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Evaluation

To help Investing in Children move forward with its development we commission external evaluations of the organisation.  The Grit in the Oyster in 2003 helped bring about the Development Agency.  We now need to see how we can best use the recent findings of John Davis at Edinburgh University to our advantage. 

University of Edinburgh: Evaluation

Back in the nineties, in the early days of Investing in Children’s development, we took part in a Council of Europe study entitled “Children at the Dawn of a New Millennium”. We were visited by a group of European academics, one of whom, Per Egil Mjaavatn, described our approach as ‘building the road as we walk along it’. I always thought that this was a polite, almost lyrical way of saying that we were making it up as we went along.

The thing about this remark is that it was true then, and I’d like to think that it has some truth now. I would hope that we had and continue to have a willingness to stand back and reflect, to learn from what works well and what doesn’t, and to change and adapt our practice as a consequence. A crucial part of this process has been our commitment to external scrutiny. In 1999, we commissioned an evaluation from Durham University, written by Fizz Shenton. In 2003, following two years of research, Bill Williamson published a further evaluation entitled ‘Grit in the Oyster’. And now we have a third report, by John Davis from Edinburgh University.

John, who leads the Childhood Studies course at Edinburgh, spent the last year examining the IiC archive, and interviewing IiC staff, partner organisations and children and young people. His report picks up some of the issues in ‘Grit in the Oyster’. Specifically, he sought to address the following questions: 

Is IiC an inclusive organisation?

How effective is it at achieving change?

Does it help to transform society’s perception of children and young people?

Does it contribute to the agenda of its partners?

Does it contribute to the Every Child Matters outcomes?

His findings are:

We now have arrangements in place to monitor the types of young people we work with, and John concludes from this evidence that our practice methods are accessible to, and Investing in Children is working with children and young people from different backgrounds, with different skills and abilities, including traveller, disabled and looked-after children and young people as well as children and young people experiencing social exclusion.

He goes on to ask whether we could do more to influence issues of inclusion in organisations that aren’t partners or members. 

Although he recognises that IiC enables many children and young people to achieve changes in their life circumstances, John suggests that more could be done, particularly by expanding opportunities for children, young people, staff and partners to contribute to the development of the organisation. He also cautions that care is needed to balance the value of our informal, friendly approach against the pressure of becoming a bigger organisation. 

Again, John finds evidence that IiC does contribute to a new ‘emancipatory’ perception of children and young people, but believes that this could and should be extended, and that we should look at ways to support children and young people to impact on the multiple sites in their lives. He also suggests that we should consider how more children and young people could be commissioned to work on the development agenda within IiC. 

In relation to our partners, John concludes that, although in the main we do contribute to their agendas, he suggests that information is more quickly circulated, and that collaboration between partners remains a priority.

The work of IiC can be seen to be contributing to all of the ECM outcomes. 

The full report will shortly be available on our website (iic-uk.org). Alternatively, copies can be obtained by contacting the IiC office. 

The findings of the report will now need to be discussed, and plans made to respond to the challenges raised. We would welcome comment and suggestions. It is also our intention to commission John to do further work, perhaps looking at particular issues in greater detail.   - Liam Cairns, April 2007

The full report will be available to download here soon.

Grit in the Oyster

Final Report of the Evaluation of Investing in Children
By Professor Bill Williamson, School of Education, University of Durham: October 2003.

Executive Summary
This report is of an evaluation of the work of Investing in Children over the period 2000-2003. It is based on conversations, interviews, focus groups, reports and data analysis describing the work of Investing in Children from the point of view of its different stakeholders. The evaluation was designed to be an exercise in learning: to discover from the work of Investing in Children principles of good practice in working with young people to enhance their participation in the civic life of their communities.

The key conclusions set out in the report can be highlighted as follows:

1. Investing in Children is a successful project that has met most of the objectives it was set up to achieve.

2. Investing in Children has been managed in ways that have enabled it to learn a great deal from its own practice. Its work has been open to inspection and widely reported. Colleagues have, in the main, felt well supported and the project has opened up new ideas and ways of working with young people. Central among these is the need to build up frameworks of dialogue through which the voices of young people can be heard.

3. Investing in Children has developed a model of working with young people that is innovative, that strives to be inclusive and which enables those who participate to develop their skills and responsibilities as citizens. Young people engaged with Investing in Children have valued the way it helped them develop skills, understanding and confidence.

4. The work of Investing in Children challenges many features of the ways in which services to young people are delivered. By taking the experience of young people seriously and encouraging them to research and deepen their understanding of the issues that concern them, the project has been an agent of change and service development in County Durham and Darlington.

5. Despite its success, there are several questions that the project has no clear answers for: How inclusive has its work been? How sustainable are its achievements? How well understood are its working methods? How can its work be continued within the complex changes in the policy environment in which services to children and young people are currently being delivered? How far is the current working philosophy of Investing in Children dependent on its current employees? Would the approach of the project be sustainable beyond the involvement of key members of the current staff team or then project's current senior managers and partners?

6. Investing in Children must develop beyond the immediate context of its work if it is to be sustainable in the longer term. It must continue with its methods of partnership working but extend significantly its membership of both regional and national networks - particularly in relation to research and professional development - of practitioners in this field.

7. Investing in Children is an organization that tests the practices and procedures and values of a wide range of organizations that provide services to children. Discussion is needed about how best Investing in Children can itself be tested so that it continues to develop in innovative ways.

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