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

CHAPTER FIVE Good Practice Identification

5.1 The point has been made on several occasions that project development has been slow so that there has been limited progress in implementation. As such it is impossible to make any judgements on project effectiveness or value for money. However, on the basis of the work undertaken both good and bad practices have been identified, especially ones related to project development. These are drawn upon here to outline a number of good practice lessons that might usefully influence the main programme.

Project Development

5.2 When developing a project good practice is that:

A steering group is set up to oversee development. This will enable crucial partnership linkages to be forged, conflicts with existing projects to be identified and cross departmental links to be developed within the local authority, especially between economic development and childcare departments. Such groups, especially if they involve senior staff, can also be very effective in resolving conflicts rapidly. Ideally 2 groups would be established:
- One consisting of senior staff, and perhaps local elected members, that will have a strategic role and is likely to be made up mainly of local authority staff and members; and
- A group that has an operational remit, being drawn from those involved in delivery and policy formulation. Ideally this should involve all the organisations and agencies in the area that have economic development and childcare responsibilities;
Link the project into whatever strategic and policy networks exist. This will provide project justification and credibility and also ensure that there are no conflicts with existing initiatives and wider policies;
If the strategic and policy networks are sparse then they can be replicated through steering groups, especially ones that bring together operational staff;
Research be undertaken to:
- Identify the need for the childcare support that it is proposed to provide so that there is a degree of certainty that it will be taken up; and
- Look at the characteristics of the local labour market in order to gain some idea of the type of jobs that are available;
When a project is reasonably far down the development route, consult as widely as possible about it. This will ensure that others buy into it, begin the marketing process and ensure that what is being proposed is feasible;
Drawing on the experiences of other projects can be useful in identifying what does and does not work. This can also help in putting budgets together and in devising realistic targets; and
As far as possible keep local elected members informed of what is being done. Links with senior members may ensure that the project has a profile and also support.

5.3 Projects, and others, need to learn from the experiences of the pilots and realise that development will be time consuming. Good practice would imply that:

A member of the council's staff be allocated time to co-ordinate the development process. Fitting this work in, on top of an existing workload, may not be very effective;
There needs to be careful planning and agreement, especially over such things as the delivery organisations and timescales; and
Planning needs to take account of such things as the need to get agreement from external agencies, such as the Care Commission, which may be time consuming.

Networking

5.4 To be effective in moving the target client groups nearer to the labour market networking is crucial. Projects need to:

Develop links with staff and agencies involved in economic development and childcare; and
Develop links with specialist providers that can offer clients support to deal with such problems as substance abuse, literacy and numeracy and finance.

5.5 Networking is so crucial to the success of this type of inter-disciplinary project that projects should consider employing a member of staff who can provide guidance and signposting services to clients.

Funding

5.6 Drawing in more than one funding stream to support a project may bring benefits in terms of:

Giving a project a greater degree of flexibility;
Help promote partnership as the various funders come together to develop the project; and
Enabling additional services to be provided that can be of benefit to the client group.

5.7 However, if several funding streams are to be used then projects need to ensure that:

All the funds are in place at the start of the project; and
The various funders are happy to be contributing to a financial cocktail.

Project Delivery

5.8 Project delivery is probably best done through an existing intermediary organisation. Such organisations will usually:

Be familiar with the local area so that they know local agencies and networks;
Have an awareness of the issues that are being dealt with;
Have their own systems and structures that can be used to manage and audit the new initiative; and
Be experts in their own field. HOWEVER there is a need to guard against this expertise being used to drive the project down the route that the organisation is familiar with, so that, for example, the project becomes simply a childcare initiative.

5.9 When using intermediaries the local authority needs to ensure that:

They have the capacity, and not just the willingness, to deliver a new project;
The Care Commission is agreeable to new responsibilities being taken on, if their involvement is appropriate. This may take time so this needs to be factored into the project development period; and
A service level agreement is drawn up which unambiguously states what services the organisation is expected to deliver and also specifies such things as monitoring and reporting requirements.

Project Staffing

5.10 Staff have been recruited in a number of ways. Based on their previous experiences, interviewees were able to identify the potential advantages and disadvantages of each:

Using a secondee means that the person is likely to be familiar with the areas being dealt with and therefore becomes effective in a very short time. Obtaining a secondee may be done very rapidly. HOWEVER, secondees may retain their loyalty to their parent organisation and therefore not really develop any loyalty to the project. They may also find it difficult to get to grips with a project that has elements of both economic development and childcare and may therefore promote one more than the other;
Recruiting on a short term contract may mean that it is possible to employ someone who will grow with the project and will therefore develop loyalty to it. HOWEVER, the nature of short term contract means that people may only be effective for a relatively short period of time, given that they need to settle in and will then spend time looking for another job as the contract nears an end; and
Recruiting someone to a permanent job will overcome the potential problems of loyalty and time spent looking for another post. HOWEVER, projects need to be certain that they have guaranteed funding streams to provide employment continuity. Open recruitment can also pose considerable burdens on a small organisation that can become overwhelmed by the volume of responses. Similar problems will be experienced when recruiting for short term contracts.

It needs to be stressed that the above comments are generalisations, based on the experiences of the interviewees. As such they may not necessarily be reflected by the projects once they get underway.

5.11 Regardless of how staff are recruited, there may be advantages in employing someone who is familiar with the local area and its organisations and networks. This will enable the project to develop faster than if someone from outside of the area was to be recruited.

5.12 Whichever route is gone down to run the projects there is a need to:

Be clear about the roles of each staff member and set these out in clear and unambiguous job descriptions.

Client Assessment

5.13 If targets are to be met then there is a need to undertake some assessment of clients before they are recruited to a project. Good practice is that:

Clients be assessed to ensure that they have some commitment to moving nearer to employability or education or training;
Assessment should also clarify the barriers to labour market access that clients have. They can then be referred to specialist providers to help overcome their problems; and
Assessment should also clarify if clients are eligible to receive other childcare support. To ensure that the Scottish Executive's funding is additional such people should not be supported through the programme;

Monitoring and Evaluation

5.14 Monitoring and evaluation is important if projects are to be able to prove to the Scottish Executive that they are reaching the target client group and are effective in moving them towards employment or an education or training course. Good practice in setting up monitoring and evaluation systems requires that:

Projects have a clear understanding of the differences between project outputs and outcomes. Outputs are a mean to an end. Outcomes (moving parents/carers nearer to the labour market) are what the Scottish Executive is interested in;
Projects need to have clear, unambiguous quantitative targets that relate to outcomes;
The monitoring and evaluation system needs to collect 3 types of information;-
- Profile information relating to project clients so that there can be certainty that the Scottish Executive's target groups are being recruited;
- Information on the clients who achieve "hard" outcomes such as a job, entry to an education or training course or becoming active as a volunteer; and
- Qualitative information that measures distance travelled. These "soft" indicators are crucial, given the time it may take to achieve a "hard" outcome with some of the client group. This information will enable the project to show that clients are progressing towards employability.

Summary

5.15 This Chapter has highlighted some of the good practices that have come out of the formative evaluation of the childcare pilots. Whilst these are mainly addressed to the projects, some may be of relevance to the Scottish Executive in guiding the development of the main programme. This is, however, now considered in greater detail in the final Chapter.

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