On page thirty-nine of the Mid-term Review of the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020 – 2025 the Department of Social Protection notes that “A 30-month pilot project, Lone Parents Digital Activation, commenced in November 2021 in the North-East region led by the Department of Social Protection partnering with One Family, with funding from the EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI).”
The EU Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) “is a financing instrument at EU level to promote a high level of quality and sustainable employment, guaranteeing adequate and decent social protection, combating social exclusion and poverty and improving working conditions.”
Amongst the programme’s objectives are to “Strengthen ownership of EU objectives and coordination of action at EU and national level in the areas of employment, social affairs and inclusion.” They also note that EaSI will “combat discriminations, promote a high level of quality and sustainable employment, guarantee adequate and decent social protection, combat long-term unemployment, fight against poverty and social exclusion.”
On Monday October 16th, 2023, the Department of Social Protection (DSP) organised a seminar in Dundalk, Co. Louth on this project, its evaluation and the learning arising. In their presentation the Department noted that the EU EaSI Transnational Lone Parent Digital Programme “aims to pilot a tailored and holistic approach to delivering employment supports for a particularly vulnerable group; Lone Parents”.
The stated aim is:
- The development of services to enhance the employability and social inclusion of Lone parents.
- To best support individual income supports, labour market activation and access to quality social services.
- The delivery of specific employability and life skills courses targeted at Lone Parents. Collaboration with NGO Partner One Family and EU Partners, Finland and Greece.
The key deliverables were identified under two headings: Innovation and Target Group. Under Innovation, the “Development and implementation of a new Profiling and Distance Travelled Tool to better assess Lone Parents particular needs and barriers and to track progression for each participant” was noted. Under Target Group, it was noted that participation would be voluntary. Of the hundred/hundred and twenty participants, forty would work with the DSP over eighteen months; and sixty would work with One Family over twenty-four months. The participants must live in the North East Region, be parenting alone, and in receipt of a social welfare payment.
The DSP worked with the same group of thirty-six people over the eighteen months, this consisted of two phases of a bespoke programme developed by the Cavan Monaghan Education and Training Board (CMETB), with follow-up work and interventions. As the programme was delivered digitally, a Tablet Loan Scheme was created. To support the evaluation of this programme, a control group was established who went through the DSP’s standard activation model. One of the findings was unsurprising, and that was the poor response to the initial letter that was sent out, the DSP realised that a more focused, active, and informative recruitment process was required.
At the event in Dundalk, the DSP provided some progression comparators including:
- The overall progression rate for people who went through the EaSI activation model was 53% in comparison to an overall progression rate of 24% for people in the standard activation model.
- 28% of people who went through the EaSI model are working in comparison to 5% of people who went through the DSP’s standard model of activation.
- Only 11% of participants opted out of the EaSI model in comparison to a rate of 67% of people who went through the standard activation model.
- Education was one area that was different, with 14% of those who went through the standard activation model going into further education in comparison to 8% of those who went through the EaSI activation model.
Cavan Monaghan Education and Training Board (CMETB) and One Family also gave presentations at the event in October. Further information on One Family’s New Steps and New Futures programmes can be found on their website (linked here).