Publications

Delivering Equally Safe Impact Report April 2022 – September 2022

The Delivering Equally Safe (DES) team at Inspiring Scotland have released a new report on the impact of funded activity tackling gender-based violence (GBV) between April 2022-September 2022. During the six-month period 23,439 people affected by GBV received frontline support from funded organisations and 27,541 people engaged in awareness raising and education sessions. The report highlights key

Winter Outdoor Play for Children of Families with Additional Support Needs

Inspiring Scotland’s Thrive Outdoors programme are funding a portfolio of five charity partners to deliver outdoor community play for children with additional support needs (ASN). This programme is funded the Scottish Government’s Outdoor Community Play fund. Alongside delivery, the portfolio are exploring what makes outdoor play truly inclusive. In 2022-2023 the portfolio of charities from

Commercial Sexual Exploitation Oct 2021 – Sept 2022 report

The Delivering Equally Safe (DES) fund team at Inspiring Scotland have released a new report, which highlights the work carried out by funded organisations supporting women affected by Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE).  CSE is included in the definition of violence against women and girls (VAWG) within Equally Safe, Scotland’s strategy for preventing and eradicating VAWG,

Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Peer Support Evaluation Toolkit

This toolkit has been designed to be a practical guide for organisations who want to design, develop and deliver an evaluation plan for perinatal and infant mental health peer support services. 

Support in the Right Direction Year 5 mid-year update January 2023

The Support in the Right Direction (SiRD) programme provides local independent support, advice and advocacy in line with Scottish Government’s vision for Self-directed Support. This report has been produced using the progress reports provided by projects on a six-monthly basis and covers the period April 2022 to September 2022. It highlights some of the outcomes

Survivors of Childhood Abuse Support Fund Year 2 Progress Report

Survivors of childhood abuse experience long lasting inequalities and disadvantages as a result of the abuse. Scotland is one of the few countries in the world to have actively taken steps to acknowledge and address the devastating effects of childhood abuse. Working with Inspiring Scotland, the Scottish Government launched the Survivors of Childhood Abuse Support

Inspiring Scotland Annual Overview 2021/ 2022

Inspiring Scotland’s Annual Overview 2021/ 2022.  Providing a summary or programmes delivered and highlights from the 2021/2022 financial year.

Key Results from The Scottish Outdoor Community Play Mapping Survey

Thrive Outdoors conducted a survey with the aim of creating a holistic view of organisations in the outdoor play sector including where and how they operate, as well as the key challenges that they face. Outdoor play plays a crucial role in ensuring the emotional, social, and physical wellbeing of children and young people. Following

Insights on the Cost of Living

Throughout autumn of 2022  Inspiring Scotland teams worked with portfolio partners to gather and share insights on what the pressure that the increased cost of living is having on people and the funded charities we support. Our fund teams gathered and shared information from portfolio partners about: How concerned they are about cost of living

Impact of gender-based violence and abuse on the mental health needs of women, young people and children

Evidence from the Delivering Equally Safe (DES) funded organisations and from other studies has shown that “experiences of violence and abuse against women, young people and children can be the cause of mental ill health, and those experiences can exacerbate existing mental health issues.” A report has been pulled together looking the evidence of the

Scotland’s Play Ranger Toolkit

Welcome to the newest edition of Scotland’s Play Ranger Toolkit. Scotland’s Play Ranger Toolkit has been developed by Thrive Outdoors, in collaboration with a number of Scottish charities who use the Play Ranger model throughout their delivery of outdoor play provision. With this in mind, this edition offers: a greater focus on skills that help

Our Future Now Year 3 Report 2021- 2022

Our Future Now (OFN) is here for young people whose start in life isn’t equal and who face barriers to success even when the economy is thriving, and opportunities are plentiful.  This year three (April 2021 to March 2022) report covers a period of challenge and when the support provided for young people as never

