CLES Evaluation Executive Summary Report

Section 1 – Introduction

Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire is one of 14 Groundwork Trusts across the UK that are being evaluated under the 2007/08 phase of the impact evaluation process. This process has been developed over a number of years by Groundwork UK and CLES Consulting, and allows for the testing of up to nine impact evaluation measures that correspond with Groundwork’s priority areas – people, places and prosperity. These measures, together with a wide range of primary and secondary information, enable quantitative as well as qualitative data about performance and impact to be gathered and collated.

Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire was established in 1995; although project activity was originally focused solely on Coventry, the Trust’s geographical coverage was expanded in 2001 to include Warwickshire, particularly the more deprived former coalfield areas to the north of the county. There are currently 21 full-time and six part-time members of staff; although the number of staff has declined somewhat over recent years, recruitment is ongoing, as is the search for new Board members, particularly those from the private sector. The Trust is fortunate in having significant reserves, and made an operational surplus in 2006/07. However, the current financial climate within which it is operating is a challenging one – public funding is declining and increasingly difficult to source, and the Trust’s forward order book for 2008/09 is relatively weak compared to previous years.

The Trust is strategically well placed in Coventry, with the Executive Director leading the Environment Theme Group of the Coventry Partnership, the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) for the city. Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire activities contribute to a range of relevant strategies, including the city’s Local Area Agreement (LAA), Community Plan, Green Space Strategy, Play Strategy, and (draft) Sustainable Communities Strategy. The Trust’s strategic focus has been more successfully implemented in Coventry than in Warwickshire, where there are multi-layered levels of governance, and the strategic context is harder to negotiate. The Trust has largely concentrated its strategic activity towards the County Council, including contributing to the county’s Regeneration and Competitiveness Strategy and Climate Change Strategy.

Section 2 – Methodology

The methodology adopted to assess the impact of Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire involved the following areas of research.

•  Desk review. A review of available secondary data was undertaken, including: the Trust’s Action Plan, Annual Reports and Business Plans; marketing and publicity materials; information on the Trust’s organisational performance; and programme/project information, such as funding bids, monitoring returns, and previous evaluation reports. The desk review also considered contextual information, including data on local need (for example, IMD data), and a range of strategic documentation.
• Consultation. Interviews were conducted with Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire staff and Board members, other strategic and delivery partners (including representatives from Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council), the local resident and business communities, and project partners and beneficiaries.
• Individual project reviews. In-depth research was undertaken into three individual projects delivered by Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire, selected from a shortlist provided by the Trust in order to reflect the full breadth of its activities. The reviews undertook a detailed exploration of the economic, environmental and social impacts of project activities, and (where appropriate) captured data to populate the impact evaluation performance measures. The intention was to capture wider learning to inform the future work of the Trust, identifying both best practice and areas of relative weakness or opportunity.

Section 3 – Project reviews

The three projects selected for review were Active Meadowlands, RAPP, and Business Bridge-it.

 Active Meadowlands

Active Meadowlands is situated in the Radford Diamond, one of Coventry’s most deprived areas. The site had previously been waste ground and something of a ‘no-go’ area for many local people. Following consultation with the local community, and in partnership with a range of relevant agencies, Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire led the development of a multi-use games area, the only sports and activity facility in the local area. The site benefits from a dedicated Development Officer, a Groundwork employee who leads a range of sports activity sessions, helps to train and support volunteers working with young people using the site, and works with partners to stage the annual Meadowland Games.

The project has generated a number of important outcomes including increased participation in sport and physical activity, a significant reduction in anti-social behaviour, and educational and community benefits. The project has provided a hook to engage hard to reach young people in meaningful activity, thereby building their self-esteem and sense of belonging. Partnership working has been strong, and although it has proved challenging to interest all groups within the local community, the project has worked hard to engage residents. The use of volunteers will help to ensure the longer term sustainability of the project, enabling supervised sports activities to continue without the need for significant on-going revenue funding.

RAPP

The Retention, Achievement and Progression Project (RAPP) was a school-based intervention aimed at preventing 14-16 year olds in danger of dropping out at school from becoming NEET (not in employment, education and training). Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire worked with Henley College to deliver the project at three Coventry schools, utilising a ‘disguised learning’ approach to embed basic skills development within wider team building and other activities.

