Targeting Bristol’s Areas of Deprivation
Evaluation
Project Year Three
Outcome One
Of the 70 families supported in each year of the project, at least 63 (90%) will report that the support of a Home-Start volunteer has improved their well-being.
What has been achieved:
This outcome was achieved. 70 families received support. However a further 9 were matched with a volunteer but disengaged within the first 2-3 weeks because they were coping better, had other support, were too busy or were unavailable once a week.
26 of the 70 families were carried over from year 2.
During the Coordinators’ review visits, all families assess their needs, scoring themselves on a scale of 0-5 in relation to how they are coping with each need. We are thus able to track progress, monitoring the extent to which families’ coping scores have changed
42 of the 70 families came to the end of their support – were ‘closed’- during this year. The improved coping scores of 41 (98%) of them indicated that they felt better able to cope and that their wellbeing had improved as the result of the support of a HS volunteer.
13 parents and 8 referrers filled in questionnaires to evaluate the service which families had received. The feedback obtained in this way is attached in a separate document. Certain themes emerge from this feedback. The main reasons for the success of Home-Start interventions are the special relationships which develop between volunteers and families.
Parents feel able to confide in their volunteers:
‘ -having someone to talk to and share with has really helped, before I couldn’t tell my friends I had PND but I can now.’
‘ - I could confide in her.’
For some there was a real sense that the volunteer was particularly qualified to meet their individual needs:
‘My volunteer was a great volunteer for me specifically as she is ‘chilled out’ and she helped to diffuse my stress with her calm persona.’
‘Everything is slotting into place – like a jigsaw- we click – we work, everything she suggests makes sense.’
‘Having someone who understood what it’s like living with someone who has mental health problems worked well for me.’
The adaptability of volunteers was also valued:
‘My volunteer fitted in fantastically’
‘My volunteer was flexible and intuitive, able to foresee and adapt to my needs as they changed.’
It was evident that the practical help offered by volunteers is an important and unique aspect of the service:
‘It was the only support I received from outside the family that practically supported me.
‘– the practical support was tailored to meet the individual need of the family and offered an extra pair of hands and eyes to help. Thank you – a huge help.’ (Referrer)
It is particularly pleasing to see evidence that parents feel able to go forward with greater confidence at the end of their support:
‘I am doing really well now.’
‘I am in a good place now and feel I can cope and live a normal life.’
‘It has helped me on my journey to work on my mental health and towards recovery. I am managing my negative inner voice!’
‘Thanks for helping me to be the mum I wanted to be.’
One referrer summarised the complete effect of Home-Start volunteer help on the whole family:
‘The needs of the family were met – the volunteer engaged with the children and adults of the family, motivating them to go out. This was in addition to providing emotional and practical support…..Mum felt supported and listened to. At the same time the children enjoyed having time outside the house.’
Two of thesupported parents expressed the intention to complete the ‘virtuous circle’ and volunteer themselves in the future – a very clear proof that Home-Start interventions work and are valued by those who benefit from them:
‘I would like to volunteer one day.’
‘I would like to be a volunteer at some point in the future.’
What has been learned
At least 20% of the families accepted for support during this year live in the top 10% most deprived areas in England. These tend to be families with more complex needs which make greater demands on the skills and time of coordinators.
We also need to take into account the time and cost to the scheme of the 10% of families who disengage within the first few weeks, and highlight this. Previously we have not included this information in our end of year reports; we have now improved our monitoring systems to ensure we capture and include this information.
We need to strengthen our monitoring and evaluation processes to ensure that we receive feedback from a greater number of service users. In order to do this we employed an Independent Consultant to deliver training on monitoring and evaluation to staff, advisers and trustees and have now set up an evaluation group tasked with improving our processes. The first stage of this is that members of the evaluation team will contact 50% of closed families and visit them in their homes to facilitate feedback, with further home visits after 3 months. There are plans to invite referrers to participate actively in an evaluation of year 4 of the project.
Outcome Two
25 new volunteers in each year of the project will improve life skills, gain confidence and enhance their employment prospects.
What has been achieved
This outcome was more than achieved. 29 new volunteers were recruited and trained in 3 Initial Preparation Courses. Each of these courses consists of 9 weekly four hour sessions of discussion based learning. The overwhelming majority told us that the training increased their confidence, improved their life skills and enhanced their employment prospects.
