A Co-constructed and Co-produced Evaluation of the Anchor Project in Shetland

Executive Summary

This report details the findings of the independent evaluation of Shetland’s Anchor Project (2018- March 2023) co-produced by a team of researchers from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen (Professors Catriona Kennedy, Flora Douglas, and Gary Spolander) with Emma Perring and Lynsey Hall from Shetland Islands Council. This evaluation was funded by the Scottish Government.

Background

Shetland’s Community Planning Partnership envisaged and implemented the Anchor Early Action Systems Change Project in 2018, pre the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing (22/23/24) cost of living crisis. A key driver was recognising the need for planning and actions to ameliorate child poverty in the context of the inflated cost of living on the Islands rather than deprivation alone. Furthermore, a commitment to early intervention, prevention and interdisciplinary working and recognition of systems-based approaches is an integral part of service planning and delivery in Shetland.

The Anchor Project sits within an ambitious Scottish Government policy landscape to eradicate child poverty through involving children and families in a fair and inclusive manner. The overall aim of Anchor was to facilitate learning and action in family led problem solving and early intervention. Families are placed at the centre of decision making and the purpose is to direct resources towards early action rather than crisis management. A further aim was to enable system change by giving families and services the space to try out new ways of working together, moving from crisis intervention to early intervention and prevention.

What did the Evaluation of the Anchor Project Involve?

This evaluation had three distinct phases and three key objectives:

• to map Anchor in Phase one (completed January 2023)
• to explore mainstreaming the change in Phase two (completed February 2023)
• and in Phase three, to identify the opportunities and challenges from the learning of Anchor to mainstreaming the Anchor approach to other Island/Scottish contexts (completed October 2023).

This evaluation adopted participatory and co-produced methods within an action research framework to understand Anchor’s component parts. The evaluation was designed in close collaboration with key stakeholders in Shetland Islands Council including the Anchor project manager and a project worker, and in its final stages, the Scottish Government. Throughout, the aim was to capture the stories and experiences of key stakeholders involved in Anchor and those who may benefit from learning about the context of the Anchor project and how it works.

Fulfilling the co-production ethos of this project, the research team spent time in Shetland on two occasions (January and February 2023). This facilitated being embedded within the islands, working with parents, project workers and a range of key stakeholders from health and social care, education, police and the third sector. An ongoing dialogue with this community of informants was established to analyse, challenge, innovate and mainstream local solutions and implement ongoing evaluation which produced locally designed change and solutions to Shetland and its islands.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection took place during four phases.

1. In the later part of 2022, a Photovoice process of stakeholder engagement was designed and agreed with the Anchor project manager and workers in advance of the evaluators in situ fieldwork that took place in January and March 2023³. Photovoice is a qualitative method used in community based participatory research to help people record, reflect, and document their realities of experiencing, and providing Anchor support, using images and voice notes⁴. The data generated by this process underpinned the fieldwork and investigation that took place during Phases one and two.

2. In Phase one, eight project workers took part in workshops across two days. During a three day stay in Shetland, the researchers had opportunities to meet and speak individually with six parents to gather their lived experiences of engaging with Anchor project workers, and two head teachers whose schools were amongst the first to host Anchor workers when the project originally started in 2018.

3. In Phase two we held two half day - workshops (afternoon followed by a morning session) with a wide range of stakeholders drawn from the Anchor team, project board and across several Shetland-based sectors and organisations, feeding back on our emerging Theory of Change from Phase one to stimulate discussions.

4. Phase three included the presentation and several discussions of Phase one and two findings to national policy maker stakeholders and, then subsequent participation in the 2023 Child Poverty Peer Support Network’s annual meeting involving a wide range of health, local authority and third sector stakeholders from across Scotland. This involved a further presentation of the Phase one and two findings as well as evaluation team and Anchor project team members co-facilitating two workshops, involving 80 participants, representing 20 local authorities, five health boards and four National bodies. Key questions posed at the workshop aimed to illuminate components of Anchor which may or may not be relevant to other island and Scottish jurisdictions,

Data analysis was iterative and ongoing and at each stage involved checking our understanding of Anchor, the context within which it operated and how the Anchor team worked with key stakeholders. We applied a change theory known as Normalization Process Theory to further understand our findings as part of a growing social action in Shetland.

Key Findings and Learning from the Anchor Project.

A theory of change model is a key output from this evaluation which identifies key characteristics at the level of individuals (micro), services (meso) and organisations (macro).

At the micro level of families/individuals Anchor workers provide a family/person centred and relationship-based service, free from stigma which ‘sits alongside’ people, provides a social cushion and helps ‘hold’ people and prevent them slipping into crisis in the immediate and longer term. Anchor works to people’s strengths, gives people time, helps them to identify and work with their needs, at a pace set by them and based on a premise of what is possible rather than a deficit model.

At the meso level of organisations and communities in Shetland, Anchor is not an emergency/crisis service and sits ‘under the radar’ in terms of Statutory Services and policy such as GIRFEC. Anchor was designed to ensure services engaged with families and individuals at a time best for them, helping to build resilient families. The sense of place and belonging for all key stakeholders, alongside a passion for improvement permeates Anchor’s working ethos. We found that stakeholders regarded Shetland as their community and they wanted it to be an inclusive and fair place to live and work. Time to develop Anchor, leaders being brave and thinking ‘outside the box’ to achieve partnership working and switching resources from and between statutory services was evident.

Similarly, at the macro level, key components included achieving a shared vision, understanding collaborative working takes time, resources, patience, trus t and bravery amongst leaders in negotiating ‘systems changes’ to enact early intervention and prevention across organisations.

Authentic and longstanding conversations around social inclusion, connectedness, and social interaction appeared critical to Anchor’s success. However, there was a recognition that those connections could easily become more fragile or dismantled if momentum was lost or financial support was withdrawn or compromised. Stakeholders recognised that impacts and outcomes take time to become apparent with this type of approach but helps work towards a sustainable model of change through the critical development of a social action through people and across their communities.

Based on the final Phase three discussions with national stakeholders, ten Anchor enabling factors/considerations for implementation in other contexts were identified.

Conclusions

The findings from this evaluation suggest Anchor is dynamic and developing as a social action in Shetland. Past, present, future and human behaviour of key participants influenced the behaviour of others and have become embedded and the norm. Using the theoretical lens of Normalisation Process Theory, we have identified the relevance of key stakeholders understanding of Anchor, what key stakeholders did to establish Anchor, the cognitive receptiveness and engagement of participants with Anchor and the different components within it, and what has been learned during the Anchor journey and the progress which has been made.