These case studies illustrate some of the recent evaluation work we have carried out.
Maternal Mental Health Alliance: January 2014-July 2016. National evaluation of a Campaign by an Alliance of over 70 organisations to improve services to women and families affected by maternal/ perinatal mental health. The evaluation used a theory of change approach which focused on outcomes and facilitated learning networks. Everyone’s Business Evaluation Report Final 140616
Public Health Manchester, Manchester City Council: Study of women who accessed the Manchester Identification and Referral to Improve Safety (IRIS) service in Manchester, hosted by Manchester Women’s Aid, between February 2012 and February 2014 across 12 General Practices. The study captures the voices and experiences of 17 women who disclosed domestic abuse to the GP and their subsequent referral to specialist domestic violence and abuse services. View publication
Service Evaluation for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) into the commissioning of relationship-centred care in Essex. For this assignment we worked in association with the National Development Team for inclusion (NDTi) and took the role of programme lead. The evaluation forms part of