Access to Childcare Fund: phase 2 - evaluation report

Appendix Three: Discussion guides

Discussion guide for project leads

Access to Childcare Fund project lead discussion guide

Initial notes on project

Space for name, general notes on project. Include focus areas from driver diagrams and any other information that is relevant.

Section 1: Introduction and consent (5 mins)

Aim: to make sure we gain informed consent from participant before taking part including consent for recording.

Thank participants for taking part & introduce yourself.

Introduce yourself, your role and Ipsos Scotland

Remind participant that the interview will last around 60 minutes and check it still suits to conduct it now.

Remind participant/s of the aims of the research:

The Scottish Government has asked us, Ipsos Scotland (an independent research organisation), to carry out an evaluation of the Access to Childcare Fund. As part of this, we would like to hear about your experience of leading an ACF funded project.

This will contribute to the overall research aims of understanding to what extent projects achieved the intended outcomes for children, parents, and families and to explore the project processes, including if and how projects overcame access and participation barriers.

We will also be speaking to children and families who have attended the projects as well as project stakeholders. Once we have spoken to everyone, we will write a report and it will be published by the Scottish Government in summer 2023.

Remind participant/s that we are evaluating the fund as a whole rather than individual projects.

For all other than AUFA and SCMA: The interview will cover the whole period, from when you first applied for the funding up until now but will focus more on what’s happened since the first evaluation report produced by CiS.

Provide reassurances of anonymity and confidentiality. Explain that no identifying information about them (e.g., names or contact details, or notes on their interview) will be seen by anyone outside of Ipsos Scotland and the transcriber.

Inform participant that any quotes used will be anonymous. However, we cannot fully guarantee when published that someone would not be able to make an educated guess at the quoted project due to the small number of projects in evaluation. After the interview we will give you the opportunity to note any comments you would not like to be included as quotes or review anything in the draft report we feel may be identifying.

Remind participant that there are no right or wrong answers and they don’t have to answer any questions they don’t want to answer. They can decide to stop the interview at any point.

Let participant know that you have read monitoring reports prior to the interview and have a general awareness of their project and intended aims. However, this interview is to gain a deeper understanding of how projects used the funding and ensure we capture project learnings.

Check if participant has any questions.

Request permission to record interview. Explain that this is for transcription and analysis purposes and that recordings will not be shared outside the research team at Ipsos.

That’s recording us now. Could I quickly ask you to confirm for the recording that you are happy to take part based on the information we just discussed?

Section 2 – Background of role and background of project (3 mins) (8 minutes total)

Aim: to build rapport and gain understanding of the participant’s project and their role.

To begin with could you tell me a bit about your role in the project and how long you have worked there?

We’ll talk in a moment about the ACF funding specifically, but could you briefly give me more of a general overview of [name of project]?

Section 3 – Overview of project; planning and delivery (15 mins) (22 mins total)

Aim: To understand how the funding was used for the project. What specific outcomes were they hoping to achieve from the service and for whom?

And now moving on to the Access to Childcare Fund funding. Broadly speaking, what did you hope to achieve with the funding at the outset?

What were the barriers to accessible, flexible and affordable childcare that you were hoping to overcome?

What did you think the funding could add to your existing service in order to address these barriers?

• Would you say there was anything innovative about what you planned to do or was it an approach that was more tried or tested?

Who were the target group/s you wanted to reach? Were these the same groups you already worked with? Why did you choose this group/these groups? Probe on specific TCPDP groups (Note to researcher: Highlight relevant ones before interview)

• lone parent families
• families with a disabled adult child,
• larger families,
• ethnic minority families
• families with a child under one year old
• families where the mother is under 25 years of age

How did you go about understanding what the barriers for families in your target groups were and what might help to overcome them?

• Did you use existing knowledge, or did you consult or collaborate with families/other organisations?
• How well do you feel these approaches worked?

Have the key aims of the project changed over time?

What would you say is the key aim of your ACF funded project now?

