GambleAware evaluates England & Wales’ Gambling Support Service

GambleAware has published an independent process and impact evaluation report into the Gambling Support Service in England and Wales.
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GambleAware has published an independent process and impact evaluation report into the Gambling Support Service in England and Wales, where it found that perceived stigmas around gambling harms and screening inconsistencies were barriers to programme success.

The evaluation report, which was commissioned by GambleAware and completed by KantarPublic, identified facilitators and barriers which contributed to the service’s success and outcomes, as well as opportunities to aid the further future success of the programme.

The Gambling Support Service in England & Wales was delivered by Citizens Advice offices in 12 regions across the two nations between October 2018 and March 2021.

The report recognised the Citizens Advice’s expertise in providing client support for sensitive issues as one of the main facilitators, along with their respected role in the community. Evaluators discovered that front-line workers were well placed to successfully uncover and support clients at risk of and experiencing gambling harms.

While around 30,000 people were screened for gambling harm during the period, one of the main barriers the report identified was screening practice consistencies across the Citizens Advice offices.

The evaluation noted that a lack in screening questions flexibility, perceived stigma and limited capacity of front-line workers across some offices meant there were inconsistencies in the frequency and format of screening questions being asked.

The report also discovered that active CEO and senior management engagement and strategic involvement in the programme within Citizens Advice could help to strengthen routine screening and aid programme success.

GambleAware noted that senior involvement added to ‘top-down’ promotion of screening practices, which could positively affect the programme’s sustainability and longer-term impact. This form of engagement helped facilitate stakeholder mapping and relationship building both within local offices and outside Citizens Advice.

Helen Owen, Evaluation and Monitoring Director at GambleAware, said: “This thorough evaluation has evidenced Citizens Advice’s important role in providing advice for people at risk of or experiencing gambling harm and signposting them to help. Alongside this, it has helped identify the main barriers to success for the gambling support service.

“With this understanding, we now have a clear view on what opportunities there are to improve the service. The learnings from this evaluation have contributed to the commissioning of the new process and model, at a National Citizens Advice level.”

The evaluation team recommended that future iterations of the programme should explore flexibility in the use of screening questions to overcome potential concerns and resistance around screening, to encourage more natural conversations with clients about gambling harms as a regular advice practice.

The report stated that training given to front-line workers should more thoroughly and consistently address the issue of perceived uncomfortable conversations about gambling harms, reinforced through discussions at team meetings and receiving personalised feedback. This will help to reduce front-line hesitancy and increase confidence to ask questions related to gambling harm to identify at-risk cases.

The evaluation also highlighted that the National Citizens Advice should promote its service more widely for future programme development, increasing the awareness about the gambling harm support it offers. It could also support the networking process across its offices and external organisations within the region to help secure buy-in and support for the programme at a local level.

Daniel Marshall, Head of Business Development at Citizens Advice, commented: “Problem gambling can have life-changing effects, not only for those gambling but for their family, friends and colleagues as well.

“It’s so important that anyone who is struggling knows they can get help and that they don’t need to deal with this alone. We are very pleased to be working with GambleAware on such an important project.”

With the insight provided by this evaluation, GambleAware noted it has continued to invest in a model of delivery within Citizens Advice that takes the recommendations on board and has committed £1.8m to the revised service between 2021-24.