Advicenow worked with Afghan Association Paiwand, Community Links, and Disability Law Service to design and pilot a PLE course for users of the advice services.
The evaluation report assessed the effectiveness of the course, considering if the course improved people’s ability to deal with legal issues, and the potential for PLE to have positive social and economic outcomes.
The report used the PLE evaluation framework which had been developed by Advicenow and the University of Bristol and reported on its usefulness in assessing PLE activities.
Key findings
When compared to people who did not attend the course, people were more able to deal with legal issues - they had a marked improvement in legal capability. They were more able to recognise that issues had a legal dimension and felt more confident in dealing with the issues and / or seeking help.
The course was an accessible and relatively low-cost way to deliver PLE. It was an effective way of helping agency service users develop their legal capabilities.
It was not possible to assess the impact of PLE on wider socio-economic outcomes. To assess this impact would mean doing longer term research to identify social and economic effects and link these to the PLE course.
The PLE evaluation framework was valuable for agencies planning and delivering PLE, and for assessing PLE’s impact. The project resources could be used by other agencies. New PLE initiatives would still require ongoing support from Advicenow.
Conclusions and recommendations
The pilot should be extended to a wider range of agencies, especially agencies working with groups outside of the pilot, e.g. young people. Advicenow should provide ongoing support to agencies in delivering PLE.
A short guide to the legal capability ideas used in the evaluation should be produced.
The questionnaires should be adapted to form templates which other agencies could use to evaluate their PLE work.
The questionnaires are affordable and useful but should be adapted to deal with the cognitive bias seen in some questions, e.g. those about how well participants dealt with past issues. It may be better for Advicenow to act as a central body for running evaluations.
Robust evaluation methodologies should be developed which also enable agencies to conduct their PLE work easily and efficiently.
Longitudinal research should be developed to enable measures of socioeconomic outcomes and assess any causal links to PLE provision.
Methodology
People who took the course completed pre and post course questionnaires. To establish a control group, partner agencies asked service users who did not take the course to also complete these questionnaires.
Evaluators observed training sessions, held informal talks with participants and agency colleagues, and interviewed partner organisations.
