Evaluation of the 'You First' Programme for Young Parents

2 METHODOLOGY

2.1 This section provides an overview of the methods used during the evaluation. A more detailed description of the methods is included at Appendix 4. The evaluation employed a mixed method approach comprising both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative research allowed for the issues to be explored in greater depth than would have been possible using quantitative research. The quantitative elements, however, allowed for more parents and stakeholders to be included in the research and provided tools which can be used in the future evaluation of the programme.

2.2 The evaluation included a wide range of individuals involved in You First. Table 2.1 details the research methods used with parents who attended You First while Table 2.2 describes the methods used with professionals involved with the programme.

Table 2.1: Research with programme participants

Table 2.2 research undertaken with professionals

Analysis and reporting

2.3 With the permission of participants, interviews and focus groups were recorded and transcribed for analysis. Internal brainstorming sessions were held throughout the evaluation to identify the emerging themes. The transcripts were analysed by the research team at the end of each phase of the pilot, and in advance of the final report, using a thematic sorting and coding system set up in Excel and based around the questions in the evaluation framework. This involved systematically analysing transcripts for key points and illustrative verbatim comments under each heading. The results of the quantitative questionnaires were analysed and the results considered alongside the qualitative findings.

2.4 Interim reports and presentations to the Research Advisory Group were produced after Phases 1 and 2. While these outputs considered emerging findings more generally, they had a particular focus on providing recommendations on how the programme could be developed in the subsequent phases. These recommendations were developed by the research team and agreed with the programme facilitators and the Research Advisory Group.

Limitations of the research

2.5 As with any evaluation of this kind, there are limitations to the conclusions that can be drawn. While we can make recommendations relating to the most effective way of delivering You First, we are more limited in the extent to which we can assess the benefits of the programme. Given the methods used in the evaluation, we are making a judgement of the benefits on the basis of the perceptions of the parents and the professionals who have taken part in the research - as opposed to basing them on independent, objective measures of behavioural change. Some of the benefits are simply about whether participants feel better as a result of attending, for example if they feel that it has made them more confident, and are relatively straightforward to assess. Other benefits are more difficult to assess on the basis of participants' perceptions. Some examples are provided below.

2.6 One of the questions in the benefits section of the evaluation framework is: To what extent is there greater knowledge of child development issues and greater capacity to support children's learning? This question has been answered using evidence collected from the qualitative research. This evidence is parents' perceptions of whether their knowledge is greater as a result of attending You First, and examples they give of things they have learned, as opposed to being an objective measure of their knowledge.

2.7 Another question is: To what extent have practical childcare skills improved? Once again, it is the perceptions of parents and facilitators that have been used to answer this. We have no measures of factors such as the foods parents feed their babies or the routines they have established. This would entail observation of behaviour within the home and, even if such observation was undertaken, without a control group, it would be difficult to ascertain how much of any change was attributable to You First and how much was due to the parents becoming more experienced or the babies becoming more settled as they got older.

2.8 Given that just two of the nine programmes operated without the £20 financial incentive, and the variation that existed between groups irrespective of the financial incentive, the extent to which we can comment on the impact it has on recruitment and retention to the programme is limited.