Evaluating Family Support Services in Sure Start Marfleet, Hull

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Evaluating Family Support Services in Sure Start
Marfleet, Hull
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Marfleet Sure Starts Family Support Model

• Family support workers (with manager seconded
  from Social Services) provide mainly practical
  help. Manager takes referrals for whole team
• Home-Start volunteers (with manager seconded from
  Home-Start) provide mainly emotional support,
  befriending, groups
• Midwife (seconded from Health) and Baby Support
  Worker provide support and advice to pregnant
  and new mothers

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Research Focus

• How effective is the Family Support and Health
  Team (FSHT) in meeting the needs of individual
  families?
• Sub-questions
• How well does the team work together?
• How well does the team work with the rest of
  Sure Start?

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Agreeing the Indicators of Success

• Workshop involving the Programme Manager, the 3
  key FSHT staff, and their line managers in the
  partner agencies (i.e. Social Services, Home
  Start and health). Agreed
• Indicators based on the relevant Sure Start
  objectives plus others based on our discussions
• Data (both qualitative and quantitative) needed
  for each indicator
• Who is responsible for collecting each set of
  data
• Period for data collection 6 month period i.e.
  Dec 2004 to May 2005

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The Views of Professionals

• Interviews with
• The 3 key FHST managers
• The Programme Manager
• The Early Years and Community Inclusion Team
  Leader (Deputy Manager)
• Front-line Sure Start staff i.e. 3 Home-Start
  volunteers and 3 FSHT workers
• 4 senior representatives from partner agencies
• Focus on
• Mapping current services
• Their understanding of the purpose of the
  services
• The contribution of the FSHT to the objectives of
  Sure Start and the key partner agencies
• Their views on the success of the team to date,
  including examples of good practice.
• Expectations of, or any concerns about, the
  services
• Any issues relating to cross-agency working

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The Views of Parents

• 60 parents had used family support services
  between September to December 2004 we aimed to
  identify up to 20 willing to be involved
• Drafted letter from Sure Start to all 60 parents
  inviting them to contribute their views
  delivered in person by staff
• Offered options of discussion group, face-to-face
  interviews and telephone interviews
• The aim of the discussions
• to explore the success of the services from the
  parents perspective (using the indicators
  already developed)
• to find out if and how the services have helped
  them and their children to access other services
• to raise any concerns about the services, and to
  make suggestions for improvement.
•  6 parents interviewed face-to-face, plus 4 on
  the phone total 10

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Some Issues Encountered to Date

• Access to enough parents only 4 responded to
  letter. A further 15 were identified by phoning
  round, but then two-thirds of the expected 18
  failed to turn up to their appointment in spite
  of incentive of 15 voucher, crèche and friendly
  style letter
• Data compatibility e.g. Social Services only
  record referrals in and out from a wider
  geographical area than Sure Start use different
  age bands do not monitor Sure Start referrals
  separately from other agencies
• Data in the team issue of shared records,
  compatible data, not computerised
• Future funders need to be clear what evidence
  they need to support them commissioning of family
  support services