Our Welcome
A note from our Chair of the Board of Trustees!
I am very pleased to confirm that our strategic objectives that we set in 2020, and which were regularly reviewed are being met.
This includes procuring contracts across Scotland and widening our support to children, young people and families, producing more meaningful research and ensuring the voices of those we support are heard.
There continues to be a highly challenging funding landscape in Scotland as well as across the United Kingdom. This continues the trend of seeing those in the charity and voluntary sector bear the brunt of cuts to our funding.
Our sector is often referred to as the Third Sector although the current move by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) to have our sector known as the Essential Sector is welcomed. More and more this is what we are. Essential to the children, young people and families we support. Essential in delivering this support to our partners and funders. Our own research shows the need for our support - now more than ever.
I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to all the staff at includem, whose tireless work and genuine commitment to making a vital difference to the lives of those we support is truly awe inspiring.
Finally, to my fellow Trustees, I owe you a debt of gratitude for voluntarily bringing your time, skills and experience to the Board of includem and ensuring that the organisation is well governed and achieves its agreed objectives.
Iain Forbes OBE Chair
Welcome to our update on the includem year 2023/24!
Although funding continues to be reduced and tightened, we have focused on our mission to provide support to children and young people who need to make positive changes in their lives, and to inspire a more hopeful future for them, their families and communities.
We continued to be agile in our delivery, develop new skills and learning, increase our core capability and recruit great people.
As you will see in the following pages, we have been proactive in amplifying the voices of children, young people and families we support in our diligent research, sharing their voice and lived experience throughout our practice and research.
There have been so many highlights from this year - from launching new services and projects - including our ADAPT, RESPONSE and The Promise work, to launching our Transforming Lives campaign, fundraising and of course, planting more than 200 trees as part of our Seeds of Hope project.
I look forward to the coming year, as always it will be a challenging and difficult environment, but I believe the foundation for includem is now more solid and the right building blocks are in place for us to progress.
If you would like to find out more about our work or explore how we could work together, please do get in touch!
Aye,
Martin Dorchester Chief Executive
Our Highlights
Our Trends
Our Digital Footprint
Our Young Person’s Fund
Our Services
Our A Better Life Toolkit
Our ABL Journey
Our Projects
Our Future
Our Participation
Our Chief Exec Team
Our Trustees
Our Staff
Get in touch
If you have any questions or would like to make an enquiry you can contact us on the following: enquiries@includem.co.uk 0141 427 0523 includem Unit 6000 Academy Office Park, Gower Street Glasgow G51 1PR includem.org
You can read our latest Annual Accounts at includem.org/publications
Hello,
I am excited to be writing the welcome for our first IMPACT report. My name is William and I am a founding member of includem’s Youth Advisory Group. I was supported by includem many years ago and have chosen to stay involved with the organisation and support the work to establish a Youth Advisory Group.
Includem genuinely helped me to transform my life. The workers gave me confidence, taught me valuable skills, and showed me how much I am capable of. What stands out for me is that I always felt respected and listened to, and that includem was supportive of my choices.
I am thrilled that the Youth Advisory Group is now a part of includem. I am passionate about young people having a voice and want to ensure the group is a place where everyone feels respected and listened to and where children and young people can participate in a way that works for them.
We’ve got more work to do but it’s been a great start, and I can’t wait to see where we go.
William
Youth Advisory Group Founding Member
About includem
Our Mission
To provide the support children and young people need to make positive changes in their lives, and inspire a more hopeful future for children, young people, their families and communities.
Our Vision
A world where every child and young person is respected, valued, and has the opportunity to actively participate in all aspects of life and society.
We work closely with children, young people, and their families, who are facing difficult challenges in their lives. Our trust-based, inclusive model of support is centred on the needs of each young person. We help children and young people make positive life choices and empower them to transform their lives, creating better outcomes for young people and their communities.
Our Highlights
On average, our young people this year have each received 45 hours of support face to face.
This figure does not include young people who have received less than 1 hour of support.
Overall, in the last financial year, includem received 2573 calls to our helpline.