And what are the specific outcomes you are hoping to achieve for the target group now? (Note to researcher: these should be included in monitoring materials so cross reference to check that we have the most up to date version of the outcomes they are seeking to achieve. We will come back to ask about meeting each of these outcomes later in the discussion)

Probe fully.

Ask if aims of project changed over time:

We’ll come back later to discuss further how and why the project has changed over time.

First, however, I just want to check that I have the details of the different elements of your funded project right. Can I confirm that you used the Access to childcare funding to help fund the following areas (Note to researcher: Highlight relevant ones before interview)

• Holiday club
• Breakfast/lunch club
• Flexible hours
• Outdoor/play increased outdoor activity
• Rural provision
• Subsidised/free places
• After school activity
• Unregulated afterschool activities
• Weekend
• Family Support
• ASN
• Transport
• Childminding

Can you just tell me a bit more about how the service operates in practice?

Probe fully on the detail of each of the elements mentioned above

And who are the key partners you work with in delivering the projects?

• What are their roles in the project?
• Were they also involved in the planning stages?
• Were these existing partnerships or new ones?

What has gone well in terms of partnership working?

And what challenges have there been?

Section 4 – Communication and engagement strategies (10 mins) (32 total)

Aim: to understand how projects communicated their projects to target groups and how target groups engaged with the projects

Now, changing the subject slightly, how do you go about communicating the project to target families before they join?

Probe:

• Wider promotion e.g., websites/materials
• Indirect communications via partners
• Referrals from partners

Do the approaches used vary at all by target group?

Do you think there are issues of embarrassment or stigma for children or families attending targeted services like these?

Was there anything specific that you tried to communicate the offer in a non-stigmatising way?

From your perspective, how well do you feel your approach to promoting the programme is working?

• Any difference by target group?
• Are some approaches working better than others?
• Has it changed over time at all?

And how well attended would you say the project has been?

• How does this compare with any targets / expectations you had?
• Is the project better attended by some target groups than others?
• How does it vary by different elements of the project?

Were there any groups that were harder to reach or engage with?

• Why/what are or were the barriers/challenges?
• Is there anything you’ve done that has helped reach these groups in particular?

Were there any other general barriers to attendance / challenges you experienced engaging with children and families?

• Have you been able to mitigate these barriers?

Section 5- Project outcomes (13 mins) (45 total)

Aim: To find out more about how project has met the fund’s aims and intended outcomes of their projects.

We’ll now move on to talk about the impact of the project and the outcomes for children and families.

To what extent do you feel the project has met the fund’s aims, that is to provide accessible, affordable and flexible childcare to low-income families from the six priority groups? Probe fully on each of the three (accessible, affordable, flexible)

• How is your project measuring this? E.g., feedback from families?
• Any differences in outcomes for different priority groups?

What would you say are the key elements of the project that have facilitated these aims being met?

As mentioned earlier you are focusing on X key outcomes for children and families. I'd just like to go through each now in turn and ask to what extent you feel this outcome is being achieved and what data/evidence you are using to measure this.

Probe fully: ask for each outcome area they focused on:

• How is your project measuring this?
• What are key elements that have facilitated this?
• Were there any differences in outcomes for any of the target groups?

If not already mentioned:

What influence would you say partnership working has had on the project’s outcomes?

And what has been the impact of the family support work?

Were there any unintended or unexpected consequences of the project?

More generally, what impact, if any, has the funding had on your organisation?

Probe:

• on your frontline staff
• on the operation of your service
• what has it allowed you to do differently / try / do additionally that you wouldn't have been able to do otherwise?

And what impact, if any, has being part of the Fund had on your partnership working more generally?

Section 6 – Monitoring change over time and building on learning (8 mins) (53 total)

Aim: To find out how projects have adapted and changed as a result of monitoring and reflection and how this will inform future delivery.

We’re coming towards the end now and I would just like to take some time to for us to reflect on how the project has changed over time. So, how, if at all, has the delivery of the project changed since the start of the funding period?

• Were there aspects of the programme you identified as not working so well?

What have any changes in delivery been informed/influenced by?

