Working together for Cambridgeshire Early Years
We have just completed the latest stage of a project that has been running intermittently with Cambridgeshire County Council since February 2016. Faced with budget cuts to the Early Years sector the council approached us to help them explore different ways of being able to support the affected settings. We were delighted to have the opportunity to work alongside the authority and support them through this challenging task.
The project began with an online survey and 4 focus groups to determine what services were most valued by the settings, how receptive they might be to the idea of a membership scheme and how they might envisage such a scheme. Aided by our findings, the council developed a membership scheme. We then held a further 3 focus groups to present the proposed scheme and receive feedback. Adjustments were made to the scheme based on the feedback received from these groups and the membership was implemented in Summer 2016.
A few months after the scheme had been introduced the council asked us to conduct further research to establish whether the membership scheme had been well received. To achieve this, we conducted another online survey alongside 10 depth interviews and a further 2 focus groups. The scheme had generally been well received but some valuable suggestions were made as to how it could be improved.
We thoroughly enjoyed this project. Been able to see and understand the situation from both perspectives (in this case the authority’s and the settings’) is one of the great perks of being a researcher.
More information on the Cambridgeshire County Council Early Years department can be viewed here.
More information on the Cambridgeshire County Council Early Years Membership Scheme can be viewed here.
