Evaluation of strengths and weaknesses

• Author: Applica, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (European Commission), Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)
• Pages: 36-42

Case studies on the effectiveness of funding programmes – Key findings and study reports

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The main focus is on helping recently arrived EU citizens and their families, as well as

homeless people, to access the regular assistance system such as migration counselling,

medical services, socio-psychiatric services, youth welfare offices and support services for

the homeless41. The approach with regard to children is holistic: the better the families

fare, the better it is for the children. In the first three years of the programme, two thirds

of the funds were used to support families.

A particular focus is on ensuring that migrant children get access to early childhood

education and kindergartens. A major challenge is ensuring that children who are close to

school age get a place in a kindergarten so that they can learn at least rudimentary German

before starting school42. Referral to a kindergarten is also one of the most common results.

The monitoring and evaluation of the FEAD in Germany is contracted out to a consortium

of social research institutes (SÖSTRA, IAW Tübingen and defacto). They support the BMAS

in the monitoring of the FEAD and the completion of the annual implementation reports

between 2015 and 2020.

The evaluation covers the same period and involves:

• analysis of the implementation and provision of recommendations for the second

round of projects;

• analysis and assessment of the horizontal aims; and

• a cost-benefit analysis of the FEAD.

The evaluation uses a formative and participatory approach which includes network

meetings with all the projects. It also co-operates with the Landesverband der Sinti und

Roma BB (National Association of Sinti and Roma), which provides intercultural workshops

and also some of the case studies for the evaluation team. The evaluation uses a mixed-

methods approach with the use of monitoring data, qualitative analysis through two waves

of case studies and two standardised surveys of project promoters. It also involves a very

high number of expert interviews, for example with municipalities and Länder

administrations, to get a multi-perspective view. It has produced factsheets on the

horizontal objective ‘equality between women and men’ and recommendations on the

continuation, design and implementation of the anti-discrimination workshops.

The specific results of the programme are given in the next Section.

2 Evaluation of Strengths and Weaknesses

2.1 Impact on target group

A summary of results is provided below.

• The overall number of recently arrived EU citizens counselled under SO1 was 54,530

by 8 November 2018. Out of these, 48,010 then transitioned to an existing

counselling or support service, which is one of the main aims of the FEAD in

Germany – to have a bridging function between eligible EU citizens and the services

that they might not access otherwise. This was a success rate of 88% compared

with a target of 70%.

• The overall number of parents of migrant children counselled under SO2a was

9,956. Out of these, 8,565 then made use of an existing counselling or support

service for parents. This was a success rate of 86% compared with a target of 50%.

• The overall number of migrant children of kindergarten age supported under SO2b

was 9,461. Out of these, 8,179 then made use of an existing social service. This

41 http://www.bmas.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2015/projektideen-FEAD.html

42 European Commission (2018b).