If not mentioned in question above: What role, if any, has the monitoring and evaluation you’ve been doing played in the project’s development over time?

• How, if at all, has it helped you to overcome any challenges?

More generally, how have you found the process of undertaking monitoring and evaluation for your project?

• What elements of it have been most/least useful?
• What, if any, challenges have there been in meeting the monitoring and evaluation requirements?
• Has the process helped at all in achieving the desired outcomes of your project?

How could the monitoring process have been made more useful for you?

And is there anything that could have made it easier to complete?

Section 7- Lessons Learned (5 mins) (58 total)

Aim: To draw on lessons learned more widely and ideas for improvement

That’s us coming to the end now. Overall how would you summarise what difference the fund has made to the families you work with?

What lessons, if any, have you learned from this process, that will inform the future delivery of your model?

And what lessons have you learned from your involvement with the fund that you think could be applied more generally to make other childcare services more accessible, affordable and flexible for low-income families?

• What advice would you give to someone else setting out to make their service more accessible, affordable and flexible?

Is there anything else you would like to add before we finish?

Section 8: Wrap up (2 mins) (60 mins total)

Thank participant & stop recording.

Now the interview has finished are there any comments you have made that you would like to not be included as direct quotes in the report? You can also get back in touch with us later if you think of anything you’d like not to be included. We’ll offer you the chance to review any sections of the draft report we feel may be identifying before submitting it to Scottish Government.

NB: Make note of comments not wanting to be included below or if appropriate mark in guide above.

The next stage of the research is to speak to both project stakeholders and families who have attended projects funded by the ACF about their experiences. We are yet to decide if all projects will be included in this stage of the research. If your project is selected, we will be back in touch by email with more information.

Discussion guide for families

Access to Childcare Fund - Families discussion guide

Initial notes on project

Space for name, general notes on project. Include focus areas from driver diagrams and any other information that is relevant.

Section 1: Introduction and consent (5 mins)

Aim: to make sure we gain informed consent from participant before taking part including consent for recording.

Thank participant for taking part and introduce yourself and Ipsos Scotland.

• Remind participant/s of the aims of the research:

  The Scottish Government has asked us, Ipsos Scotland (an independent research organisation), to get feedback from families about different models of after school childcare. The aim of the research is to find out what went well and what could be done better in future. We’ll also be speaking to people who helped organise the childcare project you took part in. Once we have spoken to everyone, we’ll write a report summarising what everyone has said and that will be published by the Scottish Government.

• Provide reassurances of anonymity and confidentiality:

  It will not be possible for the Scottish Government or anyone else to know who took part in the research. We will include quotes in the report, but these would be anonymous. No identifying information about individuals or families (e.g., names or contact details) will be passed on to anyone outside the research team (me and my colleagues at Ipsos).

• Remind participant that the interview will last around 30-40 minutes. (If joint interview, explain that the child will only need to stay for the first part – around 15/20 minutes) and that they will receive a thank you voucher/payment which you will sort out at the end of the discussion.
• Remind participant that there are no right or wrong answers. It’s really useful to hear what could have been done better as well as what went well.
• Emphasise that taking part is completely voluntary - they don’t have to answer any questions they don’t want to answer and can decide to stop the interview at any point.
• Remind that they are free to change their mind and decide not to take part at any time before or during the interview, or after the interview until the findings have been written up.
• Check if participant has any questions.

Note: Collecting children consent is important here as we will so far have only communicated with the parent/carer. Spend time making sure children understands what the interview is about and what we/the Scottish Government will do with the information. Offer to go through information sheet if necessary.

• Request permission to record interview. Explain that this is for transcription and analysis purposes and that recordings will not be shared outside the research team at Ipsos.

That’s recording us now. Could I quickly ask you to confirm for the recording that you are happy to take part based on the information we just discussed?

Section 2 – Background/building rapport (2 mins) (7 minutes total)

Aim: to build rapport and gain understanding of participant’s life.

To start with, could you tell me a bit about yourself/yourselves?

