Tackling child poverty - place-based, system change initiatives: learnings

4. The emerging impacts of system change initiatives

Key messages

While most initiatives are at the early stages of design and implementation, there are already emerging impacts felt for everyone across the system including families, service providers, partners and policy stakeholders.

For individuals and families accessing services, emerging evidence across several initiatives suggests that satisfaction was related to the holistic and personalised nature of support, in particular the ‘no wrong door’ approach. This is based on the principle that regardless of where, how and why an individual or family engages in the system, that interaction then becomes a gateway to receiving holistic, consistent and comprehensive support.

Factors that limited the impacts to date for individuals and families accessing services included the time taken for tangible change to be felt by people with multiple and complex support needs and the impact of the wider socio-economic context in limiting individuals’ progress.

When engaging with families using services, evidence to date suggests the need for targeted engagement strategies for different groups, as well as a need to break down cultural stigma for some groups in accessing support, in order to ensure that all of those who need support feel able to access it.

Service providers across several initiatives experienced multiple benefits from closer, and more aligned, partnership working, in particular, they reported that this minimised duplication, enabled the development of new services and improved communication.

However, building these relationships did not come without challenge, and it was seen to be important to take time to resolve issues, and ensure strong relationships, before moving into the delivery phase of an initiative.

For policy stakeholders, early impacts include key learning from the initiatives around: the need for more dissemination of good practice and learning across the system change initiatives, greater alignment between national level strategic aims and the delivery of local services, and greater attention paid to the sustainability of initiatives beyond time limited funding periods.

Many of the initiatives considered in this analysis are large in scale and far reaching, with the intention of overhauling complex existing systems to provide a support system that works better for everyone in it. To date, with most of the initiatives in the early stages of design and implementation, the primary focus has often been concerned with the needs of, and improved delivery for, services users and aligning the system at the local level (which supports users). However, changing complex child poverty support systems necessarily impacts everyone in the system, and this includes service providers and their partners, as well as policy stakeholders (at both local and national level). This chapter considers the range of impacts reported for key stakeholder groups to date.

Individuals and families accessing services

Despite most system change initiatives being in the early stages of design and implementation, there are already early signs of impacts for individuals and families accessing services from a number of the initiatives. The benefits of person-centred, holistic and joined-up support have been reported by people using the services, while challenges and barriers to impacts have also been reported. These include the length of time it can take for individuals to see tangible change from accessing support and the impact of the wider socio-economic context in limiting individuals’ progress.

Benefits of person-centred, holistic and joined-up support

The implementation findings from both NOLB and the Pathfinders reported that the development of more streamlined and person-centred delivery allowed for easier to navigate systems, more supportive staff, and services that were more attuned to people’s needs.

For example, the NOLB implementation report details the high levels of service user satisfaction relating to the holistic and tailored nature of support, with several service users commenting positively on the levels of support, and the encouragement and openness from delivery staff.

For those who received support from a SIP partner, there are also examples in the SIP learning programme report of where join up across the system and across different services (in this case childcare and employability) enabled better outcomes, for example individuals being able to sustain employment due to SIP support in the form of flexible childcare.

Similarly, the join up of support across a range of services, was crucial to the success of the ACF. In order to ensure families could benefit fully from school age childcare provision, projects put in place family support measures to cover a range of challenges families may be facing, such as: poverty; cost of living crisis; mental health problems; alcohol and substance misuse; and other practical issues such as those related to housing or personal finances. These elements were well received and valued by families. Evaluation participants acknowledged that this level of holistic support should help to change the system for families living in poverty.

“Family support elements of projects received very positive feedback and were appreciated by families who took part in this research. This was backed up from project leads and stakeholders who commented on the positive impacts they had observed from providing family support, and how outcomes were rarely achieved solely through provision of childcare alone.” School Age Childcare (ACF evaluation report)

Meanwhile, openness and putting the individual/family at the centre of their support was reported across both Pathfinders, with many who had engaged with the services noting ‘that the support had met or exceeded their expectations’ and that they found strength in the ‘no wrong door’ approach:

“Parents/carers who accessed the Dundee drop-in hub, which was an in-person service, and Glasgow Helps, which was a telephone line, were similarly of the view that they valued the fast referrals, “one-stop-shop” format for information about different services. This suggests that it was the person-centred approach that people liked most, whether it was in-person or on the telephone, and that the person-centred, non-judgemental approach is valued, irrespective of the method of accessing support.” Pathfinders early implementation report

Timeframe for seeing tangible improvements

Another challenge to seeing tangible impacts for people using services at this early stage of implementation was the length of time it takes for some individuals to see a noticeable impact on their life from engaging with support.