The young people participating gained qualifications through the project, and the majority have avoided becoming NEET, either continuing in education or training, or gaining employment. Project beneficiaries developed their practical, social and emotional skills, with outcomes including enhanced motivation and aspirations, improved communication and team working skills, and a reduction in the incidence of negative behaviour inside school. A bid for Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funding for a further RAPP course has recently been developed, but little progress was made in mainstreaming the project. Although resource intensive, RAPP provides good value for money – whilst the up-front investment is significant, the cost savings downstream, in terms of diverting young people from becoming NEET, can more than compensate.

Business Bridge-it

The Business Bridge-it project is an environmental business support intervention with a focus on manufacturing industries. It works to improve the competitiveness of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region, and is delivered by Groundwork West Midlands Environmental Business Services (EBS), a joint venture owned by the four West Midlands-based Groundwork Trusts. Activities undertaken include environmental awareness raising seminars, training schemes, and direct assistance to firms; the intention is to bridge the gap between the current position of a company and legal and best practice requirements with regard to environmental performance.

A total of 106 Coventry and Warwickshire businesses have been supported by the project, with reported outcomes including lower emissions, cost savings resulting from reduced energy consumption, enhanced competitiveness and supply chain benefits as a result of businesses becoming more environmentally sustainable, improved public image, compliance with environmental legislation and regulations, and improved health and safety. The project is in the process of being mainstreamed under the business simplification agenda, and funding is being sought from Advantage West Midlands (AWM) to assist in this transition process. However, there are concerns that the new model may not adequately meet the needs of businesses towards the micro end of the SME sector, many of whom require intensive ‘hand holding’ support, and that this might result in reduced future take up of programme services.

Section 4 – Making a difference: the impact of Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire on people, places and prosperity

There is clear evidence from the evaluation that Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire is making a positive contribution towards the strategic aims of people, places and prosperity.

• Impact on people. Two main areas of the Trust’s new Action Plan contribute to its ‘people’ impacts: the Skills and Learning theme; and the Children and Young People theme. The skills and learning expertise of Trust staff is widely recognised, and in particular the success with which they have embedded essential skills development within a range of different interventions. Activities include support for community and voluntary groups to assist their development and sustainability, taster sessions for people who have been bypassed by learning or who have never been engaged in learning at all, and thematic learning focused on specific topic areas such as improving health or developing digital media skills. The Trust’s Children and Young People project work includes: environmental education activities delivered to teachers and young people; focused work to engage 13-19 year olds at risk of exclusion from school or becoming NEET; activities to divert young people away from negative behaviour; the prevention of obesity and related illness through the promotion of physical activity and healthier diets; and the development of sports volunteering programmes.

Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire’s work to support and improve service provision also generates significant people impacts. This is particularly so for its ‘two-way capacity building’ activity, which is intended to build capacity amongst service provider staff and uses the Trust’s strong understanding of local need to support providers who may be less well linked into the local community.

• Impact on places. The emphasis of Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire’s early work was towards places activity, with environmental impacts prioritised. The Trust’s strong reputation in this area continues, with two themes of the Action Plan particularly relevant.

Under the first, Communities and Green Space, the Trust has considerable expertise in engaging local communities in neighbourhood planning work, much of which has taken place in deprived areas of Coventry and Warwickshire. It has undertaken landscaping work on business premises, multi-use games areas and school grounds, and worked on a number of public art installations.

The second area of the Action Plan, Sustainable Development, Environmental Inequity and Climate Change, is a key growth area for the Trust, albeit a relatively new one. Initial activity has focused on engaging and educating local people and organisations in order to reduce their negative environmental impact. The development of ‘natural’ play areas is also central to the Trust’s work, with impacts maximised through environmentally themed activities staged occasionally at the sites, alongside the delivery of basic training to help parents support their children’s play more effectively.

