Early Adopter Communities - process evaluation: research findings

Overview of the EAC evaluation study

The Scottish Government commissioned Ipsos Scotland to carry out work with the EACs to inform its approach to future monitoring and evaluation. This work comprised four stages: developing theories of change at both the community and national level; developing a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework; conducting a process evaluation on early EAC implementation and delivery; and producing a preliminary evaluability assessment to inform future evaluation.

This report presents the findings of the early process evaluation for the EACs. Its overarching aim was to identify what has worked well or less well during early set-up and implementation, to inform ongoing design and delivery. The evaluation assesses this by looking at the extent to which activities identified in the EAC local level theory of change have been successfully implemented. This includes systems-level activities such as governance and partnership working, as well as activities relating to the direct delivery of services to families, such as co-design, referrals, application processes, and provision of subsidised childcare, food, transport and further family support where appropriate.

This early process evaluation was qualitative, based predominantly on in-depth interviews in March and May 2024. Participants included each EAC project lead, 17 EAC stakeholders, and 22 parents and 27 children (between the ages of five to 11) who had attended an EAC. Discussion guides were developed for each audience, shaped by the theories of change and M&E framework. The evaluation team also reviewed recent EAC monitoring reports.

It is important to note that process evaluations typically cover implementation, mechanisms of impact (how the intervention brings about change) and context. However, as this is an early process evaluation and there is no related impact evaluation on which to draw, the focus is on implementation, with analysis of context where possible. While the evaluation assesses the extent to which EAC processes have been implemented as intended, and how well they have been working, it was not within scope to make any definitive judgements on which approaches were the most appropriate. Moreover, it should be kept in mind that this research did not include families who were eligible for EAC services but did not use them (although barriers to engagement were discussed by EAC staff and partners). While this does not negatively affect the quality of the data, there may be further barriers to participation that the evaluation could not identify.