Learning from 25 years of preventative interventions in Scotland

2. Access to Welfare Advice in Schools

Maximise! – A cost effective early intervention of holistic welfare advice and support services in Edinburgh schools

Maximise! was a service embedded in schools across Edinburgh that offered holistic welfare support to parents and carers. It was delivered in partnership with local clusters of schools and specialist advice services, in a non-judgmental and person-centred way. The evaluation found that the service provided a cost-effective way of addressing social, economic and health inequalities through improving a range of outcomes amongst parents, carers and children and young people.

Introduction

Maximise! was a primary preventative intervention which delivered welfare and money advice, family support and employability services in primary and secondary schools across Edinburgh. The intervention offered parents and carers accessible and person-centred welfare advice and wider services at an early stage, with the aim of improving outcomes and preventing families from reaching a crisis point. The project was based on a set of core principles but delivered flexibly in a way that best met the needs of local people. It was delivered in partnership with schools, health services, children’s services and the third sector, with the shared goal of tackling poverty and inequality.

Context

Welfare and other/wider advice services can play an important role in helping to address the complex problems associated with poverty and inequality. Yet there is evidence that people often encounter multiple barriers accessing these services. Barriers are often related to the design and delivery of services, for example:

• a lack of awareness about services
• concerns around the complexity of the application process (e.g. to access non-universal benefits and services)
• stigma, associated with take up
• language/cultural/social barriers
• a perception of ineligibility
• the calculation that claiming is not worthwhile ^[44]

However, there is a strong evidence base regarding what works in terms of overcoming these barriers and increasing the take up of services. Consideration of where advice services are provided and who provides them is key to this. For example, evidence suggests that there are additional advantages to an advice worker being co-located in a familiar community setting such as a GP practice or school, even when there are existing advice services in the locality.^[45],[46] A recommendation from a trusted professional like a health professional or teacher also encourages access. Co-located local services are also more accessible and convenient for parents/ carers due to the familiarity of the setting, and also for those who have difficulty in attending more ‘centralised’ services due to poor health, poverty, lack of transport or psychological barriers. ^[47]

Response

The Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2018-22 emphasised the importance of income maximisation and financial checks as a means of reducing inequalities and making progress towards Scotland’s child poverty targets.^[48] In 2021 the Scottish Government refreshed its strategy to increase benefit uptake including a commitment to make additional funding available to support income maximisation.^[49]

A number of similar approaches began to emerge in different local authorities across Scotland.^[50] While approaches differed, they shared similar core underpinning principles, which included a focus on ensuring:

• services are person-centred and developed using co-production methods
• services are flexible and adaptable to meet individual needs
• services are accessible and non-judgemental
• access and referral routes are simple and facilitate engagement
• staff providing services are able to build effective relationships and are embedded in the school team and have the right attitude
• services are connected to the local community.^[51]

Intervention

The Maximise! model was developed in August 2018 through a partnership between Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP), City of Edinburgh Council (CEC), Community Health and Advice Initiative (CHAI), Children 1st and Capital City Partnership (CCP). Their shared aim was to produce ‘a long term, holistic model for assisting families out of poverty’.^[52]

Maximise! in Edinburgh was developed from an earlier pilot in South East Edinburgh (Liberton Cluster)^[53] in 2018. In 2019 it was expanded into a city-wide intervention, covering primary and secondary schools across 4 school clusters. These were selected on the basis of level of deprivation and on local willingness to participate.

The intervention ran over one school year, from August 2019 until June 2020. Schools closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and so the service continued either by telephone or digitally between March and June 2020. The cost of the Edinburgh wide initiative was £426,500, and it was co-funded by CEC Education Service ‘Care Experienced Attainment Fund’ (£358,500) and Pupil Equity Funding from participating schools (£68,000 with each cluster committing around £16k each).

Maximise! in Edinburgh involved a welfare rights worker embedded within primary and secondary schools who provided parents/carers with access to wide-ranging support,^[54] and/or connected them to other services, either directly or through a referral. The model supported those who might not otherwise have sought help, particularly care experienced families and those experiencing health, social and economic inequalities. It sought to promote the financial resilience, health and wellbeing of families and to contribute to increasing the attainment of children and young people.^[55]

Maximise! involved new styles of integrated partnership working at the school ‘cluster’ level and took a person-centred^[56] approach, providing holistic support.

The intervention was novel in that it was delivered in partnership with the voluntary sector and provided access to three pillars of support in schools: welfare and money advice, family support, and employability services. There was an integrated team of three staff in each locality cluster. It was delivered by specialist workers based within the school and part of the school team, but employed and managed by Children 1^st (intensive family support) and CHAI (advice on income maximisation and employability).^[57]

Access and referral routes were also tailored to individual schools based on local needs. Specialist workers targeted parents/ carers by attending parents nights, school fairs etc. or referrals from staff following pre-existing knowledge/concerns about a child/ family, and teachers acted as early intermediaries.

Monitoring and Evaluation

A Social Return on Investment (SROI)^[58] evaluation of Maximise! in Edinburgh measured the social and economic benefits of providing parents/ carers with access to a range of support services provided by specialist workers embedded in schools. Pre-existing evidence shows the effectiveness of providing welfare advice in community based settings, as a non-stigmatising approach to early intervention.^[59] This analysis built on this evidence base by examining the benefits from the perspective of parents / carers, children, staff and funders.^[60]

The study was conducted during 2019 and 2020 by the evaluation manager at the Improvement Service (IS) who specialises in SROI evaluations, with support from Maximise! staff. It was funded by the Partners (EHSC partnership and CEC), and an advisory group with representatives from all key partners provided support to the IS.

