Scottish Government

Main Findings

• Progress in setting up the 11 projects had been variable. By the time the evaluation ended (April 2004) 6 projects were running, 4 were still at the planning stages and one had been abandoned;
• The reasons for this variable progress included: the time needed for new groups to set up projects; not appointing a single individual to have responsibility for strategic project management; and the time taken for the Care Commission to deal with registration issues;
• To be effective projects needed to network with specialist agencies so that clients could have access to the range of support that was needed if they were to move into work;
• Not all projects had quantifiable targets and outcomes which made assessments of progress difficult;
• Some early project impacts were identifiable. For example some clients had moved into work; others had been helped to retain jobs; whilst others had been able to gain jobs that provided greater satisfaction;
• There was some evidence that the support and guidance that projects were able to give had impacted upon household incomes;
• Support had a beneficial impact upon clients' confidence and motivation. This may have a longer term effect upon their ability to move into work;
• Anecdotal evidence indicated that children were benefiting from childcare support; and
• There was little evidence that support through the Fund was having any impact upon employers, in terms of helping them to fill vacancies that had been empty for some time.

The Fund's Objectives

The client groups that the Fund is aimed at are parents and carers for whom childcare is a significant barrier to their moving into employment, education or training. The Fund is to help these groups move nearer to employability by removing the childcare barrier. Providing childcare is a means to an end. It is not the end in itself. There was some indication in the evaluation's early stages that this was not always fully understood by project staff. Attempts need to be made to ensure that all involved with the Fund, from senior management to project delivery staff, fully understand the objectives.

Clients

The Fund was targeted at parents and carers whose needs were not being met by other agencies or programmes. One of the barriers to their ability to access employment was the need to care for children. However, the experience of many of the projects was that the client group was likely to face other barriers that were not childcare related. These might include such things as substance abuse and debt problems. One way of tackling these problems that tended to reinforce one another was to ensure that effective networks were in place.

Networking

One of the main issues to emerge in the evaluation was that projects were likely to have the greatest impact if they were part of wider networks that could provide clients with the support they needed (in addition to childcare). One way of ensuring that this happened was to use the Fund to extend and add value to existing projects rather than try to establish something that was new and "stand-alone". Such new projects would need time to develop networks, time that would not be devoted to client support.

Fund Flexibility

Whilst the Fund was intended to pay for additional childcare support, some project workers felt that it would be more effective if there was greater flexibility over what the money could be used for. A particular case in point was employability measures. In some areas it was felt that not all of the complementary support that clients needed existed. As such, simply providing childcare support alone would be unlikely to have a significant impact. It was suggested that up to 25% of funding should be available to provide complementary support in those areas where gaps had been identified.

Project Effectiveness

The evaluation of the pilots identified a number of prerequisites for being able to deliver a project that would attain the Fund's objectives. A key one was having dedicated staff with experience of dealing with the client group. Such staff then need to provide a single point of contact for clients. Clients need to be provided with one-to-one mentoring, as it is likely that they face a number of barriers to employability other than childcare. These need to be identified. Once identified then clients can be referred to other specialist agencies that can provide the necessary complementary support. A key area of support identified was the provision of budgeting and money advice. The need for this may increase once clients move into work.

Project Sustainability

Concern was expressed about the sustainability of projects once support through the Fund ended. One option might be for projects to establish themselves as social enterprises, for which financial support may be available in the future.

Setting Up Projects

One of the main lessons was that the time taken to set up projects, and for them to become operational, was far longer than anticipated. One of the reasons for this was the time taken for the Care Commission to give its approval for registration or changes to registration. However, time can be saved if established groups are used to deliver projects on behalf of the Fund. If this is to be done then the capacity of such groups, especially if they are run by volunteers, needs to be assessed.

Recommendations

The main recommendations made as a result of the Stage 2 work were that:-

• A bulletin board and discussion forum be set up;
• Regular dissemination events should be organised;
• Participating councils should ensure that strategic management is the responsibility of a single member of staff;
• Projects should link into existing support networks, rather than try to operate in isolation; and
• Quantitative targets and outcomes should be set by all projects.

Research Methods

The research involved:-

• Interviews with policy staff in the 2 councils;
• Visits to the projects involving staff interviews;
• Interviews with a small number of project clients; and
• Analysis of a variety of written material.

In addition the consultants prepared 2 background papers (on "soft" indicators and data sources) and made a presentation on monitoring and evaluation at a seminar before an invited audience of councils participating in the main Fund.