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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. BACKGROUND

Since 1999, Children in Scotland has been funded by the Scottish Executive Education Department to provide Enquire, the national advice service for additional support for learning in Scotland. Since 2004, Enquire has been contracted:

(1) To maintain and develop the telephone advice and information service for parents, families and carers of children and young people with ASN/ SEN across Scotland and for children and young people themselves.
(2) To develop and implement a vigorous and effective publicity programme to maintain and improve the profile of the service and to encourage increased use of the information service, particularly by children and young people.
(3) To revise and expand the publications library to take account of recent and planned changes in additional support needs legislation and guidance.
(4) To develop and implement a proactive outreach programme which ensures that children and young people have access to the necessary information and advice at a local level to make informed decisions about ASN/ SEN.
(5) To devise and implement management, monitoring and evaluation systems for the service.

In this report, we present findings from an evaluation of the services provided by Enquire. A second report includes an analysis of future options for the delivery of advice and information services in the light of the new Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, implemented from November 2005.

2. RESEARCH AIMS AND STRATEGY

2.1 Research Questions

The following questions were addressed:

• To what extent has Enquire met its objectives as specified in the 2004-2006 contract? These include maintaining and developing the telephone information and advice service; implementing an effective publicity programme to maintain and improve the profile of the service; revising and expanding the publications library to take account of the new ASL legislation; developing a pro-active outreach programme aimed at parents and children/young people; devising and implementing effective monitoring and evaluation systems.
• How is the current service perceived by a range of stakeholders, including parents and carers, children and young people, other voluntary sector providers, and other professionals?
• How effective is Enquire's management structure and how does it relate to the parent organisation, Children in Scotland?
• Is the service offering value for money and is it cost effective?
• What are the implications of the ASL legislation for the future provision of information and advice?
• What organisations are currently providing information and advice for children and young people and to what extent are overlaps apparent?
• What formats and modes of delivery are currently being used and what do particular groups of parents/carers, children and young people indicate would be the most effective form and content of future services?

3. RESEARCH METHODS

The following methods were used to address the above questions:

3.1 Key informant interviews

Face-to face interviews were conducted with members of the Enquire team, the Enquire management committee and the Director of Children in Scotland to examine how each aspect of the contracted work has been undertaken (i.e. provision of information and advice; implementing a publicity programme to improve the profile of the service; revising and expanding the publications library; developing a pro-active outreach programme aimed at parents and children/young people; devising and implementing effective monitoring and evaluation system). Evidence was examined in relation to pre-specified deliverables and outcomes. The nature of the evaluation data gathered routinely was examined and its use in service monitoring and development was considered. Ideas for the future development of the service were gathered from members of the Enquire team, Children in Scotland personnel and the management committee. These are referred to here, and dealt with in more depth in the Part 2 report. Interviews conducted with ENQUIRE and Children in Scotland staff were as follows:

Director, Children in Scotland
Policy Officer, Children in Scotland
Manager, Enquire
Helpline Development Officer, Enquire
Helpline Assistant, Enquire
Management Committee member, Enquire
Information and Development Officer, Enquire

Interviews were also conducted with two service managers in the Scottish Executive Education Department, and the officer with responsibility for the development of the Additional Support for Learning Tribunal.

A mixture of telephone and face-to-face interviews were conducted with a range of external stakeholders to gather their views on the effectiveness of existing services and ideas for future development. Overall, nineteen interviews were conducted with external key informants from the following organisations:

Organisation
Govan Law Centre
Disability Rights Commission
Sleep Scotland
Communication Aids for Language and Learning ( CALL) Centre
West of Scotland Deaf Children's Society
Independent Special Education Advice Service
Centre for Education in Racial Equality in Scotland
Capability Scotland
Care Coordination Network UK
ENABLE
Parentline Scotland
Scottish Traveller Education Programme
Visual Impairment Scotland
Equity group
Highland Educational Psychology Service (2 interviews)
Fife Educational Psychology Service
North Lanarkshire Educational Psychology Service (2 interviews)

3.2 Analysis of Enquire's activities

Enquire has maintained records of enquiries made to the helpline, website hits, requests for publications and a log of publicity work including participants in conferences and outreach events. These records were analysed to examine the quality of data maintained for the purposes of monitoring and evaluation and the nature of the service delivered. Of interest were:

• The number, range and nature of queries annually.
• How the queries were dealt with.
• Whether the query was made by the child/young person, parent/carer or professional.
• The nature of the SEN/ ASN dealt with in the query.
• The geographical location of the person making the enquiry.
• The school sector to which the query related.
• Onward referrals

The nature of publicity materials, publications and public events were also examined in order to assess the effectiveness of public information and outreach work. Enquire's success in disseminating information to those at risk of social exclusion was considered, including people with a range of disabilities, those living in socially disadvantaged neighbourhoods, travellers and those for whom English was not their first language.

