiatric conditions.