• (If video/phone interview) where do you live
• Who do you live with
• What do you do on a typical day?
• (For children) What kinds of things you like doing?

Section 3 – Background on the project they attended (5 mins) (12 mins total)

Aim: To understand which project they attended and how it worked

It would be great to hear a bit about the after school childcare project you/your child attend. You attend [project] is that right?

Can you tell me a bit about what that involves?

• Where?
• When and how often/how long attending for? Is that the same every week?
• With whom?
• What they do there? [note will discuss further]
• Is there food provided? [will ask more about this later]

Section 4 – Outcomes for children (8 mins) (20 total)

Aim: to explore perceived outcomes for children from attending the project

Key outcomes: impact on parental employment and parental wellbeing

Note to interviewers:

If a child is taking part, this section should be directed to them. If a child is not taking part, please briefly ask parent general thoughts on what children thought about the project.

Stimulus (for face-to-face or video interviews):

Where appropriate, we have suggested asking children to answer questions using a visual 5-point scale from [1] to [5] with a moveable counter. This is intended to be used flexibly and as a tool to help get elicit a bit more information from children who may just say things were “good”.

Overview

Overall, how do you/your child feel about attending [the project]?

• Does child enjoy it / are they happy to go?
• For child: What do you like about it?
• For child: What is not so good about it?

For older children/parents (if no child): How, if at all, do you think you/your children (children you look after) benefit from attending?

If children are taking part, please ask about their experience of the following elements in more detail. If parent only, section headings below can be used as prompts for above questions but no need to probe in detail.

Range and choice of activities

Refer to activities mentioned earlier - try to establish range/choice/variety

You mentioned that you do [activities], do you do similar activities each time? How often do you do different kinds of activities?

• Is there enough variety?
• Is there enough choice?
• Does children get do new activities / learn new things?

  If yes:

  • What kind of things?
  • What is the best thing they have discovered/tried?
  • What is the impact of getting to trying or learning new things for the children? How does it make them feel?
• Does variety/choice impact on how much they enjoy attending?

Have you been asked what of things you wanted to do while you are there?

• When/how often?
• Is it important to children to be part of decisions at the project?

Food

If food provided: Tell me a bit more about the food provided

• Does children enjoy / eat it?
• Is there much choice?
• Are there healthy food options available?
• What difference does it make to children having food provided? Is it important for them?
• Is the food similar to what they usually have at home?
• Does children learn about food at the project?
• Has this had any impact on the food they eat at home/how they have meals at home?

Impacts on children wellbeing

How did attending affect how children/your child felt in general? (e.g., did it impact how the children felt outside of/after the project?)

Probe around:

• Happiness
• Confidence or self-esteem
• Any other mental health impacts?

Does children do more physical activity at the project than they would normally?

• How do they feel about this?
• What effects does this have on them? Positives / negatives?

Developing relationships

Which adults are normally leading the project/looking after you?

• What are they like? Does children like the staff?
• Does children interact/spend much time with the staff?
• What do staff do well?
• What could they do better?
• Does spending time with staff make a difference to them? Probe around e.g., impact on enjoyment, support to do new things

Do you get to spend time with others around your age?

• What do they think about this? (e.g., what is good/bad about this?)
• Do they get on well with peers?
• Has spending time with other children made a difference to them? Probe around e.g., impact on mental wellbeing, enjoyment, confidence

Environment/being outside

You mentioned the project take place at [location]. What do you think about the this?

• What do they like/dislike about this?
• What makes it a nice (or not) place to be?
• Do they spend time outdoors? Is this important/positive for them?
• What effects does this have on them? Positives / negatives?

Summary

Is there anything you think could be improved about the project?

• Is there anything they particularly like that there could be more of? Or less of?
• How could people running activities like this encourage more children/families like you to come along?

Any final thoughts/feedback they think it would be useful for us to know?

Thank child for taking part and explain next section is for parents only.