3.3 Questionnaire survey to Enquire service users

A short questionnaire was sent to a sample of parents/carers, young people and professionals who had contacted the service. In accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act, 200 questionnaires were sent out by Enquire, so that the research team did not have access to names and contact details. Forty questionnaires were returned using pre-paid envelopes (just under 20% response rate). Questionnaires were also distributed to service users at the four consultation events on the new parents' guide to Additional Support for Learning legislation, and 81 questionnaires were returned. The table below shows the breakdown of service users completing the questionnaire.

Table 1: Status of service users completing questionnaire

Note: A few users described themselves as both parents and professionals. Total participants: 121

The questionnaire examined the type of service requested/enquiry made and the extent to which the individual was satisfied with the quality of information provided by Enquire. Of particular interest was the accessibility of information to people with a range of social characteristics in relation to ethnicity, disability, age, gender and geographical location. Views of preferred formats and modes of delivery were considered, for example, in what circumstances were people satisfied with telephone advice and when did they feel a more personalised and localised service is required? How comfortable were users with web-based information and e-mail based enquiry systems? Individuals were asked about the type of service they would like to have available in the future. Findings from the questionnaire survey were triangulated with the analysis of Enquire's archives. In this report, we focus on users' views of the telephone helpline, publications, service profile and outreach/training events. The Part 2 report deals with broader issues of people's future needs and expectations for advice and information services.

3.4 Consultation meetings with service users and interviews with individual parents

Enquire was commissioned by the Scottish Executive Education Department to produce a Parent's Guide on Additional Support for Learning. A series of consultation meetings were organised in different parts of Scotland, and researchers attended four of these in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Scottish Borders. Following these meetings, follow-up telephone interviews were conducted with eleven parents who provided their details for further contact.

3.5 Questionnaire survey to local authority staff, other professionals and voluntary sector organisations

A short questionnaire survey was administered to the contact person in each local authority to gather perspectives on the effectiveness of the services provided by Enquire. The same questionnaire was sent to all principal educational psychologists. As with service users, professionals were asked about their perceptions of the services provided by Enquire in relation to content and format and their thoughts about the future direction of advice and information services in relation to additional support needs. Sixteen questionnaires were completed by local authority officers and ten by educational psychologists. Key informant interviews were also completed with five educational psychologists.

3.6 Views of children and young people

It was hoped to attend a number of the outreach events and surgeries organised by Enquire during the initial phase of the evaluation (August - October 2005). However, no events took place during this period. Permission has been sought to attend two events which will take place in November and December, and in addition two discussion groups have been arranged with young people with additional support needs in schools. For the purposes of this report, we refer to professionals' and parents' views of Enquire's work with young people and an evaluation of young people's views conducted by Enquire in 2004.

In reporting the findings from the different sources, we have tried to be clear about the basis of the evidence and whether the view expressed was held by a majority, a significant minority or by one or two individuals.

4. FINDINGS

The broad conclusion of the evaluation is that Enquire is providing an important and highly valued service which empowers parents and makes a positive contribution to the work of local authority staff, health professionals and the voluntary sector. In the light of radical changes in provision of services for children with additional support needs, access to accurate and reliable information and advice will be even more important in the foreseeable future.

There was general agreement amongst all groups that the advice and information provided by Enquire via the helpline was impartial, accurate and supportive. Parents were particularly enthusiastic in their endorsement of the support offered by the helpline, describing the knowledge gained from the service as fundamentally empowering. A few suggested that more local information would be helpful. Local authority staff and support organisations, whilst generally positive, were more likely to sound cautionary notes. Some local authority staff felt that enquiries about local matters should be referred back to them, since Enquire was a national service and was unlikely, therefore, to have enough insight into local authority policy and practice. It was also suggested by local authority staff that Enquire might encourage parents to adopt an adversarial stance. Some support organisations also suggested that Enquire perhaps did not have enough local knowledge and argued that they should do more to build up contact with local and specialist support groups. Questions were also raised by a few organisations about whether Enquire, in endeavouring to provide an impartial service, failed to empathise sufficiently with individual parents. Some concerns were also expressed about the ability of the service to provide an adequate service for parents with communication difficulties or in very disadvantaged circumstances.

