Local Evaluation of Children's Services Learning from the Children's ...

4. Some evaluators have actively supported projects and programmes’capacities to undertake evaluation and monitoring activities themselvesthrough, for example, providing training and designing ‘toolkits’.5. Local evaluators highlighted their experience of a number of engagement andmethodological problems. Some evaluators indicated that time commitmentsand pressures among project staff and strategic stakeholders influenced theirabilities to participate in the evaluation.6. One methodological issue stems from the roles many local evaluators have asboth generating learning to develop more effective practices, and adopting arole regarded by some stakeholders as analogous to auditing Children’s Fundprojects. Indeed, some local evaluators encountered service providers whowere uncertain about the purpose of evaluation and considerable time wasspent convincing them of its benefits. Some concerns were raised that serviceproviders only offered positive accounts of their progress rather than revealingproblematic issues since they connected evaluation to decisions about futurecommissioning, a concern that was sometimes justified.7. Local evaluation is undertaken in a complex, changing policy environment.Uncertainties relating to the evolution of local level structures such aschildren’s trusts were described by a number of evaluators as problematic, aswas the announcement of budget cuts for the Children’s Fund initiative whichfor some undermined a systematic approach to conducting local evaluation.8. Local evaluators point to a number of principles and standards that haveguided them. These are: to provide useful and relevant material forpartnerships; to be responsive to change; to offer independent, balancedaccounts of partnerships’ activities; to be inclusive to different groups ofstakeholders; to use credible methods and evidence to support evaluationfindings; to adopt ethical approaches to evaluation.Chapter 1 19