This project is at the centre of a wide evaluation package that supports the national priority to eradicate child poverty. Findings will feed into specific and practical policy design and implementation. This includes informing delivery of the Fairer Futures Partnerships and the development of the third and final delivery plan to eradicate child poverty.
In this highly sensitive and fast paced environment, the intern will be strongly supported by the Poverty and Place-based Research Team. The team provides social research and analytical support on poverty policies, with a primary focus on child poverty. Policies to tackle child poverty are wide ranging and sit across different government departments. As such, the intern will have the opportunity to collaborate with analytical and policy colleagues across Scottish Government.
The aim of this particular project is to better understand alignment across local and national approaches to system change, and alignment and join up across different initiatives (both nationally and locally). A series of case studies will explore the meaning of system change in different local contexts, the extent to which initiatives work together to effect system change and how this can be evidenced, and will uncover barriers and facilitators to system change and its sustainability.
The project will allow the intern to further develop a wide range of social research skills. In particular, they will contribute to case study research in relevant local areas. This will provide the intern with opportunities to collect, analyse and report on qualitative data from key stakeholders (e.g. Scottish Government policy/analytical colleagues, local project leads, service providers, service users). This will entail: assisting with data collection; developing a coding framework for analysis; and drawing out key findings.
The intern will develop a key findings document from this work. The output is expected to be of high quality to allow publication on the Scottish Government website. In addition, there will also be opportunities to present the key findings to Scottish Government analytical and policy colleagues and key local stakeholders.