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Chapter 1: Introduction and Background to the Study
'I'm just so positive about it, it's a fabulous initiative' (Sure Start Contact Officer)
Introduction
Sure Start Scotland was first implemented in 1999/2000 as part of a broader programme of action to promote social inclusion 'through a positive start in young children's lives'. The allocation of funding followed the receipt of plans from each local authority. Local authorities developed their Children's Services Plans for the period 2001-04 and are now shaping their plans for Integrated Children's Services for next planning period. Local authorities have continued to develop their Sure Start Scotland services and have moved towards greater integration of early years' services and their funding streams.
Sure Start Scotland continues to be funded within the context of a range of other initiatives and funding streams that impact on service planning and delivery for the early years. These include the Changing Children's Services Fund, the Better Integration of Children's Services, the Childcare Strategy for Scotland, Pre-school Education, Health Improvement Fund, New Opportunities Fund and the National Health Demonstration Project, Starting Well. Hall 4 will help shape new preventive interventions in the health field through enhanced health visiting roles; partnerships across sectors are likely to become more robust and indeed blurring of boundaries between sectors more common and more institutionalised through new structures.
Sure Start Scotland funding has increased year on year since its inception, with £35m for the financial year 2004/05 compared to £9m in 1999/00. Local authorities retain considerable autonomy in shaping their services to meet the overall objectives of Sure Start Scotland in the context of local structures and local needs. The four Sure Start Scotland objectives are:
- To improve children's social and emotional development
- To improve children's health
- To improve children's ability to learn
- To strengthen families and communities
The revised guidance to local authorities provided in June 2000 encourages a focus on 'integrated support, on directing support to more deprived groups in a non-stigmatising way and on meeting needs identified by parents'. Further impetus to develop integrated working in relation to children's services has come through the Better Integration of Children's Services. As Sure Start Scotland has grown and developed through increased resources and over time, it is appropriate to review service development, with a particular focus on progress towards integration and the targeting of the most vulnerable families with very young children (0-3 years). Local authorities are all in the process of managing change while at the same time developing their Sure Start type provision beyond the baseline reported in 2002; this poses challenges for mapping a dynamic environment, but a quantitative and qualitative approach can combine to describe the vibrant and energetic arena of early years' provision across Scotland from the perspective of Sure Start Scotland. This report tells that story by drawing on information about services, their type and intensity as well as numbers of children and parents places provided and interviews about views and perspectives as local authorities strive to give their children the best start in life in a planned and integrated way.
The Sure Start Scotland Mapping Exercise 2001
Sure Start Scotland was initiated in 1999/2000 and the first mapping exercise was conducted in 2001 and reported in 2002 1. That mapping exercise aimed to describe the services provided for children and families that met the Sure Start Scotland objectives and to identify ways in which this initiative impacted on pre-existing provision. The mapping involved reviewing information submitted to the Scottish Executive by local authorities, collecting additional information on service use and on spending from each local authority, as well as obtaining the views of the 32 Sure Start Contact Officers and a sample of 16 service providers from both voluntary and statutory sectors about the initiative.
The findings from the first mapping exercise form the baseline from which further developments can be measured. This study identified integrated services as the dominant form of provision. This was usually provided through new or extended children's centres, although other models of combining service provision also existed, especially in those local authorities without centre provision in 1999. The range of services provided through Sure Start Scotland included those that delivered support to parents and their very young children, for example through outreach work, but also through parenting support services, nurseries, playgroups, and parent and child groups. Play and educational resources were also provided. Sure Start Scotland services included both universal provision, as in some of the resource-based services such as Book Start, and targeted provision for the most vulnerable, for example children with special needs, families affected by drug misuse, young parents, traveller populations, ethnic minority groups or families affected by mental health problems. Staff training was also supported in some local authorities.
An estimation of the number of parents and children supported by Sure Start Scotland was aggregated from the information provided by each local authority. In 1999/2000 it was estimated that 3387 children and 3100 parents were supported by Sure Start Scotland through group or intensive provision; these figures rose to 6656 and 6381 respectively in 2000/01. For resource-based provision, the estimated number of children supported was 5768 in 1999/2000 and 8864 in 2000/2001. The research team noted that all figures were likely to be conservative and identified considerable difficulties in obtaining robust data.
The findings of the first mapping exercise suggested that local authorities were attempting to embrace joint working, especially at the level of service delivery. However, there was scope for improvement in the level of joint working, particularly at planning level. A number of helping and hindering factors were identified through the interviews conducted as part of the research and differences in the pace and scope of development of Sure Start Scotland across authorities was also identified.
The mapping exercise identified great enthusiasm for Sure Start Scotland and its objectives; it was regarded as a catalyst for change and as making a difference to the lives of families with young children not always captured by documenting the range of services and the numbers of children supported.
The Sure Start Mapping Exercise 2004
There is now a need to provide updated information on developments within Sure Start Scotland that have taken place over the past three years. The context within which services are planned and delivered has changed as local authorities move towards joint planning and the integration of early years services. Local authorities are combining funding streams to develop and enhance provision, thus integrating Sure Start Scotland within a wider tranche of funding and initiatives. The challenge of any mapping exercise is to document diversity as well as identify underlying similarities of approach between local authorities. Providing local authorities with opportunities to learn from practice elsewhere may be a useful outcome form this exercise and the report tries to highlight, through the use of examples, different types of services provided in different local authorities as well as differences in the planning process.