Outside of those calls which were to confirm/cancel appointments, includem’s helpline aids Young People and their families with a number of issues including mental health distress, parental difficulties, and issues relating to the law.
Of these types of calls, includem responded to 82% of these calls either in person or via phone call. The remaining 18% of calls were passed on to the young persons’ worker, and the details of that call were folded into their care during planned contacts.
Includem is dedicated to delivering support when it is needed for young people and their families as we understand that support is not a straight path. It is because of this thinking that we have delivered 7,504 hours of support Monday to Friday between the hours of 5pm and 7am. In addition to this we have also delivered 9121 hours of support during weekends.
Overall, this means that 30% of includem’s support in the last year has been delivered out of hours!
These factors all contribute to includem’s impressive success rate which over the past year sits at 72%. Most of those who have moved on without fully meeting their primary aim have gained a set of skills, due to working with includem, which they can apply in their own life moving forward.
Our Trends
Fig 1. Comparison of Key Trends
We have consistently seen a steady increase in children, young people and families accessing our services which is evidence of a growing need for our services. The number of young people supported, moved on, and referred has steadily increased since 2021/22 (figure 1). Overall, we have seen a 20% increase in the number of children and young people supported since that date.
Despite this increase in the number of children and young people supported over this period, includem has maintained a steady 70-80% success rate for the those having moved on from our services. This consistency continues to show the incredible work done by our staff across the country, 365 days a year.
Children and young people supported by includem often come from the most deprived areas in Scotland. This can lead to a number of underlying issues within their lives, and although not justifying, can often be used to explain their actions.
Fig 3. Referral By Month
Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) deciles break down Scotland’s areas of deprivation into fifths. Decile 1 is the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland. In the last year, a total of 49% of the children and young people we support live within the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland (figure 2). When further broken down, 132 children and young people we support come from the top 5% most deprived areas in Scotland.
Figure 3 shows the percentage of referrals we have received since April 2021. There has been a clear trend emerging which shows an increase in the need for support in both June and September. This trend exists both across the 3-year comparison but also when looking into each year individually. This is an important trend to highlight due to the significance of these months in relation to the school year.
Year on year, referrals have consistently been higher in June when schools in Scotland break for the summer holidays and again just after schools return in August. Although the percentage difference is not overly significant, it is representative of an increase of 75 young people between August and September, and a difference of 44 young people between May and June.
The parallel with the school year also likely explains the significant dip in referrals in August. This could be due to young people returning to school in August where an initial assessment period of behaviours is carried out before referring young people in September.
There is a dip in referrals due to the tendering process from January to March. This is specifically caused as a result of yearto -year contracts. This is indicative of the wider sector issue regarding long term funding.
Fig 2. Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) Highlight
Our Digital Footprint
We are active across five platforms @includem2000:
We continued to increase our following across our five platforms with a total of 9,067 followers by the end of the financial year. This has been steadily increasing since 2021/22 with 6,967 followers and in 2022/23, 8,061 followers. We hope by the time we report next year to have reached the 10,000 milestone.
In 2023/24 a total of 1,075 posts were published across our social media platforms. This was a small decrease since 2021/22 (1,271) and 2022/23 (1,294) which is a direct result of this being the first year we haven’t published a research report or campaign.
Although we published fewer posts, our impressions and reach were higher. This is a result of us now posting on Facebook and Threads. A total of 818,462 impressions were made in 2023/24 (an increase of 50.7% since 2021/22) and 677,642 users were reached (an increase of 188% since 2021/22.
Since launching our new website in 2021, the users and subsequent sessions to our new home page continues at a steady pace. Most of our traffic was from potential partners and funders rather than children, young people and families.
Our Young Person’s Fund
We believe that no child or young person should miss out because of circumstances beyond their control. That is why we set up the Young Person’s Fund. The includem Young Person’s Fund was set up in 2011 to provide extra support to the children, young people, and families we work with, many of whom are affected by poverty and don’t always have access to things that many of us can take for granted.
Over the years, our Young Person’s Fund has enabled children and young people to access activities and facilities in their local communities, as well as providing emergency support.
From swimming lessons to football boots, a place on a training course or a warm winter coat, the Young Person’s Fund is there to make sure every child or young person gets the extra support they need.
