Policy Hub
The series centred on practical experiences of evaluating partnership programmes, the methods used and lessons learnt.
Presentations are large and may be slow to load
New approaches to evaluating programmes and partnerships: New Deal for Communities - David Riley, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
The NDC programme is a major government initiative which aims to improve life chances of people through a number of outcome targets, including better health, a reduction in the crime rate, improving educational attainment and the physical environment. The seminar discussed the three phases in working up and implementing local strategies and the challenges of developing the evaluation programme.
Lessons from the Crime Reduction Programme: Using evidence to guide policy- Chris Kershaw, Home Office Research Development & Statistics Directorate's (RDS) What Works in Reducing Crime Programme and Robert Street, RDS's Sentencing and Restorative Justice Research Section.
Restorative justice is a participative process whereby victims and offenders, assisted by a facilitator and possibly together with family or supporters, communicate about what happened, and collectively resolve how to deal with the offence's aftermath and its implications for the future. There is a growing body of research suggesting restorative justice can have positive effects on victim satisfaction and offender attitudes (in the latter case, also reducing re-offending) although much of the evidence cannot be considered to be conclusive. The CRP restorative justice programme-stream was set up to fill these gaps in our knowledge by aiming to provide the Home Office with robust evidence of RJ's effectiveness. This has included the application of randomised control trials and the co-operation of a wide range of groups.
Evaluating Partnership for Health: - Mike Kelly, Health Development Agency
The seminar introduced the work of the Research and Development strategy of the Health Development Agency and discussed evaluation issues of some of the health improvement partnership programmes HDA is involved in.
Designing evaluations in partnership: The Employment Retention and Advancement Demonstration Project - Stephen Morris, Strategy Unit, CO
The seminar reports on the experience of designing ERA. The design project necessitated working in partnership with a number of Departments, agencies and organisations specialising in policy evaluation. This seminar outlined the origins of the design project and gave a brief overview of some of the challenges that emerged from previous welfare-to-work programme evaluations in the UK. The presentation discussed how the ERA design project sought to address these challenges through a unique approach to policy design, implementation and evaluation. Particular emphasis will be given to the challenges of working in a multidisciplinary team as well as how stakeholder participation was encouraged.
Evaluating Area Based Initiatives: Working with Stakeholders - Murray Stewart, University of West of England
Evaluation research on partnerships can involve an ambiguous relationship with stakeholders. As 'critical friend' it may be necessary to hold both an independent objective role in summative evaluation whilst at the same time undertaking formative and supportive evaluation on the processes of programme development. The Area-based Initiatives work involved in addition an action research element. Gaining access to busy stakeholders makes heavy demands on their time, and researchers increasingly have to offer a 'real time' contribution in return; interviews are granted only when the 'what are we going to get out of this' question is answered. Current evaluative research on NDCs and on LSPs provides further illustrations of the importance of a constructive relationship between evaluator and stakeholder - whether the latter are local government, voluntary organisation, community or private sector.