Early Action System Change

Early Action System Change

The Early Action System Change fund closed to expressions of interest at 12 noon on Monday 2 of October.

This fund was developed to help make a fundamental shift towards effective early action in Scotland. An early action approach aimed to build a society that prevented problems from occurring rather than one that copes with the consequences. It also meant changing the systems of services and support that are in place now. We made a small number of grants that helped organisations come together to do this.

We were interested in overall system change and the particular areas where there were opportunities to act earlier.

The grants funded change programmes that brought together people and organisations from the voluntary and public sectors to plan for the future and collaborate to make early action central to their work. This change fully involved the people who benefit from and participate, and those who work to deliver support and services.

We focused on three areas where we believed there was an opportunity to make a significant impact in the next five years. These were:

• healthy diet and active lifestyle
• children, young people and families
• women and criminal justice.

Proposals were considered based on how they could deliver change in a definable geographic area, which could be as large as a local authority or as small as a single city neighbourhood or district.