Child Poverty Practice Accelerator Fund (CPAF) round 1: reflections and lessons

3. Emerging reflections

What are the emerging reflections from CPAF Round 1?

• Collaborative design with those with lived and/or professional experience of poverty is important to increase understandings of child poverty and to better design interventions.
• Project impacts and outcomes may shift as teams learn more about local needs and barriers. A flexible approach by both funders and projects is important.
• Partnership working is vital to promote better ways of working, to encourage the sharing of lessons and to embed changes beyond the timebound Fund.
• Projects are developing important knowledge about effective ways to address child poverty such as bringing services to people, using person-centred approaches, and prioritising considering how projects are communicated. However, it is important local contexts are not ignored when considering how to apply ‘best practice’.

By engaging projects for one-to-one support and encouraging the sharing of lessons across the cohort, Urban Foresight gathered emerging, anecdotal reflections about the process of tackling child poverty. These reflections could be useful for others addressing child poverty and poverty.

It is important to note that these reflections are drawn from anecdotal evidence and conversations with local projects rather than the result of a bespoke evaluation project. An external evaluator will be procured to evaluate both Round 1 and 2 of the Fund.

The emerging findings are organised across the four main areas of the CPAF Evaluation Framework:

• Project design and implementation
• Impacts and outcomes
• Partnership working
• Developing the knowledge base

Project design and implementation

CPAF encouraged involvement from those with lived or professional experience of poverty in project design and implementation. All projects that engaged with the evaluation support included an element of collaboration with those with direct experience of poverty. The type of engagement varied, but all partners found the commitment to collaborative design was beneficial in effectively designing and implementing their projects. These benefits included the ability to build trust with, and better understand the needs of, communities, as well as to understand potential benefits and challenges in implementing innovative approaches. Below, the Case Study of Midlothian highlights engaging community members as researchers can also provide immediate benefits to participants.

CPAF Participants also noted that undertaking co-design activities allowed them to understand broader system barriers that may be beyond their ability to change as part of their CPAF project. Participants used this understanding to try and develop new ways of working across their organisations that went beyond tackling child poverty.

Those that undertook community engagement identified valuable learnings that could help others structure their engagement activities with people with lived experience of poverty. These reflections include the importance of:

• Engaging families face-to-face in venues in communities where people feel safe, rather than expecting communities to travel to engage with organisations.
• Asking communities what they need rather than providing existing solutions.
• Avoiding the term ‘poverty’ to broaden engagement given the stigma associated with the term. This includes reaching out to parents as identified by schools or postcodes, or by engaging people attending employability events or food banks.
• Recognising that meaningful engagement can be complex and takes time and resources.

Case study example: Empowering community researchers in Midlothian

What did the project do?

Midlothian’s CPAF project involved training parents with lived experience of poverty in ethnographic peer research methods. The project targeted training 10-15 priority families as community researchers and will engage up to 100 priority families through data collection.

Training on topics included: introducing community research, ethnographic research methods and skills, ethics and consent, and collecting, analysing and presenting data.

What has been learned?

The project successfully targeted priority families and trained 13 parents as community or peer researchers. Midlothian’s community researchers had a strong willingness and commitment to the process with everyone attending almost every session.

The community researchers reported that the sessions were empowering as they felt comfortable sharing their stories and even felt comfortable enough to disagree on topics. The community researchers also learned new practical skills including presenting to large audiences (for example, at a community planning conference) and organising a large-scale event as part of Challenge Poverty week.

What is the relevance for tackling child poverty?

The project team hope that working from an ethnographic approach, community researchers will be able to elicit the current lived experience of child poverty in Midlothian and work with the team to find ways to highlight and address the systemic barriers that impact on priority families living in child poverty. The project is currently collecting data, but this approach highlights how training parents with lived experience of poverty provides direct benefits for both the project and the community researchers. For example, despite only being at the data collection stage of the project, community researchers have already reported that they have new skills and confidence.

What are the next steps?

The community researchers are currently engaging other priority families to take part in the research. Midlothian’s community research approach will provide important insights into how to overcome barriers to engagement and issues experienced by low-income families. The project team aims to provide insights into how to engage and influence decision makers and ultimately affect positive change.

