As part of its Fairer Start mission, Nesta collaborated with Frame Collective and Cardiff Flying Start to explore families’ journeys through early years services and identify opportunities for innovation.
Between July and August 2023 we undertook qualitative research with 13 parents across two Flying Start sites in Cardiff to understand the dynamics of parent engagement with the service. This report presents the findings from the research. It sheds light on how, why and when families engage with Flying Start services, what motivates, helps and hinders their journeys, and highlights the benefits experienced by children and parents.
Flying Start is a Welsh Government initiative providing a comprehensive and targeted early intervention programme for families with babies and young children (0-4 years) living in economically disadvantaged communities needing support.
What’s in the report
The research focused on several key areas to understand the dynamics of family engagement with Flying Start:
- when, why and how parents engage with Flying Start
- factors that enable and hinder family engagement
- barriers faced by families in accessing the programme
- families’ experiences of using Flying Start
- how families perceive and value Flying Start.
While there is no singular typical journey through the Cardiff Flying Start programme, there are common pathways and touch points across families’ engagement. Parents engage with Flying Start services at different levels and for a variety of reasons. They may aim to improve their parenting skills, support their children’s growth, connect with other parents and feel part of a community.
Parents are motivated by the structure Flying Start brings to their daily lives, the quality of childcare and staff and the sense of community the programme offers.
We identified several key enablers and barriers that influence how parents engage with Flying Start, including supportive relationships and consistent support, convenience and the quality and reputation of settings among others.
We also identified a range of benefits that Cardiff Flying Start has for families, children and parents. These include children feeling happy, safe and enjoying themselves, children’s independence and confidence increase, improved behaviour, general development and school readiness, enabling returning to work, improved parenting skills and wellbeing and stronger social networks.
Findings/recommendations
The report suggests that addressing the following areas could further increase Flying Start’s effectiveness and enhance experiences and outcomes for families using the programme.
Improving communication: improve the availability, accessibility and consistency of information about the programme.
Enhancing support for diverse families: engage more diverse caregivers in the programme, such as fathers and other family members.
Reducing barriers to engagement: address social anxiety and judgement concerns that prevent parents from participating.
Enhancing flexibility and convenience: adjust programme timings and offer more flexible options to accommodate parents' schedules, especially for working parents or those with multiple children.
Addressing information gaps: some parents felt overwhelmed by information initially but under-informed later.
Clarifying support expectations: clear support parameters could manage parents’ expectations and reduce dissatisfaction with services and communication.
Enhancing (awareness of the) availability of crèche facilities: ensure adequate crèche facilities are available and communicated to parents, particularly for those with very young or multiple children.