Ask parent if there is anything they would like to add on how their child feels about going and what they think have been the main benefits for their child

Section 5 – Access and barriers (8 mins) (28 total)

Aim: to explore how easy it was to find out about and access the project, and how it compares to any alternatives

When and how did you first hear about the project?

• What were their first thoughts when they first heard about the project?
• Did they think it was the sort of thing that would they/their children would feel able to attend? Why/why not? (Why) did it appeal to them?
• Were they invited directly or was it something that anybody could sign up to?
  • How did they feel about being invited to take part?
  • Did they like being invited in this way? (If not, how would they like to be invited?)
• If participant mentions they were specificially targeted for support: Some people have suggested that there may be some stigma around attending these kinds of projects. Is that something you’ve experienced?

Would your child have been able to attend other childcare settings if the project hadn’t been on?

• What would you/they have done instead?
• How does this compare?

Overall, how easy or difficult was it for you / your family to attend?

Probe on:

• Signing up:
  • How did they sign up? How easy was it to do this?
• Timings:
  • Are the timings convenient? (Do they fit with other commitments?)
  • Are they flexible? Is this important?
  • How do the timings compare to other childcare options?
  • What would be ideal for you in terms of the timings for this kind of childcare?
• Travel to activities:
  • Does children travel alone or accompanied by adult/sibling?
  • How do they get there – walk/public transport/car?
    • How long does it take?
    • How easy it to get there?
  • Is there support provided to help your family travel to/from the project?
    • Is any transport provided?
    • Is the cost of transportation covered?
  • Is there anything that would make it easier for your family to get to the project?
• Cost:
  • Does it cost them anything to attend? (Directly or indirectly)
  • What, if any, impact does this have for them?
• General barriers:
  • Is there anything else that makes it difficult/can make it for you it difficult to attend?
    • Is there anything that would help to make that easier?
  • Is there anything that normally makes it difficult to access after school childcare/that you expected might be an issue but turned out not to be?
    • E.g., additional support needs, not speaking English as first language etc.
    • What made this project different?

Have the organisers of the project asked for any feedback on how things are working?

• If yes, were there any changes as a result?
• How would you ideally prefer to be asked about your views on the project?

Section 6- Outcomes for parents/carers (9 mins) (37 total)

Aim: to explore perceived outcomes for parents/carers

Key outcomes: impact on parental employment and parental wellbeing

Overview of support/parental involvement with project

We’ve spoken about children’s experience of attending the project. I’d also like to understand more about your experiences of the project.

What kind of support, if any, have you personally received through the project?

If yes, probe for details and impacts

• Direct support / signposting to other support?
• What type of support - e.g., financial support / support to access study, training or work?

Parental impacts

Overall, what have been the key benefits of the project for you [and your partner/husband/wife]?

Go on to ask about following elements (if not covered in sufficient detail):

Parental employment

Is there anything you’ve been able to do yourself that you wouldn’t have been able to do without the project?

Probe on:

• Opportunities to study/train/work
• What is it about the project that’s made the most difference in making this possible for you? / What would normally stop you doing these things?

Financial circumstances

Has attending the project meant your family saved money at all?

If yes:

• On what?
• What impact did this have?
• Did the reduction in childcare costs ease pressures on the overall family budget?

Parental health and wellbeing

How, if at all, has the project had impact your wellbeing?

Probe on mental wellbeing and physical wellbeing

Food

We’ve spoken a bit already about the food at the project. Is it important to you that food is offered?

• What did you think of the food offer?
• Has attending the activity has any impact on your knowledge of preparing food or how you have meals at home? (e.g., learning around nutrition, cooking skills, appreciating eating together)

Section 7- Summary & thoughts on improvement (2 mins) (39 total)

Overall, how would you summarise your / your family’s experience of the project?

• If not covered: What do you think have been the key benefits for your family?

What is it about the project that made the most difference to you/your family? (Probe on how this has made a difference - accessible, affordable, flexible?)

How (if at all) could the project be improved even more?

• Is there anything they particularly like that they would like to see more of?
• Anything there could be less of?
• How could people organising similar projects in future encourage more children/families like you to come along?

