Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Taskforce

Main navigation

Research and evaluation

The Adults facing Chronic Exclusion (ACE) programme aims to build up the evidence base on what works to improve outcomes for adults with the most complex needs.

The current system does not always best serve adults with complex and multifaceted needs. This can lead to chaotic adults seeking to access services in a chaotic, crisis-led manner. The pilots will examine the system and implement changes that will help to address both the determinants of chaos within the individual's life, but also improve the structure and accessibility of the services which they use.

The pilots are developing a wide range of different approaches to engage some of the most excluded adults in sustained support. These are being evaluated through a national evaluation, carried out by Matrix.

Research

Two pieces of new research were commissioned to inform the development of the ACE pilots. These helped to identify some of the most common issues faced by adults facing chronic exclusion and some of the problems with current service provision for these groups.

• Paper from the University of Keele [PDF 134KB, 110 pages]
• Paper from the University of Nottingham [PDF 460KB, 110 pages]

Evaluation

The ACE national evaluation is being undertaken by Matrix. The evaluation aims to assess the project process, its impact on outcomes for both service users and services, and the cost effectiveness of the interventions.

The evaluation has three parts:

a) The Process evaluation aims to answer the following questions:

• How did each pilot perform against its initial plan?
• What are the skills, knowledge and capacity required to offer effective services to the client group? How well did the pilots meet these needs?
• Are the models of working demonstrated by the pilots sustainable and able to be generalised, and if so, in what contexts to demonstrate how they could be used more widely?
• What are the specific processes / methods of intervention used by each pilot
• How focused was the pilot on the most excluded clients?

b) The Impact evaluation aims to answer the following questions:

• What were the common and specific outcomes on individuals, families, community?
• What were the user perspectives on the pilots?
• Have the clients of the pilots begun to use services more appropriately than previously?
• Were there common and specific outcomes which relate to local and wider service use?

c) The Economic evaluationaims to answer the following questions:

• What impact did the pilots have on cost (including distribution of costs) in relation to the achievement of outcomes and use of services whilst on the programme and progressing on from the programme?
• Did the pilots demonstrate that money for services could be re-allocated to make local or national savings whilst maintaining or improving outcomes?

More information:

• Evaluation reporting schedule [PDF 33KB, 3 pages]
• Evaluation prospectus [PDF 114KB, 11 pages]

ACE Evaluation Interim Report

The ACE national evaluation is being undertaken by Matrix. An interim report has been produced which assesses the progress of the pilots as a programme, detailing intervention costs, process mapping and initial findings on the impact on use of services by ACE clients.

The full and final report, including cost-benefit calculations, will be published in September 2010.

• ACE Evaluation Interim Report [PDF, 803KB]