“Several parents/carers reported seeing limited or not seeing any impact on their life from using the service, either due to their claim still being processed or due to the scale and/or structural nature of their needs exceeding the remit of [the Pathfinder] the drop-in hub.” Pathfinders early implementation report

It is highlighted in the Pathfinder implementation report that this should not be considered to be a negative finding, but an indication of ‘the potential time-lag in being able to see impacts’ (discussed further in Chapter Five). Further, the report emphasises the effort and time required to build relationships and trust with those living in the local area. It is noted how there are examples of families using the support services initially for crisis help, but with the person-centred and non-judgemental support in place in those first interactions, it is hoped that over time this immediate need for crisis support can move to longer term preventative support which enables families, where appropriate, to think about returning to education, training or employment.

Impact of the wider socio-economic context

Finally, evidence from the SIP highlights the difficulty of tackling poverty in a time of multiple economic crises. In the final report, the positive impact of the SIP support in improving the material position of some participants (including, moving out of deep poverty, reducing debt, gaining employment, and engaging in learning/volunteering opportunities) is clearly illustrated. However, there were also cases where individual’s material circumstances worsened across the data gathering period, or remained unchanged, resulting in them remaining in poverty. The backdrop of the cost of living crisis is noted, and while many of the participants’ issues predated the crisis, there are repeated examples of how the increased costs (due to rising inflation) further accelerated material and economic hardship.

Therefore, it is important to consider the socio-economic environment in which initiatives and service delivery partners are working when trying to achieve complex, large scale and long-term change. Social and economic contextual factors can add an extra layer of challenges and barriers and are outwith the control of those seeking to implement system change (discussed further in Chapter Three).

Impacts for different groups accessing services

This section considers the extent to which impacts have varied for different groups who are accessing services, for example, priority family groups, for those deepest in poverty, or for those with different equality characteristics.

To date there is limited evidence of whether priority family groups and those deepest in poverty have benefitted from system change initiatives. For the Pathfinders, this was partly due to issues surrounding data sharing which limited their ability to use existing data to target the child poverty priority groups.

“Many noted that certain organisations who were involved in the Pathfinder held key demographic and income data that could be used to provide targeted offers of support to priority groups. Getting data sharing agreements in place for this purpose remained an ongoing task for those involved in both Pathfinders.” Pathfinders early implementation report

Despite limited data so far on the benefits of initiatives for those in deeper poverty, the way support is delivered should enable these families to benefit. In the Pathfinders, for example, there are clear examples of families receiving signposting and support which has then enabled them to, for example, put their heating on, reduce or prevent debt, or have more disposable income resulting in a positive impact on their child’s quality of life, with these outcomes often leading to reduced stress and feelings of being more in control. Similarly, the NOLB implementation report evidences how women who were far removed from the labour market after taking time away to care for children were accessing support in order to build confidence before taking the next steps. This highlights the importance of these initiatives in providing building blocks for longer term changes. It cannot be expected for families living deep in poverty to access employment immediately, they may need support in building their confidence and skills and to have support mechanisms in order to do so. A system which acknowledges this and provides families with these opportunities is key to the person-centred approach embedded within place-based, system change initiatives.

In considering the impacts to date for those with protected characteristics, there are again examples from both Pathfinders and NOLB which highlight the strength of flexible and person-centred services. However, some employability service users felt that support could be tailored further for particular groups, such as those using English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision, as well as tailored support for disabled people, those with a health condition and veterans (NOLB implementation report).

Across the Pathfinders, it was also noted that some individuals, including those with English as a second language, may find it harder to communicate feelings of stigma and shame in accessing services and therefore experiences of this may be under-reported in the current data.

Engagement with beneficiaries

The following section explores evidence to date across the initiatives about engagement with people using or in need of services , with a particular focus on effective methods of engaging with potential beneficiaries and the challenges in doing so.

Effective methods in engaging with beneficiaries

A recurrent and key learning point about effective engagement with beneficiaries was the role of a key worker, or one single point of contact for individuals accessing services. This was noted across NOLB, both Pathfinders and the ACF. From the available evidence, it is suggested that a key worker was crucial in not only initial engagement with individuals and families, but also in sustaining engagement. For example, the quote below from a service user, in the NOLB implementation report, highlights the value of the key worker role.

“My key worker really lit a fire in me to find work. I changed my whole perspective and I was like I can do this, and I'm now working.” Quote from Service user, No One Left Behind implementation report

When initially engaging with beneficiaries it is clear that service providers must be flexible in order to ensure appropriate levels of engagement with different groups. For example, findings in the Pathfinders implementation report describe how the Dundee Pathfinder found a combination of methods of engagement were successful, e.g. in-person door knocking alongside a leaflet with official information, especially when reaching out to targeted low-income families. Meanwhile, the Glasgow Pathfinder had success in engaging parents with a child under two years of age through a targeted campaign in early years establishments, where parents/carers could opt in to receive support if they ticked a box on the registration form for their childcare place.