SROI is an approach underpinned by a set of principles that measures and accounts for a broad concept of value. It systematically incorporates social, environmental, economic and other values into decision-making processes. The approach measures the social and economic change/ benefits that a service or activity delivers from the perspective of the key beneficiaries, and so the perspectives of the different stakeholders are at the centre of the valuation process. ^[61]

The evaluation included collecting qualitative, quantitative and financial information:

• 68 parents/carers were consulted using structured questionnaires, 2 focus groups and an SMS survey
• 18 individual interviews with teachers and parent/carers were carried out as proxies for children/young people
• 6 structured individual interviews and 1 focus group with staff
• 6 structured individual interviews were conducted with funders

The closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant the intervention could not run as intended over the course of the full academic year, and the delivery model was adjusted between March and June 2020. This affected data collection for the evaluation. The authors concluded that further benefits would have been observed had the program ran as intended, and the interruption is likely to have led to an underestimation of the value of Maximise! in 2019/20.^[62]

Outcomes for children and young people were proxies, based on observations from parents/ carers and teachers, and so there is less confidence in these results.

Key Findings

a) Improved outcomes

The outcomes measured are presented by group, in Table 1.

All schools noted the Maximise! team’s ability to connect and engage with parents who were unlikely to have accessed support in the absence of the programme, empowering and increasing the confidence of those they supported. One school staff member said:

“Sometimes parents refuse help at first as they are too proud - the service is an open door and parents can drop in and get confidential advice - and keep this to themselves.”

Operating in clusters schools facilitated strong relationships and networks both within local communities and amongst the staff team. This was a new way of working for most of this staff, and positively received: ‘Being based within a school cluster, offers a whole family, trauma-informed and person-centred approach via one single gateway to address the complex issues that often impact families who are affected by poverty.’^[63]

A person-centred approach meant that different local needs and issues could be addressed in each school, with families able to select the areas of support they needed and ‘move through and engage with’ the model of support in a manner and pace which suits their situation.’^[64] Advice staff also provided training and briefings for school staff on relevant topics.

The Maximise! model of service delivery was universally welcomed. However, some staff reported that while once established, relationships with schools were generally good, it could be difficult to make the initial contact, depending on the size of the area covered and the personalities involved.

b) Cost savings /social return on investment

Financial proxies were identified and agreed by stakeholders or their proxies (children and young people), which allow a monetary value to be placed on the changes experienced by different groups. The analysis considered the length of time that changes would be sustained, ‘deadweight’ (whether an outcome may have occurred to some extent without the intervention), ‘attribution’ (external factors which could have contributed to the outcome), and ‘displacement’ (when an outcome is achieved but at the expense of another).

The SROI analysis found that every £1 invested would generate around £24 of benefits. The authors applied a ‘sensitivity analysis’^[65] which adds robustness to the findings, which showed the value of the benefits derived ranges from £20 to £28.^[66]

The SROI calculation is expressed as a ratio of return from investment. It is derived from dividing the monetised value of the sum of all the benefits by the total cost of the investment. In this report the total value is £10,357,625; the total investment figure in the same period to generate this value is c£ £426,500.^[67]

For an investment of around £420,000 funders are able to deliver benefits for parents/ carers valued at just over £4 million. The potential value for children/young people is significantly more and equates to around £6 million.^[68]

The funders also mentioned the ‘preventative spend’ to the public sector of taking early action to help families to support and care for their children thereby reducing the need for more expensive or intensive action associated with going into the care system.

Some of the benefits of the programme may continue to have a preventative impact and result in longer term benefits, although measuring these was out with the scope of the analysis, and so a conservative estimate (between 1 and 3 years) was taken to the duration of outcomes. The report ^[69] notes:

‘However investment is not justified solely on the ‘best value’ or the economic advantages that it delivers in the short term. The nature of the outcomes experienced by families will result in earlier intervention and reduced inequalities which research shows in the long term reduces health costs and lowers demand for welfare benefits.’

Learning and Next Steps

The Maximise! programme in schools was an upstream preventative intervention with an emphasis on early intervention through innovative partnership working, to prevent a range of social issues from escalating to crisis point. The analysis demonstrates a cost effective intervention with the potential to generate longer term preventative savings, and be scaled up to schools across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has funded the Advice in Accessible Settings (AiAS)^[70] and Welfare Advice and Health Partnerships^[71] that deliver similar approaches in wider health and community settings, as well as some education settings (for AiAS).

SROI analysis is a helpful approach to understanding the potential benefits of preventative interventions, particularly in light of the lack of long term and methodologically robust economic evaluation evidence. Emerging evidence from the evaluation has been used to inform the development of the programme through, for example, better targeting interventions and improving guidance for working with seldom heard families.^[72] SROI evaluations on welfare advice in GP practices and schools in Dundee are currently underway, and will help to inform the development of this model.

Variations of the Maximise! model, tailored to local needs have been introduced in the Calton Ward in Glasgow and in Stirling.^[73] The Intensive Family Support Service (IFSS) is another adaptation of the Maximise! model, now implemented across six local authorities within the Edinburgh City Region.

In 2020 funding was secured to develop Maximise! Early Years, which was offered to families in North West Edinburgh who have a child aged between 0-5 years in early years centres. It was extended to a further 5 early years centres in South Edinburgh for a two year period, ending in 2024.^[74] The service in North Edinburgh is funded until March 2026. The funding is situated within employability and takes a whole-family, holistic approach, integrating family support, advice and employability/progression work.

A repeat survey of local authorities on providing advice services in accessible settings by the IS in November 2024 showed that delivering advice services in schools had been maintained and in some cases expanded.^[75] However, while the Maximise! delivery model and partners remain consistent, with Children 1st and CHAI continuing to play key roles, it is not currently delivered in Edinburgh schools (due to a lack of sustainable funding), but operates instead in Early Years centres.^[76]