Child poverty pathfinders in Dundee and Glasgow: phase two evaluation

2. Design and development of the Dundee pathfinder

Introduction

This chapter summarises key features of the aims, development, delivery, and governance of the Dundee pathfinder, discussing how these have evolved over time and summarising plans (as shared with the evaluation team at the time of writing in early 2025) for its future. The chapter also discusses the approach taken to internal and external monitoring and evaluation of the pathfinder, and what this means for the data available to assess its impact.

Evolution of the Dundee pathfinder approach

The Dundee pathfinder (also referred to locally as the ‘Linlathen employability pathfinder’ and ‘Linlathen and Mid Craigie Works’) was established to test innovative approaches to supporting families with children out of poverty in a sustained way. A core partnership between the local authority (DCC), DWP, the Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland was established to drive and oversee the development and delivery of the pathfinder.

In the earliest stages of the pathfinder (in early 2022), DWP and Social Security Scotland wrote out to target groups (single parents and people eligible for a fuel grant) and invited them to attend a meeting at the central library to engage with support. A second test involved writing to clients in the area who had received fuel well grants and inviting them to receive a ‘better off’ calculation.^[5] However, it was reported (by stakeholders involved at the time) that few people had engaged with these offers; it was observed that some families appeared anxious about the purpose of being ‘invited in’. It was also felt that the first contact with a client had not necessarily been the right time to carry out a ‘better off’ calculation aimed at encouraging them to seek work, as they were often dealing with more pressing crisis issues that they needed help with first, for example around housing, health, food poverty, or caring responsibilities.

So, people voted with their feet, very few people took the opportunity, and with that came a whole load of trepidation about, you know, being brought in for interview, rather than invited in for support. So, yes, so that was one of the things that we decided we wouldn't do again.

(Dundee professional interview)

Learning from this first test informed the development of ‘Linlathen Works’, which is the main focus of this phase 2 evaluation.

Overview of the ‘Linlathen and Mid Craigie Works’ model

The pathfinder approach in Linlathen and Mid Craigie, delivery of which started in October 2022, combines:

• Person-centred, relational key worker support: the core Linlathen Works pathfinder team now consists of a project (operational) lead (DCC), and five key workers, including three DCC key workers (2.43 FTE), one full-time key worker from Social Security Scotland, and a part-time (0.4 FTE) key worker from DWP. Key workers offer flexible support to clients, based on their individual needs, providing advice, support and referrals across a very wide range of issues.
• Targeted outreach: families likely to be in poverty were identified using Council Tax Reduction data to identify households with a child under 16 and no earned income. This enabled the Dundee pathfinder team to make door-to-door calls using the list of target addresses.
• Weekly drop-ins: at the Brooksbank Community Centre^[6] in Linlathen, attended by the key worker team alongside staff from a range of other local public and third sector agencies, covering issues such as housing, employability, money advice, energy support and, more recently, community Health Inequalities nurses and a mental health nurse. Drop-in attendees can be directly linked with these services where relevant. Drop-in sessions on a Tuesday are open to anyone, whether or not they have children or live in the target areas, with an additional session run on a Thursday for Linlathen and Mid Craigie households specifically.

Pathfinder target group

The decision to focus the Dundee pathfinder initially on Linlathen was due to its high levels of area deprivation: analysis by the Health and Social Care Partnership shows that 92.5% of its population of 2,021 lived in the 5% most deprived data zones in Scotland as measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD). Linlathen was also the focus of concerted efforts by DCC and other public and third sector organisations to increase community engagement and empowerment and to increase the range of creative responses to poverty locally, through the Linlathen Fairness Initiative (LFI). This project is closely linked to the pathfinder; there are close working relationships between the pathfinder team and the Community Learning and Development team, who lead on the LFI.

From early 2024, it was agreed that the pathfinder would also target families in neighbouring Mid Craigie. While levels of deprivation in Mid Craigie are slightly lower compared with Linlathen, they are nonetheless much higher than average, with 79.1% of the Mid Craigie population estimated to be living in the 5% most deprived data zones (see Dundee HSCP, East End Profile).

