Link the outcomes of the funded service(s) into strategic local and
national outcomes
Introduction
This note provides examples of how others have linked advice service to national and local
outcomes.
This note remains under review and we welcome any feedback on its contents or
suggestions of additional material to include. Contact details are provided under “Further
support”.
Contents
Link the outcomes of the funded service(s) into strategic local and national outcomes ......... 1
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1
Practice examples: Single Outcome Agreement analysis .................................................. 3
Purpose ......................................................................................................................... 3
Benefits .......................................................................................................................... 3
Limitations...................................................................................................................... 3
Analysis and examples .................................................................................................. 3
Further support .............................................................................................................. 4
Date of last revision ....................................................................................................... 4
Case study: Making Advice Work evaluation ..................................................................... 5
Purpose ......................................................................................................................... 5
Benefits .......................................................................................................................... 5
Specific contribution of advice to national outcomes ...................................................... 5
Limitations...................................................................................................................... 5
Making Advice Work evaluation methodology ................................................................ 5
We live longer, healthier lives......................................................................................... 6
We have tackled the significant inequalities in Scottish society ...................................... 8
We have improved the life chances for children, young people and families at risk ........ 9
We have strong, resilient and supportive communities where people take responsibility
for their own actions and how they affect others........................................................... 10
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Further support ............................................................................................................ 10
Date of last revision ..................................................................................................... 10
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Practice examples: Single Outcome Agreement analysis
Purpose
This section provides a collated link to examples of Single Outcome Agreements (SOA’s)
from 2013 where advice services have been included as contributing towards strategic
outcomes.
Benefits
The section demonstrates the range of ways services are linked to strategic outcomes at the
local level, providing evidence that advice contributes across a range of priority policy areas.
Limitations
This section does not focus on the national level or justice outcomes. The case study on the
Making Advice Work evaluation looks at these.
Analysis and examples
SLAB’s analysis of SOA’s agreed in 2013 found that 20 out of 32 included a reference to
advice, mainly in the context of welfare reform, reducing poverty and health inequalities and
homelessness.
Where a page number is referenced, this relates to the page in the PDF, rather than any
page numbering on the document, as highlighted in the red circle.
Local authority area
Aberdeenshire
Dundee City
East Ayrshire
East Dunbartonshire
East Lothian
East Renfrewshire
Edinburgh
Example and reference
Information and advice services linked to tackling unemployment,
poverty and inequalities (p.20) and to reducing health inequalities
(p.27-28)
Access to debt/benefit advice linked to tackling social inequalities
(p.8) and noted as a cross-cutting theme (p.36) with strong links
to the fairness strategy and action plan (p.88)
Advice as a way to address health and health inequalities
through financial inclusion, debt and benefits advice (p.17-18)
Addressing health inequalities through income maximisation
advice programmes (p.33)
Debt and money advice are set out as ways to ensure more
people are financially secure and not in poverty (p.15) with
indicators (p.31)
Income maximisation services help to address underlying needs
of women offenders (p.27)
Advice services are noted as being impacted by welfare reform
(p.27) with advice specifically referenced as helping prevent
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Local authority area
Falkirk
Fife
Glasgow City
Highland
Inverclyde
Midlothian
North Lanarkshire
Perth and Kinross
Renfrewshire
Scottish Borders
Shetland Islands
South Lanarkshire
West Lothian
Example and reference
people losing their home, or helping them move if they need to
(p.28)
Advice is a key activity contributing to fairness (p.24), with
outcomes and indicators (p.39-40)
The prevention plan includes advice to prevent homelessness
(p.42-43)
Housing, debt advice and income maximisation services to
address key areas of vulnerability – homelessness and in-work
poverty (p.25), with the financial inclusion strategy, which covers
advice and representation services, linked to tackling health
inequalities (p.60)
Reducing health inequalities by reducing poverty and
disadvantage through advice (p.117; p.121); for older people
money advice is also set out under reducing inequalities; and
advice seen as a preventative approach to deal with problems
arising from welfare reform (p.198)
Income inequality and the effects of welfare reform are to be
tackled through the Financial Inclusion Partnership – which
includes a focus on debt and benefits advice (p.12; p.92-3)
Benefits advice to tackle financial inclusion for people with care
needs (p.10), while the section focusing on reducing inequalities
references the financial inclusion network’s action plan (p.53)
Advice services are a key part of the plan to address the cross
cutting theme of welfare reform (p.33)
Income maximisation to address fuel poverty is linked to longer,
healthier lives for all (p.32)
Advice and advocacy services are part of the vision for
empowering communities, including in terms of promoting
volunteering and community engagement (p.43-44)
Advice as part of prevention approach in welfare reform
mitigation (p.48) and debt advice to address money issues for
social landlord tenants (p.50), with financial inclusion highlighted
under the older people’s independent living outcome (p.23).
