29 September 2009 – Work-focused services in children’s centre pilot: evaluation baseline report
Findings are published today from the baseline stage of the ‘Work-focused services in children’s centre’ pilot. The pilot is operating in 30 children’s centres across ten local authority areas, running from January 2009 – March 2011, and will provide work-focused services through a dedicated Jobcentre Plus Personal Adviser, as well as activities and provision designed to support local parents into the labour market.
A comprehensive evaluation will assess the impact of providing work-focused services on parents’ preparations for and movement into work, as well as stakeholder experiences of implementing the pilot. The baseline stage included a visitor survey and familiarisation visits to all the children’s centres, plus a review of pilot bids and was supplemented by labour market and demographic statistics.
Findings from the baseline stage show that:
- All the pilot areas and children’s centres are well positioned within, and have a good reach into their target communities.
- There is more than sufficient demand among parents who use the children’s centres for both work-focused services, and for having this service located at the children’s centre.
- All the pilot areas have a sound grasp of the aims of the pilot and the majority of the pilot staff are enthusiastic and committed to these aims.
- The majority of pilot staff thought that ‘cultural’ differences between Jobcentre Plus Personal Advisers and children’s centre staff posed the greatest risk to the overall success of the pilot. It was widely thought that differences in working practices, organisational environments and priorities were a risk to the successful integration of the Personal Advisers into the children’s centres.
- Most parents who used the children’s centres were white women, aged between 25 to 34 years, from low-income households, who had at least one child under five years old.
- Some parents with children under five may present greater challenges for the pilot as they don’t necessarily see work as an option in the short to medium term, alongside their primary childcare responsibilities. This suggests the importance of getting these parents to think about, or prepare for their longer-term employment options, along with promoting the benefits and availability of good quality childcare, so that they can consider work as an option once their children start school, or earlier.
- 'Work-Focused Services in Children’s Centres Pilot: Evaluation baseline report' by Rachel Marangozov is published today as part of the DWP Research Summary series (Research Report Number 602). A copy of the report and summary can be downloaded from the Department’s website at: http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rrs-index.asp
- The work-focused services in children’s centres pilot is one of a suite of Child Poverty Pilots that were announced in 2008. It aims to test whether children’s centres can offer an effective means of engaging parents in labour market activity, moving them closer to work and ultimately into employment.
- The pilot is being assessed through a mixed methods impact and implementation evaluation, making use of in-house data and externally commissioned research being carried out by the Institute of Employment Studies (IES).
- The baseline stage of the evaluation included a baseline survey of children’s centre users conducted in partnership with GfK NOP. It involved a face-to-face visitor survey with 1,177 children’s centre users across the 30 children’s centres. Other elements of the baseline study included familiarisation visits with all the children’s centres and a review of the pilot bids. Findings were supplemented by publicly available labour market and demographic statistics.
- An interim report from the evaluation will be available in 2010, with the final evaluation report being produced following the end of the pilot in 2011.
Media Enquiries: 0203 267 5130
Out of hours: 07659 108 883
Website: www.dwp.gov.uk