The NOLB implementation report also identified that different groups experienced different referral pathways to employment support services. For example:

• Those from a white ethnic background were more likely to have heard about the services through the Job Centre than those from a minority ethnic background.
• Single parents were less likely to have heard about the services through friends and family, careers advisors or from a training provider compared to those who were not single parents.

These findings highlight the need to have multiple referral pathways and possibly targeted campaigns for those groups that are less likely to access the service through established referral channels.

The WFWF interim report also shows the importance of tailored approaches to engagement. While all case study CSPP’s receiving WFWF funding undertook consultation with children, young people and families, the scale and extent of this varied.

Challenges in engaging with beneficiaries

There were a number of challenges reported by the initiatives in engaging with potential users of support services too. The specific challenges were often individual to each initiative, but relate to common issues such as ensuring maximum reach and ensuring accessibility for hard to reach and minority groups. Particular issues identified included:

• accessing data that could identify potential service users for proactive engagement;
• overcoming multiple barriers to accessing services, including stigma associated with accessing statutory services.

In terms of data challenges, across both Pathfinders, partners and stakeholders raised the issue of challenges in gaining access to local level data, in order to ensure effective targeting of priority family groups. The required data was often held by different organisations and therefore required data sharing agreements to be put in place, which were often subject to legal difficulties (discussed further in Chapter Four).

As part of the NOLB implementation report findings, there was careful consideration of which groups were not engaging with employability services and why and how this could be addressed. For example, groups who were said to be more difficult to reach or engage included: working parents; long-term unemployed; young carers and care leavers; and people dealing with addictions. For such groups it was recognised that it may take time to overcome the significant barriers individuals face when it comes to accessing employability services. This was an area where local authorities were trying to improve their understanding, in order to identify whether to scale up services or provide them in more specialised ways in order to reach those most in need of support.

“…when working with the hardest to reach groups, one local authority stakeholder reflected that it would take time to overcome the multiple barriers some individuals face when it comes to employability. Suggestions put forward by service users included more promotion and advertisement of the services and what they offer, including through outreach work. It was also suggested that more could be done to make people aware that they can access support online and to create more online opportunities.” No One Left Behind implementation report

Relationship building was also thought to be key to engaging groups that faced multiple barriers. For some of those accessing NOLB services, lack of confidence and the prevalence of mental health issues, were a key barrier and this required staff to develop close working relationships with individuals to build up trust.

Barriers to accessing services, including a sense of stigma when accessing support, were also identified in the SIP learning programme report (as discussed in Chapter Four). It was noted that a key benefit of partnership working across the SIP was that third sector organisations, often better placed to deliver person-centred approaches, could take time to work closely with local communities and build the necessary relationships in order to engage people who did not usually feel able to access support.

“Professionals in local authorities also described the challenges of overcoming the stigma attached to some aspects of statutory service provision, and described how third sector organisations could be better placed to deliver person-led approaches, particularly where they were closer to the communities they were serving.” Social Innovation Partnership learning programme report

At the same time, however, it was reported that the need to collect monitoring data to evidence reach and outcomes of initiatives could potentially discourage families from engaging with local providers.

“…several interviewees [local authority practitioners] expressed the view that forming a contractual funding relationship with SIP partners might limit their effectiveness or deter families from engaging with support, particularly in the context of the reporting information that would need to be provided back to the referrer and to commissioners.” Social Innovation Partnership learning programme report

One limitation highlighted across a number of initiatives, was that in evaluating projects, the families who provided feedback on their views of the services received were inevitably those that had already engaged with the service – and received support. To date, none of the evaluations had included research with non-participants. Therefore, it is difficult to know much about the reasons for non-engagement.

One challenge that may result in non-engagement is the challenge of stigma. The Pathfinders early implementation report found that the new approaches taken in Glasgow and Dundee reduced the stigma that some people had felt in their previous experiences of interacting with statutory services, due to friendly, approachable and non-judgemental staff. Also the single keyworker approach limited the need for re-telling of challenging stories and, in turn, such an approach was appropriate and accessible for people who might otherwise feel vulnerable or ashamed about needing support.

However, there are areas for further work. For example, the nature of place-based approaches means services are delivered in the local community, and often by those living in the community. Therefore, there can be a lack of anonymity in accessing services. Further, due to negative previous experiences in accessing services and support it was found that some users held a sense of vulnerability and fear of judgement or stigma. Some of these experiences of stigma appeared to be internalised from shame around accessing social security support. Therefore, as noted in the report, there is a need to consider further awareness raising and communication to improve engagement with people who may be anxious or feel shame in accessing support.

Service providers

Turning to impacts for service providers, multiple benefits were reported from the development of more integrated systems and though closer, and stronger, partnership working.