Income maximisation advice to address inequalities by mitigating
welfare reform, with indicators (p.27)
Advice as part of preventative approach to tackling poverty by
building resilience, as well as dealing with crisis, in the context of
welfare reform (p.24)
Anti-poverty strategy “Better Off” is a cross cutting approach
(p.21), which includes advice and is the subject of an
Improvement Service case study. Preventing evictions through
the Advice Shop is an indicator under reduced health inequalities
and living longer, healthier lives (p.44)
Further support
If you have any comments on the analysis, please contact John Osborne, SLAB, Tel. 0131
240 1889, email John.
Date of last revision
15th January 2015
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Case study: Making Advice Work evaluation
Purpose
This section provides a case study of how advice on debt and welfare benefits contributes to
the Scottish Government’s national outcomes, through the evaluation of Streams 1 and 2 of
the Making Advice Work programme.
Benefits
The section demonstrates the range of ways advice services contribute to strategic
outcomes at the national level, providing evidence that advice contributes across a range of
priority policy areas.
It also provides information about the methods used for collecting evidence about outcomes
achieved for service users.
The client survey work may now act as a baseline for further work nationally and locally to
better understand the performance of advice services.
Specific contribution of advice to national outcomes
The MAW Streams 1 and 2 programme evaluation demonstrated a contribution by advice to
a number of the Scottish Government’s sixteen national outcomes,1 specifically:
 We live longer, healthier lives.
 We have tackled the significant inequalities in Scottish society.
 We have improved the life chances for children, young people and families at risk.
 We have strong, resilient and supportive communities where people take
responsibility for their own actions and how they affect others.
Limitations
This note does not explore different kinds of outcomes, which are set out in the note on
achieving positive outcomes for people experiencing problems.
Making Advice Work evaluation methodology
The evaluation used project data returns, project narrative reports, an online survey of social
landlords and a telephone survey of project service users to build up a rich picture of the
work of the programme and how people benefitted from advice.
The telephone survey of service users is referred to as the ‘client survey’ below. We
received contact details for 3,021 clients and achieved 664 interviews, giving a good
response rate of 22%.
More information about the methodology can be found in the evaluation report. The
questionnaires used for the client survey are appended here.
1
As set out at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/outcome
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We live longer, healthier lives
Evidence strongly suggests that there are social determinants of health involving income,
stress and a sense of control2 – for all of which advice may have a positive contribution.
The client survey results suggest – as presented in Graph 1 and
Table 1 – that, even when people report their financial situation has not markedly changed,
they feel more in control.
In
Table 1, the blue shading gets darker where a higher proportion of respondents fall into that
section.
There are similar, albeit less pronounced effects across other wellbeing statements, such as
worrying less and sleeping better.
These results provide evidence that receiving advice has a positive impact on clients’
wellbeing that goes beyond the specific advice outcome being achieved for them.
Graph 1: Report of financial situation against agreement with statement “I now feel more in
control of my financial situation”3
For example, “Poor health is not simply due to diet, smoking or other life style choices,
people's aspirations - sense of control and cultural factors have an effect” from:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/indicator/generalhealth
3
Client survey: all survey respondents excluding don’t know and not applicable. Sample
size n=628, with “neither agree nor disagree” responses excluded from the graph.
