Final Evaluation of Building the Future Together Final Report July 2013 Final Evaluation of Building the Future Together wavehill Report prepared by: Simon Hartwell Oliver Allies Any queries or questions about this report should be referred in the first instance to Oliver Allies at Wavehill: t: 01545 571711 | e: [email protected] Client contact: Diane Hall/Allyson Griffiths 01443 680599/01443 680596 [email protected]/[email protected] Report version: Final Copyright Wavehill Ltd 2013 Page | 2 Final Evaluation of Building the Future Together wavehill Contents Executive Summary.................................................................................................................................4 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................10 1.1. An Introduction to Building the Future Together Project.....................................................10 1.2. The Evaluation.......................................................................................................................11 2. Project Provisions and the Place of BTFT......................................................................................14 2.1. BTFT Provisions .....................................................................................................................14 2.2. The place and value of BTFT provisions................................................................................17 3. Project Progress and Outcomes....................................................................................................19 3.1. Overall Progress against key indicators ................................................................................19 3.2. Cross cutting themes ............................................................................................................20 3.3. Spend ..................................................................................................................................235 4. Project Management, Processes and Delivery .............................................................................26 4.1. Managing BTFT: The Central Team .......................................................................................26 4.2. Project Administration and Evidencing.................................................................................28 4.3. Working on a funded project................................................................................................30 4.4. Embedding BTFT School Provisions ......................................................................................31 4.5. Referral processes.................................................................................................................32 4.6. College Provisions .................................................................................................................32 5. The Impact of BTFT .......................................................................................................................33 5.1. Impact on Participants ..........................................................................................................33 5.2. Wider Project Impacts ..........................................................................................................54 6. Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................59 Copyright Wavehill Ltd 2013 Page | 3 Final Evaluation of Building the Future Together wavehill Executive Summary Introduction In May 2013, Wavehill were appointed to undertake a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the effectiveness of the Building the Future Together Project (herein referred to as BTFT) in achieving its aspirations, aims and objectives. This document represents the final evaluation report. Building the Future Together was launched in July 2009 and is a £15 million project part funded by the European Social Fund (Priority One). The project provides a participant centred approach to tackling the major issues of disengagement of 11-19 year olds in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT). The project seeks to address the barriers to learning that are currently ingrained and systemic by providing a range of integrated services to improve the educational, employment and life outcomes of young people at risk of underachieving. The project is delivered by RCT Council in partnership with Coleg Morgannwg. Although originally scheduled to finish in September 2012, the BTFT project was extended for an extra year (the 2012/13 academic year). The extension of the project was designed as a transition phase between the original project and the possible integration of the roles and functions within core service areas. Wavehill were commissioned to undertake the final evaluation of the BTFT project in May 2013. A mid-term evaluation was completed by People and Work Unit in April 2012. This means the primary focus of this evaluation is on the period following this, particularly the latest iteration of the project during the extension phase (academic year 2012/13). The overall aim of the final evaluation is to assess the effectiveness of the project. In terms of the focus of the evaluation, as identified in the scoping phase, the evaluation should ‘look beyond’ the hard-edged deliverable outputs of the project (as important as these were seen to be) and also to take account of softer measures of beneficiary progress. In terms of the main methods of enquiry for this report, overall, there were five key inputs:Participant consultations (199), delivery staff consultations (29), Central Team and Intervention Managers Interviews (7), stakeholder consultations (7) and desk research. BTFT Provisions • Youth Coaches (Learning Coaches)work with young people in schools with a focus on Learning Pathways. They have the responsibility of working closely with school staff to develop effective Individual Learning Plans (ILPs). Despite the educational focus, the role has naturally expanded to encompass more of the general support aspect once the number of key workers was reduced as part of the project extension. • Key Workersidentify and support young people in school, helping to re-engage them with education through a holistic young person centred approach, supporting their learning and any other additional needs. The role of the key worker is to work closely with school staff and multi agency partners to support the young person through a range of interventions available to them. Copyright Wavehill Ltd 2013 Page | 4 Final Evaluation of Building the Future Together wavehill • Detached Youth Workersoffer street-based engagement and support for disengaged young people, providing one to one and group work, accredited learning and employability opportunities for the most hard to reach young people. • Positive Futures is an alternative curriculum intervention offering accredited courses for looked after young people, those disengaging from mainstream education, those who cannot engage with mainstream education and the most hard to reach NEETs who have been referred from the Pupil Referral Units. • The emphasis of Coleg Morgannwg provision is on recruiting and taking referrals of young people who are NEET, and have previously struggled to engage with formal education at an earlier age. Tailored support is provided for these young people in class and includes e-learning. In addition to this, the College offer Gateway Vocational Courses, an Alternative Curriculum to help enable more young people to re-engage with education. The place and value of BTFT provisions The justification in terms of need is argued to be strong. As highlighted in the business plan, RCT is an authority with a number of relative challenges in terms of deprivation and attainment in school. This was also expressed by interviewees discussing the place of BTFT. Although some schools within the authority serve areas of higher deprivation than others, it was argued that BTFT is relevant to all schools as there will always be pupils requiring these types of support. It is clear that support would not have been provided without BTFT- there were no other scenarios available other than the ‘do nothing’ approach. There were limited similar provisions in place prior to BTFT, for example, 6 detached youth workers covering the whole local authority. As such, the value of BTFT was highlighted by respondents as the expansions of provisions, widening access to support across the authority. In addition to the expansion of provision, the BTFT project offers a more ‘joined up’ approach to supporting young people in the authority. Project Progress and Outcomes Outcomes There are five key indicators for BTFT and 3 months short of project end the project has achieved in excess of the target for four of the five key indicators, with more participants engaged than anticipated and more gaining qualifications, entering further learning or entering employment than targeted. The mid-term evaluation highlighted that, although progress was being made to ‘catch up’ from a slow project start, there were still concerns that indicator targets would be met. As such, the evidence presented here represents the overcoming of this challenge by the management and delivery staff on the project. Spend Financial data submitted by the project to WEFO in April 2013 (Claim report) demonstrates that the project is on target