This was raised through fundraising activities such as the Kiltwalk in Glasgow, The Great Scottish Run, our Christmas
Was distributed to support the purchase of emergency food parcels, emergency energy top-ups, clothing, access to hobbies and the purchase of white goods to benefit the whole family.
We would like to thank everyone who donated and supported our work during this period!
Our Services
Overview of our services on the mainland of Scotland as of the 31st March 2024.
*services ended 31st March 2024
SCOTLAND WIDE
includem RESPONSE includem HELPLINE
West Dunbartonshire 16
children, young people and families supported
Glasgow Intensive Family Support Service
Glasgow Prevention & Early Intervention (North East, North West, South)
Multiple Risk Programme (part of the Glasgow City HSCP Youth Health Service)
474
Stirling BRAVE Stirling 71
children, young people and families supported
children, young people and families supported Projects SPOT purchases
Aberdeen Intensive Support
44
children, young people & families supported
*Falkirk 31
children, young people and families supported
Dundee
Holistic Family Support
St Paul’s Academy
59
children, young people and families supported
Fife Teenagers & Transitions
Keeping Connected *Wellbeing in Fife 355
children, young people and families supported
Our A Better Life Toolkit
Originally launched in 2014 and refreshed in 2022, with the support of restorative & criminal justice expert, Professor Tim Chapman and Dr Emma Miller, Senior Research Fellow, Social Work and Social Policy at Strathclyde University. Our teams are skilled at building positive, trusting, relationships with children, young people and families and A Better Life offers a foundation for this structured support. Working collaboratively through this toolkit provides both practical and emotional support helping our staff enable those they support to set and reach their goals. A key foundation of this is working with the strengths of both the individual and family.
The toolkit consists of thirteen modules. Four of these modules are considered ‘core’. A further nine ‘additional specialist’ modules are available to our staff to use as part of our support. Each module details a set of objectives, outlines relevant underpinning theories and models and includes various exercises.
This is My Life
Supports children and young people to set goals in pursuit of a better life for themselves and their family.
Working with Families
Supports family members to be aware of the role of an attachment figure and the need for that figure to be attuned to the child or young person’s anxiety and primal need for security and reassurance.
Emotions
Supports children and young people to understand, recognise, and name their emotions and to express these in a controlled way. Emotions work can also be undertaken with parents and carers.
People in My Life
Supports children and young people to value the positive relationships they have and give them the skills to build and maintain those relationships.
Bereavement & Loss
Support to understand and manage emotions associated with death and loss.
Problem Alcohol & Substance Use
Support to address their alcohol and /or substance use.
Beating Boredom
Support to become more resourceful in beating boredom, and to learn to use the imagination and creativity to find constructive ways to use their time.
Independent Living
Support to gain knowledge of community resources and develop skills and routines that will aid their transition to independent living.
Health & Wellbeing
Support to think about mental and physical health & wellbeing, and support needed.
Justice & Risky Behaviour
Supports those in conflict with the law, or at risk of being in conflict with the law, to develop resources which address needs and risks.
Harmful Sexual Behaviour
Support to understand what contributes to healthy and unhealthy sexual relationships and what they look like.
Education, Employment & Training
Support to build on interests and skills and consider possibilities for future training and employment.
This is My Future
Supports children and young people to review their progress throughout the modules of A Better Life before they move on from our support.
Turn the page to find out more about a Young Person’s journey with our A Better Life toolkit!
Our A Better Life Journey
Young Person Starts with includem!
Initial contact is made with the young person (YP), it is explained to them what being involved with includem means and what the expectations are for all parties. On this journey, a goal is set to improve attendance at school. During this visit, the YP explains frustrations at a lack of support in school with their behaviour.
There is some apprehension regarding a meeting within the school to discuss a reduced timetable to support a return to school. The includem worker plans to attend with the family and provide some mediation to repair broken relationships.
An incident occurs in school. Following this, family members cannot contact the YP, causing additional stress for them. Includem are able to assist here and manage to contact the YP and set up an unplanned session in order to address the crisis situation.
includem meets with the YP the following week to discuss how they have been progressing in school since last week’s incident. It is revealed that based on the chat with the includem worker the YP is attempting to be mindful of things when frustrated in school and attempting to remain positive.