Whilst Enquire had clearly been making efforts to increase its public profile, there was a general view that amongst parents, local authorities and support organisations that there was insufficient knowledge of the service. Some parents felt that Enquire was a 'well kept secret', which many other parents could benefit from. They felt that parents needed to know about the service as soon as their child was diagnosed, underlining the need for close links with social workers and health professionals, as well as parents. Local authority staff felt that Enquire could do more to publicise the support available within education departments, and the name of the responsible officer should be communicated to parents as soon as an enquiry was made. Other support organisations felt that Enquire could do more to publicise their services generally, but should also alert parents to the complementary specialist services available elsewhere and should do a lot more cross-referral. Clearly, responsibility for alerting parents to the existence of the service does not lie with Enquire alone. There is a great deal which local authority staff, health professionals and support organisation workers can do to inform parents about the work of Enquire and the support which is available.

Like other aspects of Enquire's work, events and training activities were generally regarded very favourably by both parents/carers and local authority staff. It is clearly difficult to aim events at a very wide audience, and a few comments from local authority staff suggested they would prefer something tied slightly more closely to practitioner concerns. The outreach work with children and young people is at a relatively early stage of development compared with other aspects of Enquire's portfolio of activities, and it is evident that strong links with schools and other children's organisations take quite a long time to establish.

Publications were seen as a very important part of Enquire's work, and were used extensively by parents and professionals. Some local authority staff were distributing them routinely to all parents whose children's needs were being assessed, and were keen to explore joint publication with Enquire in the future. Other support organisations were also positive about Enquire's publications, but suggested there was a need for more information on (a) local provision and alternatives, (b) how to manage interaction with professionals successfully and (c) specific impairments. It was also suggested that the publications were often pitched at quite a high level of literacy, and easy-read publications were needed for some parents and children.

With regard to service management, there was evidence of good practice in terms of staff supervision and development arrangements. However, the view was expressed that, because of the competitive labour market in Edinburgh, high staff turnover was a problem, and some suggestions were made on steps which might be taken to address this, including better staff remuneration.

In the following section, we first draw some wider conclusions before sketching some recommendations arising from the evaluation.

5. CONCLUSIONS

Parents, professionals and support organisations: specific standpoints

In considering the views expressed above, it is evident that the strongest endorsement for the service comes from parents, who feel that Enquire acts as a bulwark against local authorities which, they believe, are inclined to provide parents with only partial information. Local authority personnel, whilst generally positive, have some underlying reservations. In particular, there is concern that Enquire may encourage parents to question local authority decisions on placement and resourcing matters. Other support organisations have particular criticisms and concerns, which may arise, at least in part, as a result of the competitive funding environment in which they operate. In interpreting the views of different parties, it is important to bear in mind that some degree of tension is inevitable. In relation to tensions within the voluntary sector, the Scottish Executive might be able to play a positive role by encouraging organisations to recognise their complementary roles and organising funding streams to reflect this.

Overview of Enquire

Despite these different perspectives, there was general agreement that Enquire was offering an extremely useful and targeted service, which complemented the legal advice available from organisations such as the Govan Law Centre which was needed by a small number of parents who were considering taking action against the local authority. It was pointed out that, particularly in the light of new legislation which devolved considerable power to local authorities, there was a need for a clear and unambiguous statement of the legal position of parents and children and minimum standards of provision which users of educational services might expect. The specific challenges thrown up by the new legislation will be discussed further in the Part 2 report.

It should be noted that Enquire's services were not simply being used by parents and carers, but also by professionals and other support organisations. Whilst the helpline was mainly used by parents, other sources of information, such as publications, were used by a much wider group of people working in the area of additional support needs.

There was a general view that efforts should be made to increase Enquire's public profile, so that as soon as a child was identified as having additional support needs, parents were encouraged to contact an external agency for information and advice. Education, social work and health professionals, as well as other support organisations, have clear responsibilities here.

General or local information

There was some disagreement with regard to the extent to which Enquire should focus exclusively on the bigger picture with regard to rights and duties in relation to additional support needs. The Scottish Executive and Enquire staff felt that this was the key part of the remit, whereas parents and other support organisations believed that more information was needed about what was available on the ground. For example, there was a strong view that parents often had to rely on the knowledge imparted by the educational psychologist about possible placement options, but this might be either partial or biased. In order to provide really useful knowledge, general information about rights had to be accompanied by more specific information about widely conceived possibilities.

