Evaluation of the 'You First' Programme for Young Parents

10 CONCLUSIONS

Main benefits of You First

10.1 Although the parents have benefited from different aspects of You First to differing extents, three major benefits emerged. These were: the development of a social network, increased confidence and greater interaction between parents and their babies. While we discuss each of these benefits separately below, they are all interlinked and the combined influence of the three is greater than the sum of the individual benefits.

Enhanced social networks

10.2 The benefit that had the most widespread impact was the opportunity to meet other young parents. Nearly all of the parents enhanced their social networks to some degree, whether that was by forming lasting friendships, establishing a peer network through texting and Facebook or simply having a 'friendly face' they could chat to if they bumped into them in the street. While not all parents made lasting friendships, You First did have the potential to facilitate this.

Increased confidence

10.3 A strong theme to emerge from the research was how conscious the parents were about their age and the extent to which they felt stigmatised and judged by the rest of society. One parent felt so strongly about this that, before attending You First, she would not leave the house with her baby because she did not want people to see her. Meeting other young parents was key to improving confidence in this area. Simply knowing that there were others in their situation, and spending time with those who understood what they were going through, helped parents to feel that they were doing 'fine'.

10.4 While not all parents overcame their concerns about being stigmatised for their age, almost all felt more confident in some respect. A number of parents felt their self-confidence in general had increased, but for others it was related to specific areas. This included feeling more confident as a mother, more confident meeting new people and more confident about talking in a group or speaking up for themselves.

Increased parent-child interaction

10.5 One of the areas in which some parents' confidence improved was feeling more able to leave the house with their babies and go out and do things such as going swimming. Not only did this mean that parents were interacting more with their babies, but it helped them to get more enjoyment from doing so. One of the other main aspects that helped increased parent-baby interaction was the focus on the role parents play in their child's development. While parents had previously thought that their babies were too young to benefit from reading or singing, they did seem to take on board messages about the importance of these activities for their child's development. This proved successful as, rather than simply telling parents they should read or sing more, the reasons why this aided their babies' development were explained.

Other benefits

10.6 In addition to the three major benefits discussed above, You First has also delivered benefits that have had a big impact on just a few of the parents. For example, it raised one parent's educational aspirations. Through encouragement from the facilitators she realised that going to college was still an option for her, despite having had a baby. Another example was that some parents felt that becoming accustomed to using a crèche was of great benefit to them. It helped one parent make the decision to return to work, having previously been unsure about doing so. There were also aspects of You First that many parents found useful and informative but were not highlighted as major benefits. For example, learning about home safety or baby first aid.

10.7 The extent to which parents' uptake of local services increased was mixed (discussed in more detail below). However, there were instances of parents attending other groups in the area or using local services. It was clear that You First helped to increase parents' awareness of what was available and gave at least some more confidence in using other services. While not all parents had accessed these services, they knew what was available and reported that they would go if needed. For example, while there were parents who were not yet ready to go back to work, when they were, they knew that they could go to Working For Families for help with finding a crèche or short term financial assistance.

Areas for improvement

10.8 As discussed above, You First provided some clear benefits for parents and their children. However, there were some areas for improvement.

Financial capabilities

10.9 While some parents were picking up money saving tips and acting on them (e.g. buying in bulk, making a shopping list and not buying 'treats' for themselves or their babies every time they were in a shop), on the whole, they were not implementing a wider budget plan or improving their core financial capabilities. One of the reasons that You First was less effective in changing parents' attitudes towards budgeting as opposed to other aspects of learning was that they felt that they were just 'bad with money' and nothing could change this. Therefore, one of the main challenges in improving financial capabilities is breaking down this fatalistic attitude towards budgeting. There were some aspects of the delivery that could be changed to make the subject more engaging for parents. The learning methods that have been successful in other topics have been those in which parents are actively involved. The facilitators are continuing to explore new ways of delivering budgeting messages and have already implemented changes such as using the Scottish Book Trust's Skint! money management resource. In terms of making things more practical and relevant to parents, consideration could be given to involving them more in the budgeting of the group sessions. For instance, planning and controlling the lunch budget or being in charge of the budget for a You First event such as a party or an outing. This would not only give parents a chance to try out their budgeting skills but these are activities that they will deal with as their child grows up.

Health improvement

10.10 The facilitators tried to weave in health improvement messages (healthy eating messages in particular) in different contexts throughout the sessions. For example, during lunchtimes the facilitators would bring in different fruits and vegetables for the babies to try. There was little evidence of these wider health messages filtering through to parents. Some parents did report doing more home cooking but this tended to be for financial rather than health reasons. There is a tension between facilitators providing health information that they think parents should know and the person-centred approach of You First. This stems from the fact that the parents are resistant to some of the messages and feel that they are being told what to do (which is not an untypical reaction from the public in general to health improvement messages). It may be beneficial to put the even more of the focus of health improvement on the baby's diet rather than the parent's. When discussing child development, explaining to the parents why it was important to do things a certain way had more resonance than simply telling them what they should do. It may be that this approach could help to increase engagement with healthy eating messages. In addition to providing a more detailed explanation of why babies need particular foods or should not have particular foods, it may also be useful to try to incorporate more visual elements to keep parents engaged. Examples of this could include demonstrating how many teaspoons of sugar there are in a fizzy drink or showing a lump of fat equivalent to the amount in a sausage roll. Highlighting the impact that a healthy diet can have on a child's performance at school would also be a big motivator for parents in this area (this had already helped to motivate parents in relation to engaging with their child's development).