For the employability staff delivering NOLB, for example, the benefits reported included increased partnership working, the development of new services, less duplication in service delivery, and improved communication between partners. Further, all of these changes were seen to provide ‘building blocks for future improvements to service delivery’ (NOLB implementation report). Similarly, the partners and stakeholders working on the Pathfinders spoke of how the benefits of partnership working – such as sharing resources and creating new access routes for families – meant ‘they could not see themselves returning to previous ways of working’ (Pathfinders early implementation report). These benefits, and ways of thinking, suggest a change of culture, which could be instrumental in long lasting and sustainable system change.

Further, those working on the Dundee and Glasgow Pathfinders spoke of their increased job satisfaction, arising from partnership working, and from seeing a positive effect on the lives of families seeking support from their services. Again, this change in thinking, with benefits for not just those using the services, but those providing the services too, may provide a fundamental cornerstone in ensuring the longevity of sustained system change actions.

Nevertheless, partnership working has not always been a smooth journey for those working in system change initiatives. Challenges amongst partners were described as ‘sticky moments’ in the Pathfinders early implementation report. In particular, it was found that in some cases not giving sufficient time to scoping out local services already delivering in the areas led to a duplication of effort and key stakeholders not being involved in the early stages of Pathfinder design. While this was resolved by inviting appropriate local delivery services to attend planning meetings, this resulted in a number of challenges. These implementation challenges can potentially have a negative impact on partnership working if the roles and relationships are not clearly and fully worked through. Similarly, for WFWF activity, one CSPP found challenges in the early design stage between the CSPP and third sector partners – with partners concerned about duplication of work.

“One CSPP found it difficult to gain consensus about WFWF plans amongst third sector partners during the design stage. The reason for this was where potential WFWF plans were felt to be similar, or in some cases duplicating, work felt by partners to already be delivered by third sector partners.” Whole Family Wellbeing Funding interim report

While these initial challenges across both initiatives have been resolved – with ‘a sense of shared aims and shared commitment to enacting change’ reported subsequently (Pathfinders early implementation report) – it shows the importance of taking time to develop appropriate and strong relationships between partners before moving into the delivery phase.

Additionally, for NOLB, while many employability staff thought NOLB was making a positive difference to improving equality of service provision and making employability services easier to navigate, there were some who felt no changes or differences had been made in these areas. In particular, concerns were raised by frontline staff surrounding the administrative burden associated with service delivery and the impact of this on service users, including the volume of data required for service users in registering for the service. However, it was noted in the NOLB implementation report that these were not new challenges to NOLB but were general challenges facing employability services – and one which has not yet been resolved.

Further, and an important consideration for place-based and system change initiatives, is the importance of variation depending on context. For example, different challenges were experienced by the Dundee and Glasgow Pathfinders due to different local contexts and stakeholders. Meanwhile, the positive impacts experienced by NOLB varied amongst local authorities depending upon their existing local employability infrastructures. This meant, for some local authorities, change was not as noticeable because they had already been delivering their services in line with the principles of NOLB.

Policy stakeholders

In conducting this analysis, and engaging with analytical and policy leads across Scottish Government, it is clear there is a drive to challenge and change traditional ways of working in order to provide more person-centred and joined-up services for families living in poverty.

Place-based, system change initiatives at a local level have the potential to impact on policy stakeholders by providing important lessons about effective ways of implementing systems change. From the early implementation findings available so far, lessons for policy makers to consider include how to better share good practice and learning, ensuring better join-up between national level strategic aims with the delivery of services at the local level, and ensuring the sustainability of initiatives beyond time limited funding periods.

The Pathfinders early implementation report highlights how national policy stakeholders play an important role in the success of implementing system change at the local level. In particular, it suggests that for effective implementation, policy stakeholders need to ensure that strategic policy aims are aligned with local service delivery and that they allow sufficient time for developing relationships and ensuring the sustainability of initiatives.

“Both Pathfinders had experienced challenges in the early stages of development due to some partners and stakeholders being unclear on how the strategic aims of the Pathfinders would be met at a service delivery level. This appeared to have evolved and stakeholders and partners described the sense that things were now much clearer. Developing the relationships that were required to ensure success and work effectively across organisations took time.” Pathfinders early implementation report

The WFWF interim report highlights similar concerns around sustainability, with a particular focus on the legacy of WFWF and the sharing of best practice. In particular, there is an emphasis on the role of Scottish Government in supporting local partners by more effectively sharing learning from across initiatives.

While these early implementation findings highlight how the Scottish Government and national stakeholders may be able to further support local partnerships, the voice and role of national stakeholders in supporting and facilitating system change is somewhat absent from the available outputs to date. This should be a greater focus of evaluations going forward.