Parents and support organisations also stated that there was a need for advice about how to manage systems and processes effectively. Suggestions ranged from the provision of a checklist for parents to use in relation to the successful conduct of meetings, to the publication of the type of letter which might be appropriate in certain circumstances.

The boundary between impartiality and advocacy

An important theme arising from the interviews was the extent to which tension might arise between the provision of impartial advice and advocacy services. The majority of parents and professionals reported that Enquire staff were friendly and approachable, but some parents and support groups referred to the need of more one-to-one and ongoing support. This issue is discussed in more depth in the Part 2 report.

Meeting the needs of particular groups

It is evident that Enquire is endeavouring to meet the needs of diverse groups. Some aspects of the service are clearly targeted at one group or another, for example, training aimed at professionals, guides written for parents and videos aimed at children and young people. However, it is inevitable that sometimes a number of different groups are accessing the same service and as a result may find that it is pitched at the wrong level. Such comments were evident in relation to publications, training, events and the helpline. In relation to the latter service, different suggestions were made, ranging from a separate children's service to the greater use of text messaging.

In addition, it is evident that within groups there are likely to be very diverse needs. For example, some children and young people and parents may have no difficulty in understanding quite detailed advice, whilst others may have great difficulty understanding verbal or written communication. Practitioners will also vary from volunteer workers in voluntary organisations to professionals with responsibility for service delivery.

Given the generally high levels of support for the service, Enquire is clearly meeting the needs of a wide range of service users, but it is also likely to be the case that some potential users are deterred by difficulties in accessing or understanding information.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS

Overarching recommendation

• There is general agreement amongst a range of interest groups that the advice and information service provided by Enquire is extremely valuable and that there is an ongoing need for such a service. The broad recommendation of the evaluation is, therefore, that the service should continue to be funded.

Telephone helpline

• Enquire's remit is to provide impartial and accurate information and advice. However, as a result of disability or disadvantage, some parents may need more intense one-to-one support. It is therefore necessary to consider to what extent the helpline can offer sufficient support, and when it may be necessary to put people in touch with advocacy services for additional support.
• Parents express the need for more in-depth information about local services. The extent to which Enquire is able to provide this information should be reviewed, whilst recognising that onward referral to local authorities and local support groups will also be necessary.
• A very low proportion of calls made to the helpline come from children and young people. The possibility of providing a separate children's helpline, or liaising more closely with Childline, could be explored.
• The range of organisations to which Enquire refers callers should be expanded.
• Enquire has extended the information it routinely collects in relation to callers. Information on the social background of callers to the helpline would be useful, and this could be obtained by asking for the first part of the caller's postcode.
• Enquire should continue to review strategies for publicising helpline services to ensure that all parents and others who might benefit are aware of its existence. Professionals working in a range of settings including local authorities, schools, family centres and hospitals also have a great deal to contribute here in terms of encouraging parents to make full use of Enquire's services.

Public profile

• There is general agreement that Enquire's public profile needs to be higher. Continued efforts need to be made to advertise the service, including reminding local authorities that they have a duty to inform parents of additional support for learning services.
• Some local authorities are clearly keen to work much more closely with Enquire. The greater use of joint training, events and publications should be explored. The programme of visits to local authorities to establish links with key members of staff should be continued and extended.
• There is a need for even better two-way communication between Enquire, local authorities and educational psychology services to ensure that knowledge and information are passed in both directions.
• Better links with other support organisations are needed through web-sites and face to face communication. In addition, further advice on communication strategies should be sought from organisations supporting specific groups, e.g. the deaf and those with dual sensory impairment.

Outreach work

• Some professionals expressed criticisms of earlier training. Workshop content has already been reviewed, and ongoing efforts should be made to ensure that training offered is in line with local authority needs.
• Efforts should be made to ensure that parents are directly informed of local events, possibly making greater use of individual mailings or e-mail.
• Outreach work with children and young people is developing and some more thinking is needed about the most effective ways to target a wide range of groups and individuals with different needs.

Publications

• Publications are generally regarded as highly successful. There is a need to ensure that they are produced not only in different languages, but also at different levels to reflect differences in literacy and communication needs.
• The extent to which separate publications are needed for professionals and parents, as well as children and young people, should be considered.

Management and cost-effectiveness

• The service is effectively managed, although staff turnover is a problem. The possibility of enhancing pay to retain valuable staff should be considered.
• Whilst the general view is that Enquire is delivering a multi-faceted and cost effective service, it is important that all aspects of the service are kept under review, so that on-going adjustments may be made as appropriate.

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