Deprivation criterion

10.11 Although not an area for improvement as such, there needs to be more clarity over the 'living in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland' eligibility criterion. While many of the parents were not, in fact, in living in the 15% most deprived areas of Scotland, they were vulnerable and benefited from attending You First (as discussed in Chapter 6). If a different area strictly adheres to selecting only those living in the 15% most deprived areas in Scotland, parents who are in need may be missed. To avoid this ambiguity, it may be best to stop using this criterion altogether and use another method to identify deprived/vulnerable parents.

Transitions

10.12 You First is a booster programme designed to help parents develop in the future and aid their transition into positive future pathways such as work, education or other groups in the community that could provide them with support. Success in this area was mixed and was one of the main areas for improvement. Parents, for the most part, talked positively about the future planning elements and had goals for the future. However, the extent to which this would translate into action was not clear. While wider efforts were made to improve transitions, the three areas which require further consideration are the final home visit, improving educational aspirations and encouraging parents to attend other groups which would support them and their family.

Final home visit

10.13 The final home visit is intended to consolidate parents' future plans and aid the transition. However, parents gained little from this visit. They thought that the visits involved too much paper work (the final self-assessment, qualification paper work, the action plan and the evaluation questionnaire) and did not really understand what they were for. Given that it is very time-consuming for the facilitators to make all the required home visits (especially when two visits are required to complete the paperwork, as happens on occasion, or when the facilitator makes the journey but the parent is not there/cancels), there may be a better way to use the time and resources. One possibility could be to replace the home visit with an extra group session. This would mean that the parent and facilitator one-to-one discussions could be completed across the final two sessions (in order to cover the self-assessment and the action plan) but that the parents would also have more time in the group environment and feel they have gained something from the additional session.

Educational aspirations

10.14 The Youth Achievement Award currently offered through You First is one of the less successful aspects. The parents felt that the qualification involved a great deal of paperwork and found this off-putting. There was also a lack of clarity among parents over what it involved; while some did not know what the Youth Achievement Award was, and consequently how they could use it in the future, others simply did not know that they were doing it until the later stages of the group sessions. In addition to these problems, the fact that it is a 'one size fits all' qualification means that it is not as person-centred as the rest of You First. There were a small number of parents who felt You First did encourage them to see education in a more positive light and think about completing more qualifications. However, this was mainly due to the encouragement of the facilitators rather than completing the qualification. If a more effective qualification could be found, it may increase parents' educational aspirations more widely. More consideration should therefore be given to finding a qualification that better meets the needs of the parents.

Attending other groups

10.15 A small number of parents have gone on to attend other groups in their local area. However, the uptake of such services has not been high. To some extent, this was due to parents still not having the confidence to go to something on their own, particularly if there would be older mothers attending. In terms of increasing uptake of services, it may be worth using 'mentors' to come and speak to the You First parents about a different group. The mentor would need to be a young parent and could then accompany the You First parent if they wished to go along and try the different group. Another possibility could be to ask a small group of You First parents to 'test out' another group and report back to the wider group. There were also a number of parents who had gone back to work and did not have time to go to groups. Low service uptake may also be due to the fact that what is available in their area is not appropriate for this group of parents. The nature of the groups available may not be what this type of parent is interested in (e.g. singing) or lacking in focus/activity (e.g. groups based purely on socialising/'meeting other mums').

Wider Learning

10.16 One of the most consistent characteristics among this group of parents was their fear of being judged or looked down on, especially by older mothers. It is clear, therefore, that the age range of You First was vital in its success. As previously discussed, attending group sessions with their peers is a benefit in itself for parents. It provides them with the opportunity to see that they are not alone in their situation. Perhaps more importantly, some parents would simply not have attended You First if they thought that older parents would be attending. This suggests that, if a service is trying to engage with young parents, it is important to have a separate provision.

10.17 Another successful aspect of You First has been the fact that it runs with the same cohort of parents. Almost all parents reported that they were nervous about attending the first session of You First. However, they felt less nervous knowing that everyone would be starting at the same time and no-one would know anyone else. Some specifically said that they would not have attended an existing group where everybody else already knew each other. Running a group as a cohort is, therefore, a useful way of encouraging young parents to attend a group, particularly those who have never attended a group before.

10.18 The most successful learning methods used in You First appeared to be those that involved practical skills and gave parents the chance to actively engage in a subject. They did not engage with subjects that involved a great deal of paper work. In terms of learning methods for this group of parents, practitioners should try to find ways in which information can be delivered to parents that has relevance to their lives and is enjoyable.

10.19 Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the person-centred approach has proved successful. Allowing the parents to become involved in the design of You First helped them to focus on the things they were interested in, took the emphasis away from what they 'should' be doing and helped build self-confidence. The ethos created at You First helped many to overcome their insecurity and believe in their abilities as a parent.