Impacts and outcomes

A key part of the Evaluation Framework was to support CPAF projects to identify specific, localised impacts and outcomes of their interventions or approaches and understand how to measure and evidence success. The diversity of CPAF projects means there will be significant diversity in the types of impacts and outcomes that emerge.

Many of the CPAF projects are short-term and expect to end in March 2025. Therefore, few are able to report at present on longer-term outcomes and impacts. However, two reflections about the process behind achieving impacts and outcomes emerged during engagement with projects. These reflections show that because CPAF aims to foster innovation and transformation, it is important that:

• projects are free to adjust impacts, and that space is given to allow longer-term impacts and outcomes to materialise.
• Training on transformation is considered to ensure projects are comfortable with this flexible, uncertain approach.

These are considered in greater detail below.

It is important projects are given flexibility to adapt outcomes and impacts and the time and space to reach more complex impacts. Many projects have kept the same outcomes and impacts as intended, but there have been some notable changes. The Inverclyde and North Ayrshire case studies provide further information as to how projects updated their intended impacts and outcomes. Projects that have adapted outcomes and impacts appreciate the flexibility of CPAF in giving them space to test, learn, and adapt.

Whether or not projects have changed outcomes and impacts, participants often describe early successes in terms of being the ‘first step’ or ‘steps’ towards longer-lasting change. The evaluation support workshops gave participants the opportunity to recognise that the slower step-change approach is happening across the projects, reassuring participants that their approach was worthwhile even without immediate impacts.

It is important that the commitment to flexibility is maintained so that projects feel empowered to pursue greater impacts or outcomes and that slower progress is also accepted.

The provision of training on transformation may be beneficial to ensure partners are comfortable with innovation and trial and test approaches. This may help projects be more comfortable with adapting impacts and outcomes. Partners with limited experience in innovation and transformation work sometimes found it difficult to be comfortable with the idea of failing or trying things without established evidence about the approach from elsewhere. While partners understood their local contexts and gaps, and had developed projects to tackle these, there was some discomfort with doing something where the outcomes were uncertain or when the ultimate impact was to develop additional insight and understanding rather than necessarily evidence change.

Despite these initial worries, it seemed that for the most part, participants welcomed the process of trying something different. In the final workshop, many participants noted that this experience will change the way they understand, and approach work in the future. Building transformation training into the approach could alleviate early concerns.

Case study example: Embedding transformation with North Ayrshire’s Single Shared Assessment

What did the project do?

North Ayrshire’s CPAF project set out to transform how data can be used to inform decision making and enable customers to access all benefit entitlements via a single contact model.

The project team initially planned to develop a single shared assessment and accompanying consent form. This would enable services in North Ayrshire to share data with each other, supporting the No Wrong Door approach to tackling child poverty. The vision was to embed the new model across the local authority and partner organisations.

What has been learned?

In the initial stages of the project, the team found that the data sharing and consent process was more complicated and more difficult to overcome than imagined.

Due to the complexity and number of means tested entitlements administered by different teams within the Local Authority it was decided to develop a ‘step change process’ making small incremental steps towards the wider goal of a single contact model for accessing benefit entitlements and support.

The aim is to demonstrate the value of transformation on a smaller scale to gain senior leadership support for later organisational transformation. The team identified through service redesign there is a requirement for organisational and behavioural change to fully support and embed a single contact model. Customer Services agreed to take the lead on the new model as most of the processes are administered by them.

What is the relevance for tackling child poverty?

The project team’s experience highlights that transformation may need a slower, step change approach to build an evidence base and develop buy-in. Effectively, there is a need to have foundations in place for scaling the innovation. The experience also highlights the importance of adapting approaches to what you have learned as the project progresses.

What are the next steps?

The project team aims to continue to successfully implement this model in their team and use evidence from the CPAF evaluation to support wider adoption of the model.

Other CPAF projects are also engaged in learning from North Ayrshire’s experiences.

Case study example: Redefining what success looks like in Inverclyde

What did the project do?

Inverclyde’s CPAF project is focused on engaging and supporting families with a focus on addressing parents’ barriers to employment. The project’s original outcomes were centred around supporting parents into employment.

What has been learned?