Any final thoughts/feedback they think it would be useful for us to know?

Section 8: Wrap up (1 min) (40 mins total)

That’s everything I wanted to ask you today, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me today. I really appreciate it. I’ll stop the recording now [stop recording].

Before I let you go, I just need to sort out how to get your thank you payment over to you.

Check whether prefer BACS transfer (note that this takes minimum 2 weeks) or voucher (Amazon or L2S)?

Record details (including details for paying BACS) in secure spreadsheet.

Just to remind you, we’ll be writing a report to summarise everything you and others have told us about the school-age childcare projects. It will be published on the Scottish Government website, so you’ll be able to search for it and read it if you’re interested. It will probably be published this Summer.

If you would like, we can send you a link to the report when it’s published. If so, we’ll keep your name and email address for this purpose and wait to securely delete it until after we’ve sent you the link to the report. Make a note of this in the recruitment spreadsheet.

That’s everything from me. Do you have any questions before we finish?

Thank and close.

Discussion guide for stakeholders

Access to Childcare Fund stakeholder discussion guide

Initial notes on project

Space for name, general notes on project involved with and general involvement. Include focus areas from driver diagrams and any other information that is relevant.

Section 1: Introduction and consent (5 mins)

Aim: to make sure we gain informed consent from participant before taking part including consent for recording.

Thank participant for taking part & introduce yourself.

Introduce yourself, your role and Ipsos Scotland

Remind participant that the interview will last around 60 minutes and check it still suits to conduct it now.

Remind participant/s of the aims of the research:

• The Scottish Government has asked us, Ipsos Scotland (an independent research organisation), to carry out an evaluation of the Access to Childcare Fund. As part of this, we would like to hear about your experience of being involved with an ACF funded project.
• This will contribute to the overall research aims of understanding to what extent projects achieved the intended outcomes for children, parents, and families and to explore the project processes, including if and how projects overcame access and participation barriers.
• We have spoken to project leads and will also be speaking to families who have attended the projects. Once we have spoken to everyone, we will write a report and it will be published by the Scottish Government in summer 2023.
• Remind participant/s that we are evaluating the fund as a whole rather than individual projects.

Provide reassurances of anonymity and confidentiality:

• Explain that no identifying information about them (e.g., names or contact details, or notes on their interview) will be seen by anyone outside of Ipsos Scotland and the transcriber.
• Inform participant that any quotes used will be anonymous. However, we cannot fully guarantee when published that someone would not be able to make an educated guess at the project the quotes relate to due to the small number of projects in evaluation. After the interview we will give you the opportunity to note any comments you would not like to be included as quotes or review anything in the draft report we feel may be identifying.

Remind participant that there are no right or wrong answers and they don’t have to answer any questions they don’t want to answer. They can decide to stop the interview at any point.

Let participant know that you have a general understanding of the project and their partnership with funded project from the project lead interview. However, we are also interested in how the project is working from the point of view of partners.

Check if participant has any questions.

Request permission to record interview. Explain that this is for transcription and analysis purposes and that recordings will not be shared outside the research team at Ipsos.

That’s recording us now. Could I quickly ask you to confirm for the recording that you are happy to take part based on the information we just discussed?

Section 2 – Background of role (2 mins) (7 minutes total)

Aim: to build rapport and gain understanding of the participant’s role.

To begin with, could you just tell me a bit about your role – generally first and then briefly in relation to [name of project]

Section 3 – Overview of project; planning and delivery (7 mins) (14 mins total)

Aim: To understand the design of the project and who was involved in the planning and creation of the service

Thanks, and I’d now like to understand a bit more about your involvement with [name of project].

Before you became involved with [name of project] had you worked with [name of organisation running project] before? Probe for details

And when and how did you first become involved with [name of project] specifically?

Probe:

• Was this before or after the project had received funding?
• If before: Were you involved in the funding application?