Support in the Right Direction Year 4 report – October 2021 to March 2022

Thirty projects across 31 local authority areas in Scotland are funded by the Scottish Government, through the Support in the Right Direction (SiRD) programme. These projects provide a range of support to families and carers accessing the social care system. Inspiring Scotland is the strategic delivery partner for the SiRD programme and works with funded

Practitioner’s Guide Bite-sized tips: outdoor play and our world

  This week’s practitioner’s guide features bite-sized tips on community ownership and encouraging children and young people to care for our planet from Guest contributors Moira McCormick and Sam Skelton, The Concrete Garden.  These informative tips link in with our latest podcast episode! #TuesdayTips

Healthy Island Fund Summary 2021

The Healthy Islands Fund was £1.3 million investment from the Scottish Government to improve and promote health, social care, and wellbeing for those living in Scottish island communities. The fund was delivered by Inspiring Scotland and supported 59 projects.

Island Communities Fund 2021 Summary

A summary of the  Scottish Government’s  Island Community Fund.  This fund was delivered by Inspiring Scotland, invested 32.6M in 55 projects all focused on delivering a green economic recovery in Scotland’s Island communities.

Research Scotland Evaluation of Creative Communities Phase 1 November 2021

  The Creative Communities Programme is based on the belief that it is communities themselves who are best placed to articulate their needs and how to meet them. The Programme is therefore deliberately flexible, supporting a range of different initiatives and outcomes. We commissioned an independent evaluation of the programme from Research Scotland. The evaluation

Insights: Disadvantaged young people: the depth of the impact of Covid 19

Disadvantaged young people: the depth of the impact of Covid 19 is the third in a series of insight papers around youth unemployment.

Full list of grants made 2020/2021

A full list of all grants made in 2020/2021.

Funders of Outdoor Play and Learning

Practitioners Guide: Ok to Play

  This week’s guest blog is from Susan Humble- Play Development Officer at East Lothian Play Association. In this blog she discusses how eye-catching “Ok to play” signs are popping up all over East Lothian promoting children’s right to play and East Lothian Play Association (ELPA) top tips for getting your play message out there.

Link Up: Working Better Together in Place

The Place-based Programme Learning Exchange, a collaboration of national organisations that champion ‘place’ in their practices, has released a report highlighting what works and what doesn’t in place-based approaches. This report aims to share these key learnings to enhance both the scale and quality of place-based working across Scotland, and draws on over 50 years

Delivering Equally Safe Fund Update

On the 24th March 2021, the Scottish Government and COSLA issued a joint statement on the Delivering Equally Safe fund. The statement, available in full below, outlines a number of important changes to the fund which have come in with immediate effect.    

SiRD Progress Update

The latest SiRD 2021 progress report.

Insight Paper – Employer Links

This second youth unemployment focused Insight paper by the Our Future Now team outlines the importance of employer engagement in enabling young people with the most challenging lives to compete in the face of fewer opportunities and greater competition for jobs. These young people face considerable disadvantage and the support delivered by the portfolio is

Increasing Understanding of Autism Programme- Progress Report

Read about what funded projects have been doing over the last six months from January-August 2020 with an update on the Increasing Understanding of Autism Programme impact over this time.

Inspiring Scotland Insights November 2020

  Inspiring Scotland’s monthly intelligence report, providing an overview of key issues being reported by charities supported across its funds. Initially developed as an internal resource, these reports help to highlight issues as they emerge, predict what is needed in the months ahead, and explore how we can best respond collectively. We also believe this

Link Up: Transforming Relationships

Annual Publication 2019-2020 Link Up is Inspiring Scotland’s community development and wellbeing programme.  It started in 2011 and sits at the heart of our ambition for a Scotland without poverty and disadvantage. It is among the largest and longest-running programmes of its kind in Scotland. Link Up brings people together to create activities and events

Inspiring Scotland Insights October 2020

  Inspiring Scotland’s monthly intelligence report, providing an overview of key issues being reported by charities supported across its funds. Initially developed as an internal resource, these reports help to highlight issues as they emerge, predict what is needed in the months ahead, and explore how we can best respond collectively. We also believe this

