Evaluating Family Support Services in Sure Start Marfleet, Hull

Marfleet Sure Start’s 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

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?

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

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

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

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