Attainment Scotland Fund evaluation - families and communities: thematic evaluation report 2024

Evaluation Evidence – Initial years of the Attainment Scotland Fund (2015-2020)

The use of ASF funding to support families and communities has been a developing area over the years of the Fund. In order to tell the story of support for and engagement with families and communities it is important to consider the evaluation evidence over the years of the Fund and to highlight the emerging themes. In this section analysis will be presented from years 1-6 of the Evaluation, predominantly using the annual retrospective Evaluation Reports as source material. This consideration is helpful to seek to answer Evaluation Question 8:

To what extent has the fund embedded engagement with and support for families and communities?

In the initial years of the fund, the Evaluation Report years 1-2, highlighted family support and engagement as part of a range of interventions taking place funded through the ASF by local authorities and schools, although this was to a lesser extent than the priority areas of literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. Initially this was apparent through the interventions that were focused on family support and engagement and family learning.^[3]

The Headteacher Survey responses in year 2 reported that 30% of headteachers said that the work (to close the poverty related attainment gap) at school could be undermined by disengaged parents, citing this as a perceived barrier to the success of the Fund, highlighting that this was an area that required further focus going forward. The Evaluation Report for Year 3 similarly noted a focus on a range of interventions related to leadership, parental engagement/families and communities, and data analysis. Whilst there were references to families and communities at this stage of the Evaluation there was not a dedicated consideration of this area.

The Year 4 (2018/19) Evaluation Report noted a focus on parental and family engagement forming a key part of the approaches developed in some schools. This included, for example, approaches aimed at supporting pupil attendance and engagement, and improving pupil aspirations. The report notes evidence from the Headteacher Survey 2019 which pointed to the need for a clear commitment to parental engagement, and recognition of the time required to build relationships with families, not least given negative associations with the school environment which may be held by some parents. There was also evidence of the benefits of parental engagement, such as parents being more willing to engage with school activities and viewing the school as a source of help and support. Also noted were instances of good practice sharing between local authorities regarding Family Link Worker interventions.

When considering approaches to engaging families and communities the Year 5 (2019/20) Evaluation Report notes that there was considerable evidence of the ongoing development of approaches to engaging families and communities across all evidence sources used in the Report. Evidence from the Local Authority Survey 2020 indicates that the majority of respondents developed their approaches to engaging families and communities during the previous year.

The Report notes that during the period August 2019 to March 2020, there were numerous developments in engaging families and communities. For example, local authorities described the development of parental involvement and engagement strategies, and of approaches to family learning. Challenge Authority progress reports detailed a whole range of ways in which local authorities had sought to support children and young people through projects to support families, including provision of targeted support for families, the role of school/family development workers focusing on improving attendance, engagement and participation, and parenting support such as benefits advice, mental health, substance misuse etc, pointing to the holistic nature of much of this activity. It is important to note that a move from employment of a range of interventions to the consideration of wider and more systematically planned ‘approaches’ (local authority wide strategies or initiatives) was apparent.

Year 5 (2019/20) can be considered a year of two halves – pre and post COVID-19 pandemic. The next section considers the COVID-19 impacts and resultant developments in support and engagement with families and communities.