Overall this mapping exercise of Sure Start Scotland 2004 aims to provide:
- an update on the quantitative data obtained from local authorities in 2001
- a description of the planning processes within the local authorities
- an assessment of the impact of Sure Start Scotland services and funding on children and their families
Research Methods
The research design has incorporated quantitative and qualitative components and data were collected between December 2004 and April 2005. All Sure Start Contact Officers were approached in order to inform them about the study and to outline what would be expected of them, and their colleagues, in terms of information. All Children's Services Plans were briefly reviewed by the research team to provide background information. The data on services and service use from the 2001 mapping exercise were retrieved for dissemination to each local authority. Research instruments were devised and refined through piloting. New and updated information was obtained in the following way:
- Quantitative data templates - these sought to collect information on Sure Start Scotland Services within each local authority. Questions were asked about main service type, age of children supported, intensity of service, other types of support provided within the service in addition to main service type, date service set up, funding sources, agency through which funds are allocated, agencies of core staff, whether volunteers are used, number of places, number on waiting list, and which Sure Start Scotland objectives were met by each service. The templates were sent to local authorities so that each Sure Start Scotland service could be included; however, this was not possible in all cases as demands on time or of other evaluations impeded the collection of information. All data obtained were input into an Excel database for analysis.
- Self-complete questionnaires for Sure Start Contact Officers - these sought to collect information on the views of the Sure Start Contact Officers using a semi-structured format. Section 1 focussed on the perceived progress and impact of Sure Start Scotland Services; Section 2 focussed on service provision, use and gaps; Section 3 on service planning processes and Section 4 on evaluation and monitoring of services. Section 5 was open ended for any further information an officer might wish to provide. Sure Start Contact Officers were also asked to provide specific examples of a service and of how a family might be supported which could be used to illustrate types of service and impacts. Data were input into an Excel database. The open-ended answers were analysed qualitatively using the main research questions as primary themes and Microsoft Word and Excel for data retrieval.
- Telephone interviews with Sure Start Contact Officers - semi-structured interviews were conducted with the local authority Sure Start Contact Officer to follow up on the questionnaire data. These aimed to focus in more depth on aspects of service delivery, to ascertain views on the impact of Sure Start on training and practices, to explore views about the best and most difficult aspects of Sure Start Scotland and on how Sure Start Scotland should fit in with early years policies in the future. Interviews were recorded and detailed notes were written around the main topics of the interview schedule. Qualitative analysis was conducted to explore similarity and diversity between local authorities and to identify key issues and concerns. Microsoft Word was used for data retrieval.
- Telephone interviews with a key Sure Start Scotland/Children's Services planner - a semi-structured telephone interview with a key planner (sometimes also the Sure Start Contact Officer) was conducted to focus in depth on the planning process. The interviews obtained a description of the planning process, an account of how planning decisions were made, the extent of joint working and the involvement of service users. Planners were also asked to give specific examples of good practice relating to joint working which could be used illustratively. Interviews were recorded and detailed notes written around the main topics of the interview schedule. Qualitative analysis was conducted to explore similarity and diversity between local authorities and to identify key issues and concerns. N6 qualitative software was used for data retrieval.
Case Studies - two local authority areas, Aberdeen City and West Lothian, were selected as case studies for further data collection. This comprised additional telephone interviews with service providers in order to explore in more detail the range of Sure Start Scotland services; additional telephone interviews with those involved in the planning process to explore their views about joint working; and telephone interviews with a small number of service users in order to examine whether and how Sure Start Scotland had made a difference to them and their children.
Defining a Sure Start Scotland Service
The objectives for Sure Start Scotland are broad, and Sure Start Scotland services are increasingly being delivered within the broader context of Early Years and in joint and integrated ways. For the purposes of this mapping exercise, the following definition of a Sure Start Scotland service was used in order to characterise which services should be included in the mapping exercise. A Sure Start Scotland service is one that meets all of the following criteria:
- The service has a specifically targeted element for vulnerable children aged 0-3 and families, including where this targeting is within the context of a de-stigmatised, universal service
- The service as been at least partly funded by Sure Start Scotland, even if different funding streams have been mixed at a corporate level, making the exact contribution from Sure Start Scotland unclear
- The service meets one or more of the four Sure Start Scotland objectives
- The service is 'in tune' with the overall ethos of Sure Start Scotland
Outline of the report
The next chapter of the report ( chapter 2) provides the updated review of the range of Sure Start Scotland services and the extent of their use through an aggregation of number of places for children and for parents. This draws together the analysis of the quantitative templates with some illustrative discussion of the range of services and on how they meet the Sure Start Scotland objectives from the questionnaire and interview data. Chapter 3 examines the development and delivery of Sure Start Scotland services drawing on the views of the Sure Start Contact officers as well as information from the quantitative templates. Chapter 4 focuses on the perceived impact of Sure Start Scotland, providing examples from the interview data from the Sure Start Contact Officers and also from the case studies. This chapter also looks at issues raised about the monitoring and evaluation of services and the involvement of service users. Chapter 5 focuses on the planning process and discusses the extent of joint working and integrated planning, drawing particularly on the planner interviews. The chapter also focuses on the extent of integration of services and Sure Start Scotland's place within early years policies more generally. Chapter 6 discusses the views expressed in the interviews and questionnaires about factors that were perceived to help or hinder service development and delivery, the positive and negative aspects of Sure Start Scotland, perceived gaps in services and issues around its future development. Chapter 7 offers a conclusion alongside recommendations for future policy drawn from the preceding analysis. Two unpublished appendices provide supplementary material: Appendix 1 contains copies of the research instruments; Appendix 2 provides brief details of services provided within each local authority.
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