The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

SECTION 2: RESEARCH AIMS AND STRATEGY

2.1 Research Questions

As stated above, this report provides an evaluation of the provision of services by Enquire for the period 2004-2005. 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?

The following methods were used to address the above questions:

2.2 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)

2.3 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.

2.4 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 2.1: 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.

2.5 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.

2.6 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.

2.7 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.

« Previous | Contents | Next »