Impact and Insights: Nurturing Relationships

We are pleased to share our fourth thematic Impact and Insights Report, focused on Nurturing Relationships.

Through this theme, we support strong, caring relationships within families and communities that help break the cycle between persistent poverty and intergenerational trauma. We know that poverty and trauma are deeply interconnected. Persistent poverty can be traumatic in itself, while also increasing exposure to further trauma and reducing the protective factors that help families recover and thrive.

This report explores what we are learning about preventing and reducing trauma, supporting recovery, and strengthening family and community relationships. It highlights the challenges facing organisations, the impact our grant holders are having, and the patterns of practice emerging across Scotland.

View the report here.

What are we learning?

Through our Nurturing Relationships theme, we want to see a Scotland where people, families and communities can thrive, rather than becoming trapped in cycles of poverty and trauma.

Analysis of grant holder reports, evaluations, external evidence and discussions at our collective sense-making event highlighted several important insights:

• Demand for support continues to rise. Organisations are supporting increasing numbers of individuals and families, many with complex and overlapping needs linked to poverty, mental health challenges, homelessness, substance misuse, domestic abuse and social isolation.

• Prevention requires both relational and material support. Addressing poverty alone is not enough. Strong family and community relationships are essential protective factors that reduce the impact of trauma and support long-term recovery.

• Severe and multiple disadvantage remains a significant challenge. People experiencing homelessness, substance misuse and involvement with the criminal justice system often require sustained, integrated support that addresses multiple issues at the same time.

• Whole family approaches are effective. Tailored support delivered alongside coordinated multi-agency services helps families build resilience, improve relationships and access support earlier.

• Community spaces matter. Accessible, inclusive spaces for parents, children, young people and communities help people build support networks, reduce isolation, and prevent issues from escalating into crisis.

• Long-term, consistent support is critical. Trust and lasting change are built through reliable services that remain alongside people for as long as they need support.

What is making a difference?

Despite increasing pressures on services, organisations across Scotland are making a significant contribution to preventing and reducing poverty and trauma.

The report highlights several patterns in practice that are supporting positive outcomes:

• Trauma-informed one-to-one support that combines practical and emotional assistance, often delivered by workers with lived experience, helping people build trust and take ownership of their recovery.

• Peer support and group work that create opportunities for people to share experiences, reduce stigma, strengthen relationships and build confidence.

• Holistic, multi-agency support that brings together services such as housing, health, social work, education and advice services to address multiple needs in a coordinated way.

• Whole family support that works with parents, children and wider family members together, helping to strengthen relationships and create more stable home environments.

• Community-based approaches that provide safe and welcoming spaces where people can build connections, access support and develop informal networks that help prevent future crisis.

Across the reports analysed, grant holders provided evidence of:

• Improved confidence, wellbeing and social connections.
• Stronger parent-child relationships and family stability.
• More nurturing and supportive home environments.
• Improved mental and physical health outcomes.
• Positive progression into education, training, employment and independent living.

What's next?

Our deep dive into Nurturing Relationships highlights opportunities to strengthen support for individuals, families and communities while helping prevent poverty-related trauma and severe and multiple disadvantage.

Going forward, we will continue to explore how we can:

• Support approaches that provide long-term, trauma-informed and relationship-based support.

• Strengthen learning around effective whole family and holistic support models.

• Work with partners to improve collaboration and integration between services.

• Champion the importance of community spaces, youth work and early years provision as vital preventative infrastructure.

• Improve understanding of long-term outcomes and evidence by supporting better approaches to learning, evaluation and data sharing.

• Engage with Scottish Government and other stakeholders to contribute to cross-sector learning, research and systems change.

The report also highlights the importance of centring lived experience, challenging narratives that place responsibility solely on individuals, and addressing the structural factors that drive poverty and trauma.

Our Impact and Insights Framework guides how we learn from our funding and wider work. It helps us understand the difference we are making through our funding, support and influence activities, the outcomes achieved by funded organisations, and our contribution to long-term social change.

Read more about our approach to understanding impact here.