Key Messages: Time to Connect Interim Evaluation

Time to Connect is a partnership initiative, supported by the Big Lottery Fund, between the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) and Timebanking UK (TBUK). The project is working for three years in two phases of approximately 15 months each, with selected residential care settings for older people or people with a learning disability.

This document summarises the findings of the interim evaluation of Time to Connect, which covers the first phase of the project. Phase 1 worked with settings in Greater Manchester, Gloucestershire, and Lambeth and Southwark.

The project is supporting 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.

The interim evaluation captured many change stories about the impact that Time to Connect is already having on the lives of individual older people and people with a learning disability. These provide strong evidence of outcomes in three key areas:

• Reduced isolation
• Increased confidence
• Better connections

The evaluation team also identified a small number of examples where people are contributing to the community, sometimes via a time bank, but in other cases through informal relationships.
Finally, the evaluation also found examples of mutual support and genuine friendships growing out of Time to Connect, for example between time bank members and older people, that were not there before the project started.

Download and read the report here