2
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Table 1: Report of financial situation against agreement with statement “I now feel more in
control of my financial situation”4
Thinking about your overall financial situation now, is it
better, worse or about the same as when you first
sought advice or information?
a) Much
better
I now feel more in Agree
control of my
strongly
financial situation Tend to
Agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Tend to
disagree
Disagree
strongly
b) A little
better
c) About
the same
d) A little
worse
e) Much
worse
12%
13%
15%
1%
1%
4%
9%
14%
1%
1%
0%
4%
8%
1%
2%
0%
1%
2%
1%
0%
0%
1%
3%
1%
5%
Client survey: all survey respondents excluding don’t know and not applicable. Sample size
n=628.
4
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We have tackled the significant inequalities in Scottish society
Boosting income contributes to the Scottish Government’s outcomes in relation to tackling
inequalities and improving health.
There is a difference between how advisers and service users see client financial gain.
Projects report that they have achieved client financial gains of around £9 million in total over
the period from 1st October 2013 to 31st August 2014.
However, 70% (n=481) of all respondents to the client survey (n=664), as set out in
Graph 2 split by debt and benefits problems, reported that their income overall has not
increased and they do not expect it to increase.
Graph 2: Clients reporting increased income5
For debt advice specifically, comparable research6 showed 12% of clients reported an
improvement in income, which is in line with our findings7. For benefits advice, there may be
a number of factors influencing the proportion of people reporting increased income.
Firstly, where benefits have been stopped, delayed or reduced, resolution of the problem will
mean a reinstatement of the previous position rather than an increase in income. Secondly,
many respondents cited “bedroom tax” as the reason for seeking advice, the resolution of
which may not have been viewed as income for them, but rather as a payment for their
landlord. Lastly, as 14% (n=93) of respondents to the client survey noted that job loss or a
reduction in hours prompted them to seek advice, securing new or increased benefit
payments may not mean that a client’s overall income has increased.
Client survey: all survey respondents. Sample sizes: Debt n=153, Benefits n=511.
The Money Advice Service Debt Advice Review 2013/14 (Optimisa Research)
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/files/optimisa-final-quant-report-jul-2014.pdf
7
Income maximisation advice was noted as being offered to a proportion of debt clients in
the client survey (46% of debt clients, n=71).
5
6
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We have improved the life chances for children, young people and families at risk
One of the pillars of the Scottish Governments approach to improved outcomes from public
services is prevention, which will contribute to reducing inequalities, improving health and
improving life chances for children, young people and families at risk.
As presented in Graph 3, advice can contribute to a preventative approach by improving
clients’ confidence and resilience in dealing with future problems.
Graph 3: Agree / disagree with statements relating to future planning and confidence 8
Excluding those who said that the statement did not apply to them, we can see that the
majority of clients responded positively to statements that relate to future resilience and
confidence. This provides evidence that advisers are taking an assets-based approach with
clients – building on their strengths to equip them to deal with potential future challenges.
Client survey: all survey respondents. Sample sizes (n) vary due to exclusion of “don’t
know” or “not applicable” from analysis. Bars do not add up to 100%, as “neither agree nor
disagree” is not presented in graph.
8
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We have strong, resilient and supportive communities where people take
responsibility for their own actions and how they affect others
Helping people to resolve problems they face is of fundamental importance to the provision
of advice generally, and is part of the contribution towards achieving strong, resilient and
supportive communities – being a key measure of success in the Justice Dashboard under
“Our institutions and processes are effective and efficient”.
The extent to which clients report being satisfied with the outcome of their case or the
perceived fairness of the outcome is patterned by whether the advice resolved their problem.
Table 2 sets out how the extent to which benefit problems were resolved impacts on the
level of satisfaction client survey respondents expressed about the end result.
Table 2: Problem resolution by agreement with statement, “I was satisfied with the end result”9
Resolved fully or partially
Did not resolve the problem
Not relevant
%
Absolute
All agree All disagree
All agree All disagree
95%
5%
269
14
31%
69%
18
40
82%
18%
9
2
Further support
If you wish to find out more about the MAW Streams 1 and 2 evaluation and how it may be
relevant to your work, please contact John Osborne, SLAB, Tel. 0131 240 1889, email
John.
Date of last revision
16th January 2015
Client survey: all respondents who identified experiencing one or more specific debt or
benefits problems, excluding “don’t know” and “neither agree nor disagree”. Sample size
n=352.
9
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