Our Future Now: Year One Report

The first year report for Our Future Now – Inspiring Scotland’s 10 year youth employability fund to help a generation of young people in Scotland flourish. Through the Our Future Now Fund, Inspiring Scotland has created a vehicle which enables the Third Sector to respond as a collective and at scale, utilising its 10 year

Insights: Young People Falling Through the Cracks

Falling Through the Cracks is the first in a series of Insight Reports developed by Inspiring Scotland which we hope will help  inform our collective response to the youth unemployment crisis that has resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the positive response from Government to the Covid-19 youth unemployment crisis, some young people will fall

Supporting Outdoor Childcare Provision A3 Guide

This printable A3 guide is designed to show  the range of possibilities when designing or developing high quality outdoor childcare provision. The guide includes examples of practice combined with site-specific and appropriate design and covers: site & access,  shelter,  toilets & handwashing, eating, clothing and play material . You may also find the Outdoor ELC

Loose Parts Play Toolkit

Welcome to the second edition of the Loose Parts Play Toolkit. In this edition, we have tried to reflect the changing context. Loose parts for play are a more familiar sight, but their introduction is still providing a learning and development experience for adults and organisations, as much as for children. With this in mind,

Support In The Right Direction Progress Update

This Progress report provides an update on  project activity from October 2019 to 31 March 2020. As the  Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown started to take effect in the last couple of weeks of the latest report period. In June 2020 we asked projects what the impact of lockdown was on their activities and how

Research into Digital Exclusion in Scotland

During Covid-19 we knew the levels of digital exclusion across Scotland would become forefront. Our calls with charity leaders and frontline staff highlighted what we knew: Pre-existing inequality meant that people across Scotland were excluded from accessing support services  and that many of these services were compromised, reduced or couldn’t be delivered due to lack

Working Together: Inspiring Scotland in 2019

? We support essential charities to become extraordinary charities, enabling them to support the people and communities in Scotland that experience inequality and help them to change their lives for the better. We do it because we want a healthy, happy and thriving Scotland, without poverty or disadvantage. Introducing Working Together, the 2019 Annual Review of our

Link Up: Local People Building Flourishing Communities

For people to thrive, three things really matter: supportive relationships, confidence and self-esteem. Seven years of Inspiring Scotland’s Link Up programme has demonstrated beyond doubt that these three things are not only fundamental human needs essential for individual wellbeing, they are the foundations on which individuals and communities can change things for the better. Find out

14:19 Fund 2018 Annual Report

This reports on the progress of the 14:19 Fund in 2018.

intandem External Evaluation – Blake Stevenson report

Inspiring Scotland commissioned Blake Stevenson to undertake an external evaluation of Phase 1 of the intandem programme, Scotland’s first national mentoring programme for children and young people who are looked after at home, from August 2017 to March 2019. This report details the key findings of that evaluation, looking at the benefits for mentees, mentors

14:19 Fund 2018 Half-year Report

This interim report reviews the performance of the Inspiring Scotland 14:19 Fund in the six-month period from January to June 2018. This report offers a snapshot of the progress of the fund in its final year and we are pleased to report it is on track to deliver its annual targets. This will mean we

Inspiring Scotland – What we do

We strive for a Scotland without poverty or disadvantage. Through our thematic funds, covering issues from youth employment to childhood health and wellbeing to community development, we work with and fund the organisations and people who can have the greatest impact. We want to make Scotland a better place and everyone at Inspiring Scotland, and

14:19 Fund 2017 Annual Report

Introducing the ninth and penultimate 14:19 Fund Annual Report showing another year of amazing impact for Scotland’s young people.

Profiles of Young People from the 14:19 Fund

This report was commissioned by Inspiring Scotland to highlight the profile of participants of the 14:19 Fund, which targets the most disadvantaged young people who are not in employment, education or training, to help inform any future development of the Fund.  