Following an incident in school, a visit is planned to help the YP understand their relationships and how those impact on their life. This is done through the creation of a relationship map. This provides a dual purpose of encouraging reflection but also allows the includem worker additional insight for future sessions.
During this visit the includem worker works with both the young person and a family member together to strengthen their understanding of each other’s frustrations. The includem worker facilitates this.
The YP and includem worker discuss the previous session. Through talking to them it is understood that the YP has had a positive week in school and feels proud of themself for this progress being made.
During this final ABL module the includem worker highlights the good progress that has been made by the YP during their time with includem. Noting that although they have been supported, it is ultimately their own good work which has got them to this point.
As a final takeaway, the includem worker reiterates that although there are still some struggles in school, the YP now has the tools and ability to deal with these issues as they arise.
Young Person Moves On from includem successfully having integrated into the community
Our Services: Key Themes
Whole Family & Intensive Family Support
For positive outcomes to be sustainable, a Whole Family Approach is often the best strategy. It is unusual for a child or young person to require support without there being unmet need within the family unit. This family support varies depending on the age and stage of the child as we know that as children grow into teenagers and young adults, they are more influenced by their peers, but this is often where parents and carers need support and advice. The level of support should meet the level of need and therefore can be intensive or more 'light touch'. Includem offers both with our support being tailored to the needs of the family and ranges from daily visits, a mixture of visits and telephone calls to infrequent calls or online support. The 'lower level' of support may be an 'early intervention and prevention' approach or a step down from more intensive family support. Our services working in this area includes:
• Glasgow Intensive Family Support Service
• Aberdeen Intensive Family Support
• Dundee
Early Intervention & Prevention
• Falkirk*
• Stirling
Early intervention and prevention, as the name suggests, is identifying and assessing needs at the earliest possible juncture and putting in place the support to prevent this escalating into a more significant or enduring need. Our services working in this area includes:
• Glasgow North East
• Glasgow North West
• Glasgow South
Mental Health
• BRAVE Stirling
• Fife Teenagers & Transitions
More and more we are supporting children, young people and families with poor mental health. This can range from 'low mood' all the way to diagnosed anxiety and depressive disorders. Includem staff are not medical professionals but play a crucial role in supporting those with poor mental health through our relationship and strength-based approach, always being hopeful and trustworthy. The cost-of-living crisis has exacerbated the poor mental health we are seeing, as many families we work with are not able to have their basic needs met - heating, food and adequate housing. Includem offers practical support and advocacy to ensure that families have access to these basic provisions now and in the future. Our services working in this area includes:
• Keeping Connected
• Wellbeing in Fife*
• Fife Teenagers & Transitions
• Glasgow City Youth Health Service Multiple Risk
*Service ended March 2024
Spotlight: BRAVE Stirling
BRAVE supported children and young people: aged 12-26 years old, who live in Stirling and who are either actively using alcohol and or drugs or at higher risk of using alcohol and or drugs.
It will have a strong whole-family approach, building on parental capacity, and using existing family strengths to address family needs. This is something which children and young people have told us is important to them. We will use our relationship-based model of intervention to support a seamless pathway to existing specialists’ drug/alcohol support services. BRAVE needs to be a collaborative approach, we cannot tackle this on our own. Therefore, our relationships with new and existing partners will be key to children, young people and families’ futures.
We have developed a participation framework which we will use throughout to ensure the project is designed, delivered, and evaluated alongside children, young people, families, and their communities
Participation is at the heart of our new BRAVE service in Stirling. BRAVE addresses immediate and underlying reasons for drug and alcohol usage enabling children and young people to live their lives to the full, and feel loved, nurtured, and respected. Through community-based 1:1 support, it provides the non-clinical, trauma-informed, wraparound support that those who use our services identify they need to address unresolved trauma and poverty and reach their full potential.
Spotlight: Multiple Risk
We have been delivering the Multiple Risk Programmepart of the Glasgow City HSCP Youth Health Service since 2021.
