How to Evaluate - York Consulting

Oldham and Rochdale HMREvaluation Techniques “How to Evaluate” Process Evaluations describe and assess the structures,procedures, operations, materials and activities within a schemeor program. Examination of materials is likely to occur whileprograms are being developed, as a check on the appropriatenessof the approach and procedures that will be used in the program.This type of evaluation looks to answer questions relating to“what is going on?” analysing the way the activity operates to helpwith interpreting outcomes and inform future planning. The mainpurpose is to establish how the project works in practice andachieves what it does.Project Evaluations involve looking at the project as a whole,including establishing how successful it was against its outputs,targets, milestone, outcomes and financial spend. This caninclude investigating the impacts the project had on participants,communities and wider beneficiaries. Time is spent speakingwith those involved in the project to establish lessons learnt, bestpractice and sustainability in relation to how the project/activityitself ran.1.8 The distinction between the different types of evaluation is not absolute, forexample a summative evaluation may have influence on the futuredevelopment of projects and the different approaches frequently overlap, orjoin together through a programme’s lifetime.Cohesion Counts HMR Projects1.9 The Cohesion Counts evaluation involved six community cohesion focussedprojects. This “How to Evaluate” report considers the lessons learnt andcommon findings arising from all the projects.4