ESF EVALUATION PARTNERSHIP MEETING 21 March 2014 ESF EXPERT EVALUATION NETWORK: FINAL SYNTHESIS REPORT ON MAIN ESF ACHIEVEMENTS Herta Toedtling-Schoenhofer (Metis) Professor Alan McGregor (University of Glasgow) ESF EVALUATION PARTNERSHIP MEETING 21 March 2014

Overview ESF Expert Evaluation Network is network of evaluation experts covering all 27 Member States (2011-2013) 27 Country Reports around specific policy themes and target groups (Access to employment, Social inclusion, women and young people) Synthesis Reports generating descriptive information, findings and issues across Member States on these key themes Synthesis Reports based entirely on Country Reports Today feeding back on Final Synthesis Report focused on main ESF achievements Report organised around 6 ESF policy fields: increasing adaptability, enhancing access to employment, reinforcing social inclusion, enhancing investment in human capital, promoting partnerships and strengthening institutional capacity

Methods Experts review evaluation evidence and record key findings in Inventory Experts review AIRs to extract statistical and other key sources for data and information Experts prepare Country Reports using above, and generate commentary on range of issues Consistency across country reports achieved through template No primary research involved

Context is Critical Lead up to ESF 2007-2013 period of growing economies, expanding employment and declining unemployment – and ESF designed around these trends Major shift in economic circumstances from 2008 reversing positive labour market trends (SEE CHARTS) Substantial growth in unemployment Major increase in % of population at risk of poverty or social exlcusion Big variations in both of above across Member States Recession makes it harder for ESF to achieve results, but at same time demonstrates need for major investment across EU in appropriate measures

% Change in Unemployment Levels (Aged 15-74), 2007 to 2012

% Change in Population at Risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion, 2007-2012

Responding to Challenges: Outputs and Results (Draft Estimates) Over 68 million participations in ESF supported activity Major volumes engaged from priority groups Over 35.2 million participations involved women Nearly 27.6 million with low levels of educational achievement Over 22.1 million unemployed Over 20.9 million young people Key results include 8.6 million qualifications gained Over 5.7 million job entries Over 400,000 helped into self-employment, or helped to start new enterprise Particularly for social inclusion, fewer hard results available – but for some Member States significant improvements in proportion of young people staying in education or progressing to further education and training

Responding to Challenges: Good Processes Adaptability in responding to recession. Shift towards Promoting access to employment and enterprise starts Supporting young people Working to support mainstream provision Maintaining or increasing mainstream services Increasing intensity or quality of mainstream services Investing in local partnership-based service delivery More joined up service, particularly around social inclusion Building capacity of local partnership organisations Setting and supporting clear and strong priorities Young people, most impacted by recession Women, migrants and ethnic minorities

Responding to Challenges: Scope for Improvement Activity in social inclusion policy field not so effective Poorer targeting of priority groups such as disabled people and those with mental health issues Lower levels of results where engaged Evidence base needs to be improved Limited quantitative evidence on results – but should be fixed for 2014-2020 programming period Limited good quality impact evaluations Few robust assessments of Community Added Value Limited number of evidence-based good practice assessments

Looking Forward Great opportunity to raise effectiveness with ESF 2014-2020 Lessons learned from Expert Evaluation Network (EEN) Lesson learned from Ex Post Evaluation of 2007-2013 ESF Take confidence from considerable contribution made in difficult operating environment facing 2007-2013 ESF Over 5.7 million job entries 2007-2013 Potential to contribute in major way to EU 2020 target of 75% employment rate