Time to Connect - Final Evaluation

Time to Connect (TTC) is a partnership initiative, supported by the National Lottery Community Fund, between the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) and Time-banking UK (TBUK). It aims to support people living in traditional care settings to increase their participation in and contribution to the life of their community.

The project has helped care staff and their managers to strengthen the focus on inclusion in their organisations by using a range of existing tools and approaches. At the same time, time banks are working alongside participating care settings to help connect their residents to the community and to encourage people’s contribution, using time as the currency.

TTC has been delivered in two phases between late 2016 and early 2020, and has involved 30 organisations and care settings, working across six geographical areas. An interim evaluation of the project was produced in late 2018, followed by a short summary in early 2019. This document sets out the findings of the final evaluation of the project and should be read alongside the report of the interim evaluation. It does not repeat the detailed interim findings, which are summarised briefly in the next section, but focuses primarily on the learning from phase2.

The evaluation was initially designed to:

• Measure the impact of the project on the lives of those living in care settings participating in the project.
• Identify ‘what works’ in the delivery of the project (e.g. the role of the different organisations involved, staff attitude and approach, delivery and approach to support for community mentors/champions) to facilitate or impede positive outcomes.
• Use learning to support subsequent phases and roll out of the project and inform how success can be replicated in care settings beyond the project.

The evaluation has adopted a realist evaluation approach, with a focus on context, mechanisms and outcomes – in other words, we asked what works, for whom and under what circumstances? The Theory of Change that guided the evaluation was co-produced by project participants.

Download and read the evaluation here