Free to Play: A guide to creating accessible and inclusive public play spaces

Free to Play: A guide to creating accessible and inclusive public play spaces is designed to ensure that all children and young people, including those with additional support needs, can exercise their right to play in their local communities. Written by play, children’s rights and inclusive play space experts, Theresa Casey and Harry Harbottle, the guide has

Review of Independent Information and Support Services

Download the research findings from the 2017 ‘Review of Independent Information and Support Services’. The report presents findings from an evaluation of project funded to deliver such activities under the Support in the Right Direction (SiRD) Fund.

14:19 Fund 2017 Half-year Report

This interim report reviews the performance of the Inspiring Scotland 14:19 Fund in the six-month period from January to June 2017.

14:19 Fund Independent Evaluation 2017

An independent evaluation undertaken by Research Scotland exploring the impact of Inspiring Scotland’s first and longest running fund.  

Self-directed Support Innovation Fund Progress Report: Year 2 2016/17

Innovation Fund Progress Report April 2017 The Self-directed Support Innovation Fund (2015-2018) aims to support innovation and piloting of different service models as well as help develop the capacity of practitioners and providers to implement Self-directed Support. In Years 1 and 2 of the Fund (April 2015 – March 2017) 21 projects spent a total

Support in the Right Direction Fund: Year 2 Report 2016/17

The Self-directed Support: Support in the Right Direction Fund (2015 – 2018) aims to build the capacity and availability of independent support services across Scotland. In this second year £2.9 million was spent by 36 funded projects delivering Independent Support and this report outlines reported progress to March 2017. Projects are delivering a range of activity

Support in the Right Direction Progress Report: Year 1 April – September 2015

This report for the Support in the Right Direction Fund reviews the progress  between April and September 2015. Download the Resource  

Support in the Right Direction Innovation Fund Progress Report: Year 1 April – September 2015

This report for the Support in the Right Direction Innovation Fund reviews the progress of the fund between April and September 2015. Download the Resource

Active Play: Evaluation Report April 2016

Through our Go2Play Fund, we have invested in four play organisations to deliver an Active Play Programme targeting children in the more deprived areas of Scotland. The Active Play Programme uses play as a means to engage children in physical activity, and to build their skills, confidence and motivation to introduce greater physical activity into their

Autism Innovation & Development Fund Progress Report 2016/17

Supporting people with autism and their families to lead more meaningful and satisfying lives. At Inspiring Scotland, our vision is to create a Scotland without poverty or disadvantage. It is not going to be easy to achieve, but we know from experience when people, communities, charities and government all work together, remarkable things can be

Pro Bono Supporter’s Guide

It is through collaboration we will transform society. Read our guide to how our Pro Bono programme works and join our network of professionals who each want to make a difference, giving their time and expertise to a range of charities.

Inspiring Scotland 2017 Overview

When Inspiring Scotland was formed in 2008, we wanted to tackle some of the long-term, entrenched social problems faced by Scotland’s people and communities. Since then, we have transformed 100,000s of lives, supported more than 300 charities, built a network of more than 350 professional pro bono volunteers and managed £120m of funding for Scotland’s

14:19 Fund Report 2016

In 2016, with the support of Inspiring Scotland Performance Advisors, 14:19 Fund charities helped more young people than in previous years achieve a positive destination with just over 5,000 moving into employment, education or training. At this point in the fund, it is a sign of great maturity, resilience and progress towards sustainability which will

14:19 Fund Report 2011

2011 marked the three year milestone for the 14:19 Fund and I am pleased to report it is successfully achieving exactly what it set out to – supporting disadvantaged young people across Scotland into employment, education or training. These initial three years have provided £19.2 million of direct cash investment in the ventures in the

14:19 Fund Report 2012

The 14:19 Fund has an impressive track record from a standing start in January 2009, with almost 9,000 young people supported into positive destinations of employment, education or training to December 2012. Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund delivered yet another strong performance in 2012. It has achieved greater social impact year on year since its launch in

14:19 Fund Report 2013

2013 was a significant year for Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund. It marked the half way point in this ten year fund, which has delivered its strongest performance to date. It has achieved greater social impact, year on year since its launch in January 2009 and has supported over 12,000 disadvantaged young people across Scotland  into

14:19 Fund Report 2014

The 14:19 Fund delivered another strong performance in 2014. 14:19 Fund ventures supported more young people than in previous years and more young people achieved a positive destination of employment, education or training. 74% of young people who completed venture programmes in 2014 successfully secured a positive destination.