The Multiple Risk Programme is delivered in nine GP Practices across Glasgow; Drumchapel, Easterhouse, Gorbals, Govan, Maryhill, Pollok, Possilpark, Shettleston and Springburn. Although this spread covers much of the city, includem is aware that there are barriers that prevent young people from being able to attend appointmentbased services. These barriers can include poverty, disability, territorialism and poor mental wellbeing. Includem therefore offer ‘outreach’ support to young people (and their families) with the primary outcome of this outreach being the young person being able to attend the venue to access the appropriate support.
At the appointments, young people are helped to identify issues and underlying causes that are contributing to their risky and often unsafe behaviours whilst taking into consideration that a level of risk-taking is completely ‘normal’ and healthy. From the data we’ve gathered, the most common reasons for referral include alcohol and drug misuse, vaping, risk of offending and nonengagement in education/employment. These behaviours are addressed in a focused manner by using includem’s ‘A Better Life’ toolkit.
Our Projects
Our projects are a way to test different delivery models whether that is group work, detached youth work or venue based. Below highlights the work of our projects in 2023/24.
With the senior management restructure, we have separated responsibility and delivery of ‘core’ contracted services and ‘projects’. Projects allow us to trial new delivery methods, work with new partners and seek funding to develop the organisation to meet our charitable purpose. When new and innovative delivery methods are established, the service can be moved to our ‘core’ provision. The Multiple Risk Programme for Greater Glasgow and Clyde Youth Health Service is an example of this.
Tracey Stewart Head of Services: Projects & Programmes
ADAPT
Our ADAPT Services works alongside the ADAPT project to deliver our pilots as well as our Alternative Justice Service.
ADAPT Whole Family Wellbeing Fund Service
We are currently working on three different strands from our main ADAPT project.
In Glasgow, we are working in partnership with the Glasgow Sheriff to deliver a voluntary intense support package with young people, supporting them in their education, training and employment, emotional management, social inclusion and more.
In South Lanarkshire, we work with the Whole Systems Approach Team, supporting young people over 6 months with Structured Deferred Sentences which are reviewed in youth courts. We also work within South Lanarkshire’s Structured Review Hearing Pilot - Whole Systems Approach Team, Young Person Services and Throughcare and Aftercare Team via the Procurator Fiscal and Children’s Reporter with support also lasting six months for both the young person and their families.
Alternative Justice
Our Alternative Justice service works to divert young people away from offending risk taking, working to reconnect them to their communities. With referrals from Glasgow’s Early and Effective Intervention Team and One Glasgow with support lasting from six months to 12 weeks with referrals from Diversion from Prosecutions.
ConnectED
In July 2023 we launched ConnectED in East Dunbartonshire. This new two-year project aims to support young people throughout the area to achieve positive outcomes.
ConnectED – a detached youth work project - will see includem team members hit the streets of East Dunbartonshire to engage directly with young people in their communities and identified hotspots, to help improve their skills and confidence and for those who are at risk of engaging in anti-social behaviour. The project will work with other organisations and partners within the area.
Includem RESPONSE
Launched in early 2024, includem RESPONSE provides a dedicated team of staff across the country working with children, young people and families through a bespoke individualised support package.
The project is funded through the UK Government Shared Prosperity Fund via the Glasgow City Region and East Dunbartonshire Council and is completely voluntary for young people to engage with. A Project Steering Group, including East Dunbartonshire Council Youth Services, Police Scotland and Community Safety has been established to help oversee and support the project.
The service has no specific referral criteria which means that we can provide support to a wide range of those in need, regardless of their presenting issue. Referrals can be made from local authorities and more and is open to referrals from parents/carers.
More information on RESPONSE can be found on our website at includem.org/ response or email enquiries@includem.co.uk.
“RESPONSE is the next level of what we at includem can offer to support children, young people and families across Scotland.
“Our flexibility means we can offer our early intervention support as soon as it is required, ensuring we can support a child or young person before they reach crisis.
“If you’d like to find out more about how we can support you, please do get in touch, we’re always happy to have a chat.”
Stewart Philp Team Manager includem RESPONSE
Our Future
New Services
In 2024, we said hello to new services and goodbye to a few too!