As the project developed, and the expertise of the third sector organisation – Home Start – was brought in, the team realised that supporting parents into employment was unlikely to be achieved during a short-term intervention such as CPAF. Therefore, the project has pivoted to measure success in terms of parents becoming more ready for employment through improving skills, gaining confidence, and/or improving mental health.

Adjusting measures of success has allowed the project team to effectively evidence the important impacts the project has had in supporting parents on the journey to employment.

For example, the team shared the story of a lone parent referred to Home Start by their Health Visitor. The parent was had severe mental illness and was extremely isolated. Following home visits with the Family Support Coordinator, they were encouraged to attend a parents group with their child.

Despite initial anxieties around attending, a coordinator was able to talk with the parent about their concerns on a one-to-one basis. From here, the parent gradually became a more active participant, and eventually helping other parents through their role as a ‘Parent Helper’. Once the parent had more capacity, the parent began attending Home Start’s Volunteer Preparatory Course. They are now a Volunteer Group Worker.

What is the relevance for tackling child poverty?

This shift in how the project team measures success demonstrates the need for flexibility, and the importance of setting realistic objectives that connect to the timescales of a Fund. When trialling innovations to tackle child poverty it is important that stakeholders work together to build an understanding of the complexity of need and that outcomes that are realistic and achievable are developed. It is also important that projects are free to adapt outcomes as they develop their understanding.

What are the next steps?

The project team hopes that the CPAF project will help to evidence the importance and effectiveness of a person-centred approach. The realistic outcomes are shaping the evaluation of that approach and will inform future work in the council.

Partnership working

Increasing collaboration and partnership working is a key aim of CPAF, with local partnership working paramount as part of the bidding process for CPAF fund recipients. As such, all projects developed new partnerships and strengthened existing ones to design and implement projects and to share emerging findings.

Partnerships were primarily developed between local authorities and third sector and community-based organisations. Partnerships also developed between different local authority departments, i.e., education, social services, housing.

Partnership working, both within and across organisations is highly valuable, but it can be challenging and take time to get right. For example, projects often underestimated the time needed to develop productive partnerships.

However, partnerships were highly valued for four core reasons.

First, third sector and community partners tend to have better engagement routes and opportunities with communities and could engage people more quickly and effectively than if led by the local authority. There is a clear commitment by CPAF participants to further collaborate with local organisations and community groups beyond the life of the projects.

Second, third sector and community partners appreciated the opportunity to work closely with local authorities as a way to demystify council processes and improve their alignment.

Third, departments within local authorities valued connecting as it allowed them to understand aligned priorities within the organisation. In turn, this facilitated more streamlined working and the sharing of good practice and resources. This is particularly important given local authority participants often reported they are facing funding cuts and need to do more with less.

‘Through internal engagement around this work within the council I discovered there's a new child poverty lead in our Economic Development/Employability team.’

Fourth, it is important to engage regularly with other local authorities and organisations working to tackle child poverty. This is particularly important for facilitating learning and the sharing of best practice on tackling child poverty and potential innovative approaches to tackle it on an ongoing basis.

The evaluation support package was important for giving participants the opportunity to connect and to feel part of a cohort with a group of people all trying new ways of doing things. This provided participants with reassurance and hope for the future.

‘I was surprised at the variety of projects in CPAF – it’s not just people constantly reinventing the wheel. This means there’s lots of future opportunities to move forward.’

More than this, there has been sharing of best practice beyond CPAF. The case study of Argyll and Bute shows how a project has engaged in regional and national sharing of best practice.

Developing the knowledge base

An important aim of the Fund is to develop the knowledge base on how to tackle child poverty. There are three primary areas of understanding that CPAF is supporting:

• Knowledge of what child poverty is and how it presents.
• Knowledge of effective ways to tackle child poverty.
• Understanding around if and how interventions can be expanded or replicated.

Understanding child poverty

Anecdotal evidence suggests that understandings of child poverty have increased through the CPAF projects. Even participants with extensive experience working in anti-poverty initiatives felt their knowledge of child poverty expanded both in their local area and at a national level.

The focus on co-design, collaboration and lived experience has helped increase understanding of child poverty – of what it looks like, its multiple causes, and how to best tackle it. As the Midlothian case study shows, using peer researchers can be an effective way to further develop the knowledge base.