Link Up – Background, rationale and logic model

Link Up looks at how strengthening social networks and facilitating opportunities for people to help each other through an activity, builds trust. It also explores how supporting others through these activities increases the confidence and capacity of individuals to seek solutions to their own problems instead of outsourcing their needs to external organisations.

Economic Evaluation of Link Up 2014

In 2014, independent evaluator Matrix was commissioned to undertake a preliminary examination of the monetary value of the impact of the Link Up programme established by Inspiring Scotland. This report does not provide a full cost benefit analysis rather, it gives an indication of the potential economic value of a still-evolving programme.

Support in the Right Direction Fund Interim Progress Report: Year 2 April-September 2016

The Support in the Right Direction Fund (2015-18) aims to build the capacity and availability of independent support services across Scotland. £1.36 million has been invested in 36 projects in the first half of Year 2 (1 April 2016 – 30 September 2016).

Self-directed Support Innovation Fund Interim Progress Report: Year 2 April-September 2016

The Innovation Fund (2015-2018) aims to support innovation and develop the capacity of providers to develop the workforce and to support people to directly or indirectly purchase support. £0.58 million has been invested in 21 projects in the first half of Year 2 (1 April 2016 – 30 September 2016).

Link Up Phase 1 Independent Evaluation

This evaluation of Link Up by ODS Consulting has found that Inspiring Scotland has successfully delivered its asset-building approach in ten communities in Scotland. There is clear evidence that this has had significant positive personal impacts for those residents who have been actively involved in these communities.

14:19 Fund Focus of Investment

This guidance was published in 2008 to coincide with the launch of the 14:19 Fund and outlines the focus of the investment.

14:19 Fund 2016 Half Year Report

This reports on the progress of the 14:19 Fund first six months in 2016.

14:19 Fund Baseline Report

This report, which was published in 2008, provided a starting point for Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund. It introduced the issues underlying the problem of young people who are neither learning nor working and suggests what the fund might hope to achieve.

Active Play Evaluation Summary

Active Play: Physical Activity by Stealth. Download a summary of independent evaluations & research into Active Play.

Support in Right Direction Progress Report : Year 1 April 2015- March 2016

The National Strategy for Self Directed Support (SDS) in Scotland sets out a vision for high quality support and advice which enables people to make genuine individual choices and promotes independent living. Known as ‘Independent Support’, organisations including charities and care providers, are helping people make informed decisions about SDS to ensure that any care

14:19 Fund Report 2015

Inspiring Scotland’s 14:19 Fund has an impressive track record from a standing start in January 2009, with over 20,000 disadvantaged young people across Scotland supported into positive destinations of employment, education or training to December 2015. 2015 saw 14:19 Fund ventures operating at scale and delivering significant growth in social impact, both in terms of

Self-directed Support Innovation Fund Progress Report: Year 1 April 2015 – March 2016

The National Strategy for Self Directed Support (SDS) in Scotland recognises the need to build capacity of providers and develop the workforce to support the effective implementation and delivery of SDS. The SDS Innovation Fund (2015-2018) aims to support innovation and the piloting of different service models as well as help develop the capacity of

Evaluation of Active Play in Glasgow by Blake Stevenson – Dec 2016

Read the independent evaluation by Blake Stevenson into the impact of Active Play in Glasgow. This report covers the first cohort of pupils to take part in the programme from August 2016 and was completed in December 2016.