• Impact on prosperity. Much of the people-focused work of Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire also contributes to its prosperity impacts – for example, there is a direct correlation between the development of new skills and enhanced employability. However, the Trust has few projects that are overtly focused on helping people back into employment, and it does not support an intermediate labour market (ILM) programme. Such programmes are resource intensive and potentially risky, but the Trust may want to research the market to see if there is sufficient demand to warrant developing appropriate interventions, drawing on best practice from other Groundwork Trusts as appropriate.

Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire is tied in to regional EBS delivery structures, and outside of the Business Bridge-it project it does not have a particular focus on business customers. There may be the potential to do more at the local level (for example, offering recycling services to businesses), but this might require significant up-front investment. New activity under the Sustainable Development, Environmental Inequity and Climate Change theme may also present opportunities to work more closely with businesses, including offering advice and providing training in specific areas.

Section 5 – Creating the conditions for positive impact: how Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire delivers its activities

The impact evaluation considered the way in which the Trust delivers its activities, looking at issues such as partnership working, linkages with the Coventry LAA and LSP, current evaluation mechanisms, and the extent to which the Trust’s work embraces innovative practice and builds on previous learning. The evaluation also explored the impact of the Trust in the areas of greatest need within Coventry and Warwickshire, the added value it generates, and issues of sustainability. The Trust’s commitment to equality and diversity was examined, as was the integrity and professionalism with which it conducts its activities.

The impact evaluation score for Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire is presented in this section of the report; it is designed to provide an ‘at a glance’ summary of the Trust’s key strengths and weaknesses, and to provide a consistent mechanism for reviewing impact performance across the Groundwork Federation. The score is based on seven measures, with each measure having a maximum possible score of 5; the individual scores for the seven measures are combined to provide an overall score for the Trust. The measures, with scores for Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire given in parenthesis, are: quantitative performance (4); qualitative performance (4); areas of greatest need (4); added value (4); sustainability of impact (2); effective processes (2); and strategic contribution (4).

The overall score achieved by Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire was 3.4, equivalent to 68%; it has achieved good impacts and is generally performing well. The Trust works effectively with its current partners and is strategically well-placed in Coventry; it is viewed as a highly professional organisation, bringing considerable added value to the interventions it is involved in. However, there is some scope to develop wider and deeper partnership relationships, which should increase the overall impact the Trust is having across its priority areas, and may help it to target geographies in those parts of Warwickshire where it is currently less active. A stronger focus on the sustainability of projects would also benefit longer term impact, particularly if the Trust placed a greater emphasis on the mainstreaming potential of its projects. In terms of wider sustainability as an organisation, and in the context of the funding challenges faced, the Trust needs to reduce its public sector dependency, seeking out greater private sector support and exploring more entrepreneurial approaches to delivery where appropriate; the relatively risk averse nature of the Trust currently militates against this. The Trust does not have a strong evaluation culture, and as a result has little evidence to demonstrate the impact of its various projects. Effective evaluation would also highlight learning to inform the design and delivery of future interventions, and enable the Trust to disseminate more effectively the best practice and innovative approaches that characterise much of its work.

Many of the process improvements suggested in this section require resourcing, both financially and in terms of staff time. Currently, the Trust has a number of vacancies in key positions, and there are skills gaps that urgently need filling. Although one option is to leave these posts vacant for now, new staff (and Board members) could help to address some of the identified issues, including building new partnership relations with both public and private sector organisations, investing in robust evaluation in order to evidence impact and inform ongoing development, and marketing the Trust’s activities and impacts more effectively.

Section 6 – Looking ahead: areas for development and opportunities for the future

The final section of the report reflects on the evaluation findings in order to highlight areas of good practice, areas for development, and key opportunities for the future. The Trust is currently at a pivotal point in its existence, and although it faces challenging times ahead, they are nevertheless exciting ones. The commitment and expertise of the Trust’s staff is a key asset – if retention rates can be improved, and new recruits successfully targeted, Groundwork’s impact in Coventry and Warwickshire should continue to grow.

Key areas of good practice

• Thematic expertise. The Trust is well known for its expertise in skills and learning and arts/multi-media project work. On the former, innovative approaches have been utilised to embed essential skills development into project work. The Trust’s use of the creative arts to promote learning and self-expression has proved particularly successful in engaging hard to reach young people.