At the same time as the expansion in Mid Craigie was agreed, there was also a plan to test a similar approach (with a different team) in the Stobswell West area of the city. However, as the Stobswell work was a separate ‘test of change’ in an area with different demographics and housing, it was not considered within scope for this evaluation.

Evolving aims

The Dundee pathfinder had the initial primary aim of supporting families with children in the Linlathen area of Dundee out of poverty in a sustained way by improving their employment outcomes. However, early engagement with families in Linlathen highlighted that many target clients were much further from employment than initially expected, facing multiple complex barriers to paid work. This led the pathfinder to shift the focus to include a wider range of outcomes over a longer time period, rather than exclusively employment.

The overall vision of the Dundee pathfinder, as set out in the ‘theory of change’ developed by the evaluation team in December 2023 in close consultation with pathfinder stakeholders, is “to deliver consistent, trusted, person-centred and place-based support to families to help them improve their social, financial, and emotional stability and ultimately to move out of poverty on a sustained basis.”

Future plans

In late 2024, DCC presented a proposal to the Oversight Board to roll out key elements of the Linlathen Works approach to other areas of Dundee, while refocusing the work in Linlathen and Mid Craigie (to focus on skills development support). The proposal was to start this roll-out in the Douglas area of the city, linking with a local Community Centre which already runs a limited multi-agency drop-in. Longer-term, it was suggested that this would lead to a community-based key worker model of employability support across six areas in Dundee identified as having higher than average levels of unemployment, with data used to target support towards families on low incomes in those areas. As of late 2024 when this evaluation took place, recruitment processes for key workers to serve the expansion had been initiated, with learning from the Linlathen and Mid Cragie approach being applied to ensure more robust baseline measures were in place to support a planned implementation at the start of financial year 2025/26.

System change

The aim of bringing together the four core partners in the Dundee pathfinder was to help overcome organisational and systemic barriers to supporting families. In this way, it was hoped that the Dundee pathfinder would also influence and help drive wider system change - including furthering the case for improved data sharing across partners; the development of new approaches in employability for families further away from employment; and impacting on wider principles and ways of working with families across partners. The system change aims of the pathfinder are discussed in more detail in chapter 5.

Governance

The governance structure for the Dundee pathfinder includes an Oversight Board, comprising senior stakeholders from each of the four ‘core’ partners and a Working Group, intended to ‘trouble-shoot’ problems and feedback learning from the pathfinder to their own organisations. Views on the effectiveness of governance structures – particularly in terms of driving system change – are discussed in chapter 5.

Monitoring and evaluation

Theory of change

A theory of change for the Dundee pathfinder (building on an early theory of change developed during the phase 1 evaluation) was developed in consultation with professional stakeholders, following a workshop in December 2023. This is shown in Figure 2.1, below (a screen-reader accessible text version is included in Appendix A). It provides a visual summary of the key features and aims of the pathfinder, as discussed in this and subsequent chapters.

Inputs (Resources in):

• Funding - Both direct funding of the pathfinder and wider investment in community-based support in Linlathen
• Staff time / expertise - Key workers (inc. Social Security Scotland and DWP key workers); Team Manager; Project Manager
• Partner time / expertise
• Linlathen families
• DCC, Scottish Government, Social Security Scotland and DWP (core partners)
• Community-planning
• Drop-in partners
• Wider referral partners*
• Dundee Fairness Initiative
• Employability Service (ES)
• HSCP
• Public Health Scotland
• Third Sector
• Other
• Facilities – Brooksbank
• Governance (Oversight Board)
• Data
• Training and wellbeing support for delivery team

Activities (Things we do):

