Fair Start Scotland - evaluation report 3: local area case studies - year 2

Appendix 1 - Evaluation Methodology

This evaluation focuses on providing an insight into how delivery is playing out in practice and seeks to inform future iterations of employability programmes in Scotland through understanding what works.

This year two report focuses on our second lot of three case studies -Drumchapel (Glasgow), Dundee (Tayside) and Peterhead and Fraserburgh (North East).

This appendix breaks down the evaluation objectives and methodology.

Evaluation objectives

The key objectives of the evaluation are to:

• Understand how Fair Start Scotland is being implemented across the different lot areas in Scotland
• Understand the experience of Fair Start Scotland for lead providers, partner organisations, participants and employers
• Identify what is working well and less well in the implementation of Fair Start Scotland
• Identify the lessons learned and recommend changes to consider for the remainder of the Fair Start Scotland contract period as well as shaping what the next iteration of employment support in Scotland might look like

Evaluation methodology

We are carrying out the following tasks in each of the case study areas:

• Conducting desk-based area analysis of the socio-economic and employment trends in each of the localities to understand the local labour market context that FSS is operating in
• Analysing the management and performance data from FSS in each of the localities to understand the profile and numbers of participants and outcomes achieved in the area
• Conducting interviews with participants in each locality to understand their experience of and views on FSS
• This year we complemented this with follow up interviews with 9 of those we interviewed in our locality case studies last year - this included 3 from each of Alloa, Irvine and Wick. The purpose of these interviews was to explore the longer-term impact of the experience of FSS on participants.
• Conducting interviews with employers in one locality to understand their experience of and views on FSS. Because of the impact of Covid-19 arranging employer interviews this year has provide difficult this year as employers had appropriate staff on furlough or it was difficult to get hold of very busy staff on in HR roles, so the number of employer interviews was limited.
• Conducting interviews with service staff including managers and frontline staff delivering FSS locally to understand their experience of and views on the service
• Conducting interviews with staff in partners of FSS providers in the locality to understand their experience of and views on FSS
• Conducting interviews with relevant other stakeholders in the area to understand their experience of and views on FSS.

FSS participants were contacted through a database of all service participants supplied by Scottish Government. We emailed all participants living in Drumchapel, Dundee, and Peterhead and Fraserburgh who had taken part in the service for at least 6 months and issued an introductory letter to participants across all three areas. We followed this up with a telephone call to arrange an interview, making a maximum of three attempts to contact each participant.

In total, we conducted 30 interviews with participants and 18 key workers who - between them - worked with 28 of these participants. In addition, we interviewed 9 of those participants we first interviewed last year - 3 from each of the three areas (Alloa, Irvine and Wick). Our key findings from these are outlined in Chapter 5.