Evaluability assessment of Flying Start

This report explores the Flying Start programme and its rationale, how it can be evaluated and what might need to change for more robust and reliable evaluations to be conducted.

At present, what can be, or already is, known about the programme is based on:

the differences between Flying Start areas and non Flying Start areas for some of the intended outcomes
the changes in some of the intended outcomes for Flying Start and non Flying Start areas after the intervention had been operating for a number of years
parents’ and stakeholders’ perceptions of the programme, its specific entitlements and their perceived barriers to engagement.

While these topics are of interest, and can provide useful information, they do not provide sufficient information to fully assess the effects of the programme on families, parents and children.

Several evaluations of the programme have been conducted since 2009 with a variety of methodologies, but to date there has been no coherent evaluability assessment of the programme.

Reports