In Aberdeen, we are delighted to be building on our partnership with Aberdeen City Council to deliver the Targeted Family Support Service. This new service for includem will prevent and divert children and young people from escalation within the justice system. Through a multiagency focussed triage system, the Targeted Family Support service will provide targeted help for children, young people and families to reduce the need for social work by supporting their identified needs.
Includem will continue our work with Fife Council to deliver the Whole Family Support for Teenagers and Young People aged 13-21. This intensive support service will support Fife Council’s strategic plans.
In early 2024, we also said goodbye to our Wellbeing in Fife service delivered in Dunfermline and South West Fife and to our Falkirk service.
ADAPT Pilots
The Scottish Government funded (Whole Family Wellbeing Fund) Adapt project is allowing us to identify gaps in service provision for young people in conflict (or at risk of coming into conflict) with the law. We are carrying out research, scoping of possible solutions, co-designing services with young people and partners, trailing services and evaluating outcomes.
Pilots carried out in this reporting period included:
• Structured Deferred Sentence in South Lanarkshire
• Bail Support in Glasgow
• Detached Youth Work and school support for young people in Montrose.
• Restorative Justice test cases in Edinburgh
We have also scoped out pilots in:
• Place of Safety in South Lanarkshire (CYCJ).
• Restorative Justice test case in South Lanarkshire.
• One to one and groupwork with young people where there are concerns regarding harmful sexualized and/or misogynistic behaviour in West Dunbartonshire.
• Meet with Violence Reduction Unit, Police Scotland and Braveheart Industries regarding several possible partnership opportunities
• School violence (West Lothian, Fife)
• Drug and Alcohol and Youth Court Navigators
• British Transport Police issues
• Think Equal Programme
You can find out more about our ADAPT project at includem.org
The Promise
Our Promise team!
We are working both internally and with local authorities to understand where people are on their journey to #KeepThePromise by 2030.
We plan to consolidate what we have observed and learned through our scoping conversations and our baseline understanding exercise to be enablers for change. We want local authorities and any organisation that touches the lives of children and families to know about The Promise, what it means for their organisation and, what they need to do to #KeepThePromise.
We also want to understand the barriers and inhibitors for change as well as the enablers. We know transformational change isn’t easy and takes time but, we know how necessary it is because the care community have demanded it for decades. The Promise is our mandate.
To ensure our children grow up loved, safe and respected and that they have all they need to thrive. We are committed beyond measure to keeping the promise and look forward to working with colleagues and partners in the coming months.
Participation
Youth Advisory Group
Meeting in Dundee
In 2024, we began our work to create a Youth Advisory Group formed of young people over the age of 14 who were currently received support from includem or who had moved on within the last 12 months.
Workshops were held in Aberdeen, Dundee, Fife, Stirling, Glasgow and online to hear directly from young people on what this group could look like and what it could do. The newly formed group will hold its inaugural meeting in the Summer of 2024.
Seeds of Hope
Tree Planting ‘23
We are on a mission to reforest rural areas in Scotland through our Seeds of Hope project. Through this project we hope to plant one tree for every young person supported by includem.
To date, young people in the West of Scotland have planted 450 trees thanks to support from MacArthur Green, the Woodland Trust and the National Trust for Scotland, planting trees in Rowardennan, at the foot of Ben Lomond and on land in Loch Lomond.
A legacy from our ADAPT for CashBack project, Seeds of Hope was launched to introduce young people we support to the environment and to make them more aware of what it is like to live and work in the countryside. An opportunity for many of them where the environment was there least concern.
Transforming Lives
In early 2024, we launched Transforming Lives – our new public affairs campaign!
Transforming Lives aims to amplify the voices of the children, young people and families we support, to position includem as a trusted partner and expert and to build relationships with central, local and national key players and academics.
The campaign highlights five key themes that children, young people and families told us were important to them; children’s rights (our overarching theme), poverty, youth justice, education and mental health and set out clear asks for both the Scottish and UK Governments:
• Poverty: We call on both Governments to take radical action to transform the lives of children and young people living in poverty by writing off public sector debt.