• Community engagement and capacity building. The Trust has adopted a sophisticated approach to community engagement and capacity building through its emphasis on ‘two-way capacity building’. Mainstream providers are keen to improve their service delivery at the neighbourhood level, and the Trust can do much to help them develop stronger relationships with local communities.

•  Strategic positioning. The Trust is strategically well-placed in Coventry, with its Executive Director a central contributor to the development and delivery of key local strategies. Although the strategic positioning of the Trust is weaker in Warwickshire than in Coventry, this is in part a reflection of the relative affluence of much of the county in comparison to the city.

Key areas for development

• Funding and income streams. A lack of capacity amongst the Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire management team limits the fundraising activities that can be undertaken, with only a small number of people responsible for writing funding bids or sourcing additional income from the private sector or commercial activity. In addition, although the Trust is clearly valued by partners, there is a sense in which its activity is taken for granted – success in drawing in income from outside sources in order to deliver projects can lead to the Trust being seen as something of a free resource.

• Building the Trust’s ‘prosperity’ impacts. Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire might do more to maximise its impacts in the prosperity domain. At the individual level, the Trust might consider delivering a wider range of accredited qualifications, and possibly developing an employment training programme or ILM. For businesses, although the regional EBS delivery model makes it difficult for the Trust to go out alone, it could examine if there is demand amongst Coventry and Warwickshire businesses for supplementary services that the Trust might be able to deliver.

• Developing an evaluation culture. Although some external evaluation support will probably remain necessary, the Trust should be looking to evaluate its project work internally as robustly as possible, drawing on external contractors as necessary to help build the necessary capacity within the Trust to undertake this effectively.

• Promotion and marketing. The Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire ‘brand’ needs to be promoted more successfully, to achieve wider recognition and ensure that local residents recognise the Trust’s role in leading community-based projects. In addition, more effort needs to be put into promoting the Trust to potential private sector supporters. In order to address current deficits in this area, it might be worthwhile creating a dedicated staff role to take responsibility for implementation of the new marketing and communications plan prioritised in the Trust’s Action Plan.

Key opportunities for the future

• Implementing the Action Plan. The new Action Plan developed by Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire sets out the forward direction the Trust intends to follow over the next few years. It is designed to link in closely with the structure and priorities of the Coventry Partnership and LAA, and should position the Trust to take advantage of new commissioning arrangements under the LAA. The climate change agenda represents a key opportunity, given its cross-cutting nature and its growing importance in terms of local strategy and delivery. The Trust also has long-standing experience to contribute to the LAA cleaner, safer and greener neighbourhoods and public spaces priority, and to the health, well-being and obesity agenda in the city. Central government’s focus on place-shaping also represents an opportunity for the Trust, especially given the contribution it might make to Coventry City Council’s plans to implement a number of major housing developments in the near future.

• Building existing and new partnerships. In order to maximise the benefits to be gained from implementing the Action Plan, Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire should look to work more closely with its current partners, and particularly with the County Council. However, it will also need to establish strong relationships with a number of new partners; in particular, if the full potential of the Children and Young People and Skills and Learning themes is to be realised, fruitful partnerships will need to be established with the LEA and Children and Young People’s Partnership, and with local colleges and the LSC. Wider partnerships could also be built with the private sector, seeking greater support in terms of input to the Board, financial sponsorship, and other forms of in-kind help.

• Location. Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire is currently based in a rural area to the north west of Coventry. Although this helps to demonstrate its commitment to Warwickshire as a whole, stakeholders commented that it leads to a perception that the Trust is isolated from its partners. The location also presents some physical barriers to development – it is very difficult to run activities such as an active volunteering programme or ILM on-site, due to the difficulty in getting people to Old Hall Farm where the Trust is situated. The Trust is considering moving back into Coventry once the lease on its current offices is up for renewal, an opportunity that consultees for the impact evaluation thought would be well worth taking.

Groundwork Coventry & Warwickshire
Old Hall Farm
Whitestitch Lane
Packington
Coventry  CV7 7JE

T 01676 524320
F 01676 524350
E co@groundwork.org.uk