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

Summary

• Support for and engagement with families and communities involves a range of activity funded by ASF. This ranges from specific initiatives, specialist staffing to local authority wide engagement strategies. Families and communities support and engagement spans a range of activities with clear crossover with the readiness to learn thematic area, for example in terms of specific attendance initiatives and voice in relation to participatory budgeting initiatives. It is important to note a move from employment of a range of interventions in the initial years of the ASF to the more recent consideration of wider and more systematically planned ‘approaches’ (local authority wide strategies or initiatives).
• The evaluation evidence shows a developing picture of engagement with and support for families and communities over the years of the Evaluation. From an early focus on interventions to the development of wider approaches there is an evolving picture of support. Support and engagement activities include parental involvement strategies and approaches to family learning. Also, a range of other initiatives and approaches such as the important role of schools/family development or link workers who often work towards supporting school attendance, engagement, and participation as well as wider support to parents and carers around benefits advice and signposting to other services.
• It is clear from the evidence that support for and engagement with families and communities has gained increasing importance over the years of the Fund with local authorities and schools recognising that close relationships and tailored, meaningful support is critical in their work to close the poverty related attainment gap. Evidence highlights that most local authorities currently have strategic approaches in place to support engagement with parents and families. It is important to note that the expansion of work in this area is both about the development of approaches over the years of the Fund - e.g. family learning/family link workers and teams and the developments in support provided during the COVID-19 pandemic and the learning that emerged from that period.
• From 2019/20 onwards we can see the priority approaches developed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated learning that they provided. There is considerable evidence of an expansion of some services and a pivot towards increased direct contact and support for families during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the two periods of school building closures and remote learning in 2020 and 2021. While some services were expanded others were decreased or paused and included: the importance of family learning/family link workers and teams; effective links to wider partnerships; opportunities for online communication; need for meaningful engagement and challenging assumptions of what support families may need. A greater appreciation of the role schools can play, and a greater focus on pupil attendance and engagement. The impact of this expansion can be seen with local authorities reporting strengthened relationships between schools and with families and communities and increased awareness within schools of poverty and its impact on pupils.
• There is evidence of a consolidation of learning in the post COVID-19 period with evidence collected through the most recent Evaluation enquiry^[6] highlighting that there is a focus on making adaptations based on learning and that nearly all local authorities considered families and communities a strategic priority (in relation to their approach to the Scottish Attainment Challenge).

Key learning points highlighted in the Evaluation evidence include the following:

• Evidence highlights that most local authorities currently have strategic approaches in place to support engagement with parents and families. This is often driven by parental involvement and engagement strategies.
• The important role of family link workers and their ability to reach families, engage meaningfully with them and their ability to provide the relevant support required depending on local context. There is evidence that these roles or teams have had considerable impact universally and for those targeted, for example in terms of strengthened relationships between schools and with families and communities and the resultant increased awareness within schools of poverty and its impact on pupils.
• Local authorities’ experiences of family engagement highlighted the important role of the home learning environment and parents’ capacity to support pupils’ learning.
• The importance of building positive relationships built on trust. Local authorities noted this as a factor which can lead to more families turning to schools for support, particularly during the period of COVID-19 School building closures.

Learning suggests that impactful approaches involve the following:

• Importance of meaningful and proactive engagement with families and maintaining this over time.
• Importance of effective links, collaboration, and joint working with wider public and third sector partners.
• Importance of continuing to learn from ongoing experiences of engaging with families and communities to refine and improve engagement and supports accordingly.

Annex A outlines the Evaluation sub-evaluation questions in turn and provides a progress ‘stock take’ on the basis of the evidence considered to date.