15 volunteers gained a CERTA (previously OCN) qualification and a further 11 were working towards this at the end of this year.
8 VTEs (volunteer training events) were held with an average of 16 attendees. The training included Safeguarding, FGM, First Aid, a Cultural Bus Tour and Budgeting and Debt.
We obtained feedback from volunteers at the end of the preparation course and training events and when they left Home-Start. Their comments are included in the separate feedback document.
The quality of the training and support given to volunteers is much appreciated. One volunteer commented at the end of the preparation course:
‘A surprising course, as most volunteer positions have extremely limited training – very beneficial, I feel confident to begin volunteering.’
Another volunteer wrote this as part of her feedback as she left Home-Start:
‘ - the support I received from the team was amazing, they really reassured me. Home-Start go above and beyond to look after their volunteers and provide training opportunities.
The experience of volunteering is extremely rewarding and builds the confidence and self-esteem of volunteers:
‘Volunteering with HSB exceeded my expectations. I loved and still love it.’
‘I felt I was doing something worthwhile and left each family looking forward to their future.’
‘I thoroughly enjoyed volunteering. It was so rewarding and I learnt so much about people and myself.’
‘I always leave the family feeling so glad that I have visited.’
For three volunteers who left during the year there was evidence that Home-Start training and experience had directly contributed to their ability to move on to new opportunities:
‘I am hoping to run an adventure playground helping inner city children with a safe place to play.’
‘It has helped me get onto my Foundation degree which I have now finished. I am about to start my 3rd year BA Hons. Also during my time with HSB I got a job as a family support worker and I have no doubt my HS experience enabled me to get that job. HSB has been such a positive experience and a real turning point in my life.’
‘I hope to volunteer again as this is where I felt I fitted best. I now work in my son’s school as a General assistant.’
In the autumn of 2014, volunteers were consulted by the newly formed evaluation team in focus groups which formed part of a day of ‘refresher’ training. Their comments echoed the feelings expressed in the feedback already quoted. They also, however, raised issues relating to communication. Any communication between volunteers and families has to be carried out through the Home-Start Bristol office, to maintain boundaries and respect the privacy of volunteers. This has occasionally led to delays in the passing on of messages. Volunteers also expressed a wish for more opportunities to meet and communicate with each other.
What has been learned
Although a pleasing number of volunteers were recruited during the year, the total number of volunteers available for family visiting fell in the middle part of the year. There were several factors which contributed to this. The number of volunteers who have a rest period or cannot volunteer during school holidays has increased. Length of service has also decreased over the last few years. We are aware that we are attracting more volunteers in their 20s and 30s; they are likely to have young children and to be using their experience with HS as a stepping stone to further education and employment. While we are supportive of this and recognise our contribution in their development, we also have to maintain adequate numbers of volunteers. We are therefore committed to continuing to run 3 courses a year and increasing our volunteer workforce from around 70 to 85-90 in order to maintain adequate numbers of volunteers available for visiting at any one time and enable us to support the target number of families.
We have also learned that we are unlike many agencies who recruit volunteers in that our training is not a ‘rolling’ programme where volunteers can dip in and out. We require that volunteers make a commitment to completing the whole course. We have improved our interview process to ensure that volunteers are aware of and ready for this commitment. Despite this we occasionally have to manage the sudden departure of a volunteer due to personal reasons ensuring the family are supported by another volunteer or agency.
We increasingly found that some volunteers, while very keen to complete the course or to access the additional support to complete the accreditation portfolio, have been reluctant to volunteer once they have completed their training. Reasons for this have been that they had not fully considered the commitment of 2-3 hours a week to visit a family, had over-committed themselves by taking on other courses and volunteer roles, or had returned to work. We therefore changed the process for entering volunteers for accreditation, asking them to complete 3 months volunteering with us before we submit their work and incur the £22 per person cost.
To ensure success in recruiting sufficient numbers, it is important to use a variety of venues for preparation courses across the city. What then works well is a combination of city wide advertising and a local focus near the venue - targeted leaflet drops, participating in community events.
For the first time we contacted some volunteers who had left the scheme, inviting them to re-join. Of the 16 approached, 3 have returned, updated their training and are working with families.
Once volunteers complete their initial preparation course it is often a challenge to interest them in further training. While there are many reasons for this – work, family commitments – we realise that additional time and effort is required to encourage attendance. We have therefore introduced a monthly news sheet, in addition to our 3 newsletters, promoting training, and are using e-mail and text reminders.