• Delivery for families/households: Key workers (KW) provide open-ended, intensive, relational support to families, including:
• Identifying target families
• Door-knocking to engage them
• Running regular local drop-ins with co-located partners
• Asset-based assessment and goal setting with families
• Ongoing case management
• Wide-ranging emotional and practical support and advice, including benefits applications
• Active support navigating the wider benefit/support system
• System change activities:
• Service design workshops*
• Employability ‘Sprints’ to develop employability support (ES) model for those further from employment
• Data sharing workshops
• Meetings / activities to bring more partners into NWD approach
• Monitoring and oversight activities:
• Recording data for families in spreadsheet and case notes
• Oversight Board meetings

Outputs (deliverables):

• Families/households:
• Number of drop-in sessions run
• Number of visits to target families
• Number of families accepting key worker support
• Number attending drop-in
• Number of contacts / length of engagement with key workers
• Value of grants/benefits obtained
• Number receiving support from key worker and/or referral re.: employment; education/training; benefits/grants; food; fuel; childcare; housing; mental health; other wellbeing; wider support.
• Number signing up for and staying engaged over time with ES.
• Service/system outputs
• Data sharing agreements
• New policies/guidance/training re. ES for parents in tier 3
• Shared outcome frameworks / statements of shared principles across partners
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Spreadsheet and case notes
• Monitoring reports

Short-term outcomes / aims:

• Families/households
• Engaged with key worker support
• Immediate / basic needs addressed (inc. debt, food/fuel, repairs)
• Building trusting relationships with key worker
• Systems
• Learning re. gaps
• Streamlined referral processes
• Agreement of shared values / principles
• Case for data sharing developed

Medium-term outcomes / aims:

• Families/households
• More willing and able to engage with wider services
• Increased hope/goals for future (including employment)
• Improvements in underlying issues, including: increased income from benefits; outgoings reduce; improved social connectedness, mental health, wider wellbeing; better access to childcare / respite care; other.
• Systems
• Gaps in provision filled
• Wider services adapt as result of feedback, leading to reduced demand on pathfinder)
• More case conferencing
• ES developed for parents at all stages of journey to employability
• Improved trust between partners / services
• Data access issues addressed

Long-term outcomes / aims:

• Families/households
• Empowered to make change for themselves
• Moving into training/ education/ volunteering
• Improved digital literacy / reduced digital exclusion
• Increased school engagement (parents and children)
• Leading to:
• New / improved sustainable employment, and/or
• Financial, social, and emotional stability
• Resilient and less reliant on services
• Systems
• Learning from pathfinder influences local and national policy and practice
• Data sharing as standard
• Leading to:
• Fully integrated, person-centred, NWD, place-based approaches to supporting people in poverty embedded across all partners
• All ultimately leading to a reduction in child poverty.

Monitoring data for the Dundee pathfinder

DCC key workers collect and record data about Dundee pathfinder clients via detailed confidential case notes and in an Excel spreadsheet. The Excel spreadsheet was started in October 2022, when the pathfinder first began engaging with clients in Linlathen, and is updated weekly. This spreadsheet includes data collected at initial contact, whether at the drop-in or via outreach (including basic demographic details and barriers reported), and information about further appointments, attendance at the drop-in, onward referrals, and monetary gains, as reported to the pathfinder team by clients.

While this monitoring data spreadsheet contained some valuable information, it was also apparent from the scoping stage that there were some significant gaps. In particular:

• Data sharing issues meant the spreadsheet was only accessible to the three DCC key workers. It had not been possible to agree a platform for saving client data which met all three organisations’ requirements, which meant the spreadsheet includes all pathfinder clients but does not include systematic information on contacts between clients and the DWP or Social Security Scotland key workers, or the types of support and advice they have provided (unless a DCC key worker was also involved in client contacts). This means that the monitoring data only presents a partial picture of the level of activity and outputs.
• The spreadsheet includes limited information that can be used to measure outcomes. For example, there are gaps in terms of baseline data on people’s financial and employment situation when they first came into contact with the pathfinder (making it difficult to assess progress). In terms of follow-up outcomes, the team have been reliant on clients reporting back to them whether a particular benefit application was successful, meaning the team felt the spreadsheet was likely to underreport these ‘gains’. Similarly, while the spreadsheet includes data on referrals to other support, it does not generally include the result of these referrals: the key worker team felt capturing this would be unfeasible, as clients do not always report back on these.
• There were limitations to the demographic data recorded. Stakeholders involved in early discussions about pathfinder data collection noted that there had been a desire to minimise the demographic data collected from families, to avoid collecting data beyond that necessary for delivery of services. This meant it was not possible to identify all of the Scottish Government priority family groups (see Scottish Government, 2024).
• There was also a recognised gap in the data collected around ‘softer’ outcomes, such as improved confidence, social connectedness, or wider wellbeing.