• Children’s Rights: We call on the Scottish and UK Government to act on areas identified by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in their Concluding Observations no later than 2028.
• Education: We urge the Scottish Government and society to recognise the impact and value of community supports to improve engagement and attainment in education.
• Mental Health: We call on the Scottish Government to urgently fund children and young people’s mental health services in recognition of the current impact of the mental health crisis.
• Youth Justice: We call on the Scottish Government to fully fund prevention and early intervention services, recognising the transformative impact these supports have on the whole family.
PROJECT AMPLIFY
In late 2024, we will launch Project AMPLIFY – our new research and public affairs strategy for the next five years.
The project brings together our internal expertise from our Communications & Public Affairs, Impact & Information and Research teams as well as our frontline colleagues and the views of children and young people.
Amplify, will inform the next phase of our Transforming Lives campaign as well as steer the direction of our own research and partnerships with academics and partners on topics such as poverty, neurodiversity, housing, mental health and youth justice.
Our Participation
Stirling Research Summary
We were approached by a research collaboration between the University of Stirling and Children in Scotland to take part in a piece of participative research regarding the roll out of Distress Brief Interventions (DBI) to a younger age group. When initially approached the research was very much within its infancy, but by Q1 of 24/25 work was ready to begin. Includem staff facilitated multiple interview sessions with the researchers, both online and in-person, in order to advance their research piece and inform the later roll out of the study. As stated previously, includem’s involvement in the piece was not to discuss DBI usage, but rather to discuss how it would be best to build this research beforehand.
During this research, young people with includem were asked their opinion on topics such as data collection & information sharing. Although some of the work being done during this research was quite advanced, includem staff were on hand to help keep things on track and present questions in a way that young people better understood. Young people were made to feel at ease by the includem staff during these sessions and were supported throughout in order to maintain their focus on what stretched to being 1-hour sessions.
Includem young people were compensated for their time via receiving gift cards for Amazon which were given to them in order to allow a degree of agency over what the cards were spent on.
University of Edinburgh Research
Similarly, includem were approached regarding our interest in taking part in a research piece being funded by the University of Edinburgh (UoE) titled “Mental Health in the Moment”. This study was a longitudinal piece which sought to engage with young people over a period of up to 5 years. Includem were approached by two researchers regarding this project with the intent of gathering participants for their work. Participants would be sent a questionnaire at 6 month intervals over the course of their involvement in the research project asking them to detail their mental health in that moment in time.
UoE expected initially that they would be seeking 20 young people to take part in their study between the ages of 11 to 18.
These conversations had with the lead researchers provided a learning experience for includem staff and had significant repercussions regarding how external research should be approached in the future. Namely, creating new plans as to how we can provide a better understanding of includem to those looking to conduct research. Specifically focussing on what we do and what types of research we are able to facilitate.
SCRA/Victim Support Scotland
Includem were invited to take part in this study whilst it as very much within it’s infancy. Includem were one of numerous organisations contacted for input into this piece of research. Other groups invited to take part include Police Scotland, Scottish Widows and Children 1st.
These organisations were brought in during this stage in the development of the study with the aim of ensuring that the research was based on a concrete foundation. The collaborative piece of research aims to understand further the impact of the changing age of criminal responsibility and the impact this has on young people attending the Children’s Hearing Panel and how this process is perceived by all involved.
The initial stages of includem’s involvement have been very much about establishing boundaries within the research, specifically surrounding language being used within the work. This was a concern shared between a number of the parties involved and taken onboard by the researchers.
This piece of research is currently under ethical review following these initial discussions and we await to see how it progresses.
Our Chief Executive Team
Our Chief Executive Team, led by our Chief Executive, Martin Dorchester, are responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership within includem.
Dorchester Chief Executive
Martin
Lucy Neilson Operations Director
Drew Collier Services Director
Our Trustees
Our Board of Trustees has a very important role to play. They provide the overall governance for the charity, making sure includem meets its legal obligations and delivers the highest possible quality of service in accordance with out charitable purpose.
Iain Forbes OBE Chair
John Fanning Vice Chair
Kevin O’Hare
Bruce Marks
Stuart Kennedy
Donna Bell CBE
Mike Stevenson
Jacqueline Cassidy
Lesley Taylor
Hannah Paylor
Kirsty MacArthur
Mel Kinsella
Our Staff
We would like to thank the following colleagues for all their hard work in supporting children, young people and families across Scotland during 2023/24
AAbigail Miller
Abigail Rankin
Alessandra Lyon
Alex Newlands
Alison Clissold
Alison McDonald
Amanda Smith
Ameen Rabbani
Amy Blackie
Amy Curley
Andrew Michie
Ania Gathoni
Ann Orr
Anna Zastawnik-Baran
Anun Galloway
B
Ben Hogan
Ben Phillips
Beth-Ann Logan
Billie-Jo Quigley
Blair Melvin
Bryan Murray
C
Caitlin Kay
Cara Jordan
Carole Hollington
Cathryn Lorimer
Charlotte Haire
Cheryl Allan
Cheryl Anderson
Chloe Barber
Chloe-Jade Duggan
Claire Barton
Claire Crawford
Claire Hepburn
Claire McKenna
Collette Kelly
Colin Brown
Corrina Cassidy
Craig Thomson
DDale Nicol
Dariusz McCaw
David Cannon
David Ferrier
David Gould
David Seawright
Dawn Hutchison
Debbie Garland
Debbie Graham
Denise MacDonald
Douglas Reid
Drew Collier
E
Ebong Antia
Eilidh White
Elizabeth Stephen
Emma Hyndman
Emma McMaster
Emma Milton
Emma Paton
Ethan Wilson
Euan Strachan
Evelyn McKeand
F
Fiona Waters G
Gabriel Tobon Moreno
Garry Robertson
Gary Cushway
Gary Dolan
Gillian Wood
Glenn McIntosh
Grant Murray H
Hannah Trickett
Hayley Wilson
Hazel Steenson
Helen Doyle J
James Francis
James Gatherum
Jason Fair
Jean McMillan
Jill taylor
Johan MacIver
John Gemmell
Joshua Poole
Justine Montgomery
Justine Waterston
K
Karen Fisher
Karen Murdoch
Kathleen Harris
Kathleen Malcolm
Kayleigh Findlay
Keith Beattie
Kenny Morrison
Kerry Brown
Kerry Ann Inglis
Kevin Christie
Kiera Mortimer
Kim McGinley
Kirsty Lawie
Kirsty McDonald
Kirsty Primrose
Kyle Tubb
Kym Ballantyne
L
Laura Dryburgh
Laura George
Laura McCarlie
Laura McGrath
Lauren Sedgwick
Laurie Miller
Leeanne Murphy
Lesley Fotheringham
Lesly McIntyre
Liam Docherty
Linda Slater
Lisa Aikman
Lisa Morrison
Lisa Weylandt
Liza Marie Siddique
Lori Fraser
Louise Davidson
Louise Lawson
Louise Paterson
Lucy Neilson
Lynn Bjorck
M
Mabel Beare
Malgosia Romanowska
Mariam Razi
Martin Dorchester
Martyn Walker
Mary Walker
Matthew Raitt
Mhairi Shields
Michael Deerwater
Michele Jones
Michelle Drumm N
Niamh Roberts
Nicola Galloway
Nicole McGinlay P
Pamela Gibson
Patrick Monaghan
Pauline Rummage
Poppi Roberts
Quddsia Iqbal R
Rachel Dykes
Rachel Heads
Rachel Howie
Ryhs Bendix-Lewis
Roxanne Foster
Sara Alkins
Sarah Gordon
Scott Walker
Sean Kilday
Shannon McMinn
Shonagh Speirs
Simone Chalmers
Stephanie Blyth
Stephanie Reid
Stephen Donnelly
Stewart Philp
Stuart Anderson
Stuart O’Neil
Suzanne Fletcher T
Taylor Raeburn
Teri Allan
Tracey McMenemy
Tracey Stewart V
Vicki McCraw
Victoria Gallacher
Vikki Roberts W
Wendy Redgrave
Wendy Wallace Y
Yvette ODonnell
Yvonne Miell