In January we introduced a pre-course questionnaire and a new end of course questionnaire enabling us to better measure the effectiveness of our training in the future.
Issues connected with passing messages between volunteers and families should be at least partly resolved because staffing hours have been increased during the year. There should be someone in the office during working hours on all days of the week, which was not formerly the case.
It is difficult to bring our volunteer team together – they are scattered throughout Bristol and South Gloucestershire. We are, however, creating more opportunities for social interaction by ensuring that training events include either a ‘coffee and cake’ session or a lunch, to give volunteers time to talk to each other. We will continue to hold at least 2 special events during the year to thank volunteers and seek to involve them in fundraising events such as quiz evenings.
The evaluation team will continue to find ways to consult volunteers and obtain their feedback, using online surveys as well as focus groups.
Outcome Three
In each year of the project 43/70 families will report that they are less isolated because of the support of a Home-Start volunteer
What has been achieved
This outcome was more than achieved.We predicted that: 70% of the supported families in each year would identify isolation as one of their areas of need; 43% would be supported by their volunteer to access one or more services within their community.
In the event 36 (86%) of the ‘closed’ families identified isolation and wanting help to access services as needs. Of these, 35 (97%) felt less isolated by the time support ended.
34 families (94%) were supported to access 1 or more services. These included health appointments, housing advice, toddler groups, soft play, children centres, the library, sports facilities, museums, shops, a women’s group, a sewing class.
What has been learned
Isolation and poor mental health are inextricably linked – 79% of the 42 families whose support had ended identified mental health issues as a need and 59% had low self -esteem. We are learning that isolation is an even greater issue than we originally predicted – 86% not 70%. It is therefore even more important that our volunteers work with families to build confidence, reduce stress and gain trust by visiting them in their homes where they feel safe. Only then can they begin to encourage parents to engage with local facilities and services.
One comment from a referrer highlighted the importance of this aspect of our work:
‘Mum related well to her worker despite ongoing difficulties at times in the household – it enabled her to accept ongoing help and built her confidence in accessing local resources.’
This confirms that we should continue to give a high priority to engaging isolated families with services in their communities so that by the time support ends they are accessing these services and continue to do so. This is a key element in our support.
Outcome Four
In each year of the project, volunteering opportunities will be made more accessible to BME minority groups, ensuring that eight of 70 volunteers are of BME origin, reflecting the estimated BME population of Bristol (12 per cent).
What has been achieved
This outcome was achieved. At the end of this year 12% of our volunteers were of BME origin. However we are aware that this has dropped from 18% last year – and that 16% better reflects the BME population of Bristol.
What has been learned
The number of volunteers, including those of BME origin, fluctuates throughout the year as volunteers leave to return to work, study or because their own or their family’s health/circumstances need to be their priority. To attract volunteers from BME communities we have continued our roadshows and increased the number of community events we attend. One of our Co-ordinators also attended an ESOL class with a Somali volunteer where they showed our DVD and the volunteer was able to translate, explain and talk about her own experience with HSB. Several of the 13 expressed an interest and we are currently exploring the feasibility of running an additional course for anyone whose first language is not English.
Other achievements
-HS UK Quality Review- our score was increased to 99%
-We secured funding for a 1 year pilot project to work with families on the verge of crisis
-We held our first ‘Cluster’ Event for other HS schemes across the south west to share ideas and best practice. This is likely to become an annual event.
-We held our first Away Day for staff and trustees
-We were successful in our application to BL to extend this work into 5 priority areas in South Glos.
-We have supported several volunteers by offering additional tuition at home in order that they might be able to achieve the accredited qualification.
-We funded an Independent Consultant to deliver training on monitoring and evaluation to staff, advisers and trustees.
-We held our ‘Big Breakfast’ event at 3 community farms to promote the scheme and attract volunteers.
-We increased the number of ‘paid’ adverts, took advantage of free publications and e-newsletters, and funded a targeted leaflet drop.
-We participated in several community events – Islamic Fayre, Southmead Festival, Children Centre Information/Open Days.
-We attended a variety of multi -agency training, events and meetings – we are on 3 children centre ‘advisory’ boards – the Head of one is now a HSB Adviser. Her children centre staff delivered 188 leaflets on our behalf and has agreed to us using the centre to deliver a training course.