By the time this phase 2 evaluation began, in late 2023, there was limited scope to significantly change the content or structure of this spreadsheet. The pathfinder team lacked the resources to either restructure the spreadsheet themselves or to ‘backfill’ the spreadsheet with significant additional data. Moreover, as it already contained a year’s worth of data, it would not have been feasible at that point to establish alternative baseline data for those clients already engaged.

The evaluation team and the pathfinder operational lead agreed a small number of improvements to the spreadsheet, to support evaluation, including adding some additional data for Linlathen and Mid Craigie clients only (as the task of backfilling for all clients would have been significantly more time consuming).

More generally, the use of Excel as a tool to record monitoring data has proved problematic. The operational team reported that it was not particularly user-friendly. From an evaluation perspective, collecting data in multiple tabs of an Excel workbook did not facilitate easy analysis, requiring significant data cleaning and processing.

Outcomes Star

In spring 2024, following discussions with the evaluation team and their own research, the pathfinder team purchased access to an online tool that supports key workers to collect data on softer outcomes. The ‘pathway’ Outcomes Star that was selected is intended for use with “people who need considerable support if they are to move towards work.” As such, it was felt to be a good fit for the Dundee pathfinder.

Feedback from the operational team in late 2024 indicated that key workers had found Outcomes Star a useful tool for showing clients the distance they had travelled and for capturing softer outcomes. However, as of early October 2024, the team had only completed reviews using Outcomes Star with 24 clients, limiting its usefulness for this stage of the evaluation.

The team also identified some challenges around when such a tool could be introduced and how many clients it was feasible to use it with. There was a consensus that it would be inappropriate to introduce Outcomes Star at first contact or at the drop-in, as there was a need for both privacy and to have begun to build a relationship with clients. It was reported that it generally took about an hour to complete a full review with clients, so it was considered more appropriate for clients who were receiving more intensive ongoing support than for those whose contact was more limited. Obtaining follow-up or ‘final’ data from all clients was also viewed as challenging given that the pathfinder is client-led, and there is no fixed schedule of appointments or obligation to engage in an ‘exit’ interview.

Learning for future monitoring

The limitations of the monitoring data spreadsheet were acknowledged across both operational and strategic stakeholders from the outset of this evaluation. To a degree, the challenges experienced were attributed to the flexible and iterative nature of the pathfinder itself, and the fact that the anticipated outcomes and the timeframes (for employment outcomes in particular) had evolved since it was first implemented:

“It’s always been challenging in Dundee because we didn’t set out with a particular outcome that we were trying to measure from the beginning … And that’s partly because we were testing and iterating.”

(Dundee professional interview)

It was also felt that there had been a tension between, on the one hand, a desire that data collection should not be a barrier to clients engaging, and on the other, a need for robust monitoring data.

However, it was also argued that, with hindsight, the operational team should have been provided with more guidance, a clearer framework and tools for measuring and monitoring outcomes at the outset of the pathfinder, and that there should have been a clearer process for the pathfinder to agree and implement changes to this as the pathfinder evolved.

“It might ebb and flow as you go through the process, but not having that structure has kind of led us to the point where I wouldn't like to try and evaluate this because, you know, I just think there's big pieces of the jigsaw missing.”

(Dundee professional interview)