Additionally, projects highlighted the importance of qualitative data to better understand child poverty and to evaluate how successful interventions are. It is important to note, however, that several participants noted they were concerned that local decision-makers were not always as comfortable with this type of data and evidence.

Understanding how to tackle child poverty

It was evident from conversations with project leads that CPAF fund recipients learned a lot about what does and does not work when it comes to tacking child poverty in their local area.

Perhaps most importantly, CPAF allowed participants to reflect on their previous experiences of tackling child poverty, and to question whether broader changes were needed and whether public services alone are capable of addressing the broader structural realities that shape child poverty in Scotland.

‘[We] have great services, but then you still have to ask the question, why are we still in poverty?’

Other lessons about what does and does not work include:

• Communicating the success and importance of innovative, small-scale projects such as CPAF to local decision-makers is essential. However, this needs a considered approach, particularly where child poverty approaches may take time to implement, embed and see positive impacts.
• The most effective approaches bring services to people, rather than expecting people to find services. Local areas have support services in place, but they are often difficult for people to access.
• A person-centred approach is important to ensure engagement with those with lived experience is appropriate and effective – whether in project design and/or delivery.
• . Income maximisation, a key initial aim for many projects, would not be enough on its own. ‘Income maximisation is not where the story endsi, but hopefully a part of the story.’

Understanding if and how projects can be scaled or replicated

Projects were encouraged early-on to consider how to embed, extend and replicate positive impacts and outcomes.

Given there is not yet sufficient evidence about the outcomes and impacts of projects, it is difficult to assess the replicability or scalability of CPAF projects. However, the early learnings clearly demonstrate the value of CPAF as an approach to test and trial.

Already, important lessons about ways of partnership working and wider insights on child poverty that can help shape approaches elsewhere have been developed. The early lessons also highlight the importance of place-based work, and particularly of co-design.

Importantly, the importance of place-specific approaches that work for local contexts and needs was highlighted. While participants learn from one another, there was a sense that ‘best practice’ may not necessarily exist, and instead ‘lessons’ should be viewed considering local context.

This brings attention to the importance of a place-based approach such as CPAF in empowering local places to develop their own approaches. This may suggest that projects are not fully replicable, but instead lessons can be taken from the processes.

Nonetheless, there are still ample opportunities for learnings to be shared between places. Many projects were actively awaiting findings from others to see what may be adaptable to their own contexts. In particular, projects are hoping to build on the emerging learning Argyll and Bute are developing around the use of secondary data.

Case study example: Enhancing child poverty data at a local level. Leading regional and national data innovation from Argyll and Bute

What did the project do?

Argyll and Bute’s project involved paying for access to CACI’s Acorn Household and Paycheck Disposable Income datasets to understand the potential value in supporting the local authority to better identify unmet need and priority groups via data.

The project combined the datasets to develop actionable insights to help direct the council’s welfare rights officers to engage with specific communities and to allow the council to better focus limited resources across Argyll and Bute’s vast geographical area that includes remote, rural and island areas.

What has been learned?

The project team has been successful at exploring income below the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation Data Zone level and have engaged other departments around the council, primarily the Health and Social Care Partnership, Revenues & Benefits, Data Protection, Education and Welfare Rights, to better understand the accuracy and value of the data.

The project team have learned a lot about leveraging CACI data and have collaborated closely with the team at CACI over the last nine months to understand the possibilities and limits of the data.

Throughout the process, the team have also been sharing lessons back to the CPAF cohort, SAVVI (Scalable Approach to Vulnerability Via Interoperability) and the Improvement Service.

What is the relevance for tackling child poverty?

The project team’s experiences highlight the importance of leveraging existing data to develop new insights. This is an efficient way to identify unmet need and helps direct resources effectively, and has scope to be used by other localities.

what are the next steps?

The project team is continuing conversations with CACI to improve the data in terms of its ability to reflect rural and island uplift, identify second homes and refine the housing costs and household level data.

Argyll and Bute are also working with other local areas – Angus and Inverclyde – in a regional approach. Here, they have engaged with the UK Government’s Central Data and Digital Office (CDDO) to develop a pilot approach to enhancing legislation (the Digital Economies Act 2017) to provide clearer gateways for how local authorities across the UK could use administrative data to tackle child poverty.