As you may know, the Access to Childcare Fund, that funds [name of project] aims to find ways of improving access to accessible, flexible and affordable for target families. The target families [name of project] wanted to reach are: Note to researcher: Highlight relevant ones before interview)

• lone parent families
• families with a disabled adult child,
• larger families,
• ethnic minority families
• families with a child under one year old
• families where the mother is under 25 years of age

Prior to [name of project] starting, what would you say were the barriers to childcare for families in these groups?

If involved in the funding application:

At the funding stage, when the project was being designed, was there any consultation or collaboration with families/other organisations about barriers or did you use this existing knowledge?

• How well do you feel this worked?

Would you say there was anything innovative about what [name of project] planned to do when designing the project or was it an approach that was more tried and tested?

Section 4: Partnership working (6 mins) (20 total)

Aim: to understand stakeholders’ roles in the project and how partnership working is going

Can you tell me a bit more about the partnership you have with [name of project]?

• What role do you have?
• Do you work with any other partners of just [project lead]?

What has gone well in terms of partnership working?

And what challenges have there been?

What has helped to overcome them?

Have there been any wider impacts on partnership working as a result of your involvement in [name of project]?

Section 5 – Communication and engagement strategies (10 mins) (30 total)

Aim: to understand how projects communicated their projects to target groups and how target groups engaged with the projects

Now, changing the subject slightly to thinking about how the project is communicated to target families before they join. Do you have a role in this?

If yes:

How do you go about doing this?

Probe:

• Wider promotion e.g., websites/materials
• Targeting families directly

Do the approaches used vary at all by target group?

Ask all:

Do you think there are issues of embarrassment or stigma for children or families attending targeted services like these?

Is there anything specific you/[name of project] tried to communicate the offer in a non-stigmatising way?

From your perspective, how well do you feel the approach to promoting the programme is working?

• Any difference by target group?
• Are some approaches working better than others?
• Has it changed over time at all?

And how well attended would you say the project has been?

• How does this compare with any targets / expectations you had?
• Is the project better attended by some target groups than others?
• How does it vary by different elements of the project?

Are there any groups that were harder to reach or engage with?

• Why/what are or were the barriers/challenges?
• Is there anything you’ve done that has helped reach these groups in particular?

Were there any other general barriers to attendance / challenges you experienced engaging with children and families?

• Have you been able to mitigate these barriers?

Section 6- Project outcomes (8 mins) (38 total)

Aim: To find out more about how the project has met families’ needs and the intended outcomes of their projects.

We’ll now move on to talk about the impact of the project and the outcomes for children and families.

To what extent do you feel the project has met the fund’s aims, that is to provide accessible, affordable and flexible childcare to low-income families from the six priority groups? Probe fully on each of the three (accessible, affordable, flexible)

• Any differences for different priority groups?

What would you say are the key elements of the project that have facilitated these aims being met?

And what impact would you say [name of project] is having on families you know who are using it?

[name of project] is focusing on X key outcomes for children and families. I'd just like to go through each now in turn and ask to what extent you feel this outcome is being achieved for the families you work with.

Probe fully: ask for each outcome area they focused on:

• What do you think are the key elements that have facilitated this?
• Were there any differences in outcomes for any of the target groups?

What influence would you say partnership working has had on the project’s outcomes?

Section 7- Lessons Learned (5 mins) (43 total)

Aim: To draw on lessons learned more widely and ideas for improvement

That’s us coming to the end now. Overall how would you summarise what difference the fund has made to the families you work with?

What do you think has worked well with [name of project]?

And what do you think could be improved?

And what lessons have you learned from your involvement with the fund that you think could be applied more generally to make other childcare services more accessible, affordable and flexible for low-income families?

Is there anything else you would like to add before we finish?

Section 8: Wrap up (2 mins) (45 mins total)

Thank participant & stop recording.

Now the interview has finished are there any comments you have made that you would like to not be included as direct quotes in the report? You can also get back in touch with us later if you think of anything you’d like not to be included. We’ll offer you the chance to review any sections of the draft report we feel may be identifying before submitting it to Scottish Government.

NB: Make note of comments not wanting to be included below or if appropriate mark in guide above.