Children, Young People and Families Early Intervention and Adult Learning and Empowering Communities Fund evaluation: final report

Improving outcomes

The CYPFEI & ALEC Fund has contributed at a national level towards improving outcomes for children, young people, families, adult learners and communities. The third sector organisations have delivered on the specific outcomes defined at the outset of the Fund which have, in turn, contributed towards the national outcomes alongside other initiatives, funding streams and organisations. 

Outcomes 

Scottish Government stated at the outset of the CYPFEI & ALEC Fund that the work being undertaken through the Fund was intended to support the following national outcomes:

• Our children have the best start in life and are ready to succeed. 
• Our young people are successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens.
• We have improved the life chances for children, young people and families at risk.
• We have tackled significant inequalities in Scottish society.
• We have strong, resilient and supportive communities where people take responsibility for their own actions and how they affect others.
• We are better educated, more skilled and more successful.

As highlighted in chapter 1, Scottish Government revised the national outcomes in 2018. The evaluation has retained the focus on the original outcomes as they were the ones funded organisations were asked to address.

With support from the Corra Foundation at the outset, the 118 funded organisations each defined outcomes to capture the impact of their funded activity. This resulted in 498 outcomes which have subsequently been monitored by the funded organisations and reported - via the Corra Foundation - to Scottish Government on a quarterly basis. The sheer number of outcomes and the disparate, self-defined nature has meant analysis and interpretation at a national level has not been possible. However, monitoring reports have consistently shown that the vast majority of organisations have been meeting their outcomes throughout the period 2016-19. There is substantial evidence - both qualitative and quantitative - in the monitoring reports to support this; the information is a mix of positive comments, survey findings, statistical information, and case studies. Where funded organisations have reported they were not on track, further investigation by the Corra Foundation team has shown the issues tended to be minor and have not been cause for concern. Therefore, it is possible to state that collectively the funded organisations have improved the outcomes they set for children, young people, families, adult learners and communities. 

Drawing on evidence from the survey of funded organisations it is also possible to state that funded organisations’ core services (which were partly supported by the Fund) were strongly aligned with the national outcomes as they rated this issue as 9 out of 10 in both 2016 and 2019. Policy Officers corroborated this as they reported the Fund had been very effective in delivering nationally on improved outcomes for children, families, young people and adult learners through supporting the third sector in prevention and early intervention approaches.

There is therefore evidence that the Fund has delivered outcomes which contribute towards the national outcomes. The strength of this contribution should be viewed in context and is limited by the Fund’s inputs relative to the far greater influence of broader policy, initiatives and funding. For example, some of the large Scotland-wide charities reported that less than 1% of their funding came from the CYPFEI & ALEC Fund. Some funded organisations acknowledged that their contribution to national outcomes would be relatively small. The following diagram attempts to summarise the Fund’s relative contribution at a national level towards improving outcomes for beneficiaries.

Although the contribution of the Fund to the national outcomes has been difficult to assess, the value and importance of the Fund to the third sector organisations was abundantly clear. In Corra’s 2019 annual report the majority of funded organisations stated the Fund had a “very significant impact” on their organisation and the following comments illustrate the point.

“Our organisation would not have continued to function a Scottish service if it were not for the funding received from the Fund, so this funding has had a significant impact on our service here”. (Third sector organisation).

“It is very unlikely that we would have survived without CYPFEI funding. Not only has the grant been a substantial part of our funding but it has also given us credibility”. (Third sector organisation).

“We could not have delivered our core services without the Fund”. (Third sector organisation).

The annual report also demonstrated that some organisations were very reliant on the CYPFEI & ALEC Fund. One organisation reported 100% of their income came from the Fund, with a small number of other organisations reporting between 50% and 80% of their income was from the CYPFEI & ALEC Fund. Several organisations reported figures around the 20% mark. This reliance on the Fund and the broader funding environment led funded organisations to express concerns about sustainability throughout the evaluation. The sustainability rating given by third sector organisations showed the greatest decline of all 20 indicators falling from 4.9 out of 10 in 2016 to 4.5 in 2019 – it was also the lowest rated issue in both surveys. This finding is supported by information from the 2019 annual report which showed an increase in the number of funded organisations feeling less confident securing funding from sources other than the Scottish Government. As the report stated, “a range of support has been provided for organisations to support them to develop their fundraising activities since April 2016”, however this has to be “set against the backdrop of overall cuts in the level of funding available for the sector”. 

CYPFEI & ALEC outcomes and monitoring 

As noted above, the 118 third sector organisations supported by the CYPFEI & ALEC Fund self-defined 498 outcomes. The number and variety of outcomes hindered efforts to evaluate the overall impact of the Fund. In hindsight, it would have been beneficial if Fund-specific outcomes had been set at the outset by the funder, similar to other funding sources and programmes. Given the Fund’s focus on strengthening third sector organisations, it would also have been beneficial, in our view, if such outcomes related to organisational issues rather than beneficiaries. In addition, information on the cumulative number of beneficiaries which has been recorded and reported by funded organisations throughout the period 2016 to 2019 - which was a resource-intensive process - has not aided this evaluation.

Monitoring has been a recurring theme during consultations and has been reported previously in the evaluation Baseline and Interim Reports. Smaller organisations, and those receiving relatively small grants, have questioned a monitoring regime that does not take these issues of scale into account. Organisations of varying size and grant funding have also raised concerns about the time required to collate and report the information. A proportionate and streamlined monitoring regime should be considered in the future.