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Working for Families: Lessons from the Pilot Projects (Stage 1)

Executive Summary

INTRODUCTION

1. As part of the Scottish Executive's strategy for eliminating child poverty within a generation, in mid-2003 funding was given to Dumfries and Galloway and Glasgow Councils to set up pilot Working for Families projects. In total 11 projects were funded for one year: 8 in Dumfries and Galloway and 3 in Glasgow.

2. The objectives of the projects were to help parents and carers facing barriers to employment, to move closer to employability or training. The mechanism for doing this was the provision of child care in a variety of ways tailored to the circumstances of the clients. To ensure that the funding was additional it was to be targeted at clients whose needs were not being met by other agencies.

3. The intention was that the experiences of the pilots would be used to inform the development of the main Working for Families programme which starts in April 2004.

4. Accordingly, GEN Consulting was commissioned by the Scottish Executive to undertake an ongoing (formative) evaluation of the pilot projects. This involved regular contact with them over the period June to October 2003, feedback on such things as monitoring frameworks, and a half-day workshop at which the consultants and the projects shared their experiences. A further report which will cover the extended pilot evaluation period until the end of March 2004 is due in summer 2004.

THE PILOT PROJECTS

5. The pilot projects received between 18,000 and 231,000 from the Scottish Executive. Most were being run by intermediary organisations. Generally funding went to the Council and then to the projects, with the relationship being defined through some form of Service Level Agreement. In one instance the Scottish Executive was directly funding a Glasgow-based community project, Rosemount Lifelong Learning.

6. The projects were to be involved in a variety of activities. In Dumfries and Galloway they included:

• Providing childcare in the homes of parents and carers;
• Offering childcare outwith the hours of 9 to 5;
• Offering childcare in the evenings so that parents could attend classes at a local learning resources centre;
• A roving crèche that would link childcare to a mobile learning facility to provide childcare training, the intention being that parents and carers could become registered as childminders;
• Providing childcare whilst parents were being taught to drive so that they could then access job opportunities; and
• A community transport initiative that would take children to childcare services thereby allowing their parents to gain a job.

7. In Glasgow the 3 projects were involved in the following activities:

• Two projects were similar in that they run childcare subsidy schemes which allow parents to purchase suitable childcare according to their needs. In conjunction with this a guidance worker offers support to help them move towards work or training; and
• The third, run by a community based organisation, offers advice and support to parents and carers to enable them to make the 'transition' to work.

8. The extent to which the projects were operational over the time of the evaluation varied. Two were working with clients. Another 5 had appointed staff and were starting to operate. The remaining 4 had made little progress. Accordingly, the extent to which it was possible to identify general lessons from the evaluation, especially about project implementation, varied.

GOOD PRACTICES

9. The formative evaluation identified a number of issues related to project development and, to a lesser extent, implementation. Using these it was possible to formulate good practice lessons that could influence the effectiveness of the main programme as well as the pilots.

10. In terms of project development, setting up a steering group was important. This would bring together people from a variety of local authority departments and external agencies so that linkages can be developed. It was seen as particularly important that links be developed between economic development and childcare departments. The group can also link into wider strategic and policy networks. This will give the project credibility as well as ensuring that any conflicts with existing projects are avoided.

11. Development needs should be underpinned by local research to ensure that the project is meeting a need and can provide the type of support that will enable parents or carers to access available jobs.

12. As part of the development process consultation is important, especially with local elected members and bodies such as the Care Commission, as is drawing on the experiences of other projects.

13. As development takes time, it is important that a member of the council's staff be allocated time to co-ordinate and manage the development process. Trying to do this on top of an existing work load is likely to be less than effective.

14. Clients are likely to face a variety of barriers to employment in addition to childcare. To help overcome these, networking with other specialist staff and agencies is crucial. In particular, links need to be developed with economic development and child care agencies and specialist providers who can offer support with such things as substance abuse, literacy and numeracy and finance.

15. Delivery seems best done through existing intermediary organisations. However, councils need to be convinced that such organisations have the capacity to take on additional responsibilities. Service Level Agreements should be drawn up to outline what is to be delivered and how this is to be monitored.

16. The projects had recruited staff in a number of ways, for example using secondees and offering permanent contracts. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Regardless of the method used staff should, ideally, be familiar with the needs of parents in the local area and should be provided with an unambiguous job description.

17. To meet the Scottish Executive's objectives it is important that clients are motivated to move towards employment. Accordingly, clients need to be assessed to see if they are committed and to clarify the barriers to labour market access that need to be overcome. Once these are identified then clients can be referred to the appropriate specialist providers.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION

18. In the course of the evaluation GEN Consulting stressed to the projects that the objective of the funding was to move parents and carers into, or closer to, work or training. Childcare was a means to this end, not the end in itself.

19. When the targets and outcomes set by the pilots were examined it became clear that there were differences in understanding. For example:

• Not all of the projects had quantitative targets;
• Some of the outcome measures were qualitative, making attainment difficult to judge; and
• Some projects had confused outcomes with outputs. For example, they saw the outcome as being the number of families who benefited from the service, rather than the number of parents who were able to gain a job.

20. It was surprising that few projects had identified the need to try to measure 'soft' outcomes, that is such things as changes in attitudes and increased confidence levels. The projects recognised that the client group was unlikely to be able to move easily into a job. Accordingly, GEN Consulting felt it important that attempts be made to measure such things. This would enable the true project impacts to be captured.

21. Based on the analysis of the projects, and the progress that some had made in setting up monitoring and evaluation systems, GEN Consulting recommended that a monitoring and evaluation framework be developed that had 3 parts:

• The collection of client profile information, which would, amongst other things, ensure that the target client group was being reached;
• The collection of 'Hard' indicators relating explicitly to the Scottish Executive's objectives. These would cover among others the numbers of clients who obtained jobs or places on education or training courses; and
• The use of 'Soft' indicators to measure changes in attitudes and expectations.

22. A detailed set of pro formas were developed to capture baseline data, attitudes and expectations and distance travelled once clients had left the project. These are included as Appendices to this Report.

LESSONS FOR THE MAIN PROGRAMME

23. One of the aims of the evaluation was to provide guidance for the Scottish Executive to inform the development of the main programme. The key recommendations were:

• That the funding be channelled through local authority economic development departments so that there would be a strong emphasis upon getting clients into work, with childcare being seen as the means to this end;
• There be recognition of the time taken to develop projects and that the funding programme be implemented with this in mind;
• All projects be required to assess clients to ensure that they are motivated towards gaining a job or a place on a training course;
• The objectives of the main programme be added to, to include moving clients into volunteering, which can be seen as a half-way house between economic inactivity and employment;
• All projects be required to make use of a standard monitoring and evaluation framework;
• There be explicit criteria outlined for project approval by the Scottish Executive; and
• Structures are set up to disseminate good practice from the main programme, given its innovative nature.

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