How to Evaluate - York Consulting

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Oldham and Rochdale HMREvaluation Techniques “How to Evaluate”4 CONCLUSION4.1 Evaluation can be a positive learning experience. It provides a way todemonstrate performance and achievement of projects and activities; and itcan also be a way of indentifying opportunities and demonstrating effectivesolutions to problems. Effective evaluation is key to the continualdevelopment of project and programme activity. It is an integral part of thelearning and improvement cycle which helps organisations to become moreefficient and have greater impact on their target participants. Considerationof evaluation at an early stage can give your project an edge. It provides aframework to analyse your projects performance in an objective andanalytical way and can give useful data to evidence the impact your workhas, which can be used in future funding applications.4.2 There are a number of key elements which if thoughtfully taken into accountcan provide a quality framework and approach from which to develop anevaluation:Table 4.1: Evaluation StepsProject Development Stage effective evaluation takes place at an Step 1: Understand and Developearly stage in project development Overarching and Project Objectives by setting good solid foundations whichclearly establish how the evaluation willrun, it can help the entire process torun more smoothly throughoutEvaluation Planning Stage there are many different types ofevaluation – you need to be clear aboutwhat you want to achieve decide on how to undertake theevaluation – internally or externallyManagement of the Evaluation Process the quality of the evaluation can beinfluenced at many levelsStep 2: Developing and UnderstandingEvaluation MethodologyStep 3: Managing the ProcessStep 4: Collecting Evidence49
Oldham and Rochdale HMREvaluation Techniques “How to Evaluate”Learn and Improve the whole purpose of evaluation is tomove forward in terms of performanceand understandingStep 5: Interpreting DataStep 6: Reporting and Disseminating4.3 In addition to the guidance there are always lessons which can be learnt andbest practice which can be gained from any evaluation activity. Experiencedevaluators use every opportunity to gain further ideas and solutions to theprocess of establishing impact, value for money and the effectiveness ofprojects and programmes.4.4 Evaluating softer project outcomes, such as Community Cohesion, is oftenthought to be a daunting process. Organisations can be unsure how tomeasure impact, and wonder whether it is possible to actually measureimpact against softer outcomes. Evaluating Community Cohesion activitycan use the same tools and methods as would be undertaken for any otherprogramme or project evaluation. By taking these first steps to evaluatingsofter Community Cohesion activity and setting clear and coherentframeworks for doing this a clearer understanding develops around theimpact such work can have on soft and hard outputs and outcomes.4.5 There are a number of different organisations and places that can provideguidance and assistance on evaluation, both as a broad topic and in relationto community cohesion specifically. Example of some of theseorganisations are listed below and offer an excellent example of howdisseminating best practice and lessons learnt can really start to expand theboundaries of understanding and active engagement in evaluation:United Kingdom Evaluation Society (UKES)http://www.evaluation.org.uk/resources.aspxInstitute of Community Cohesion (ICoCo)http://www.cohesioninstitute.org.uk/home50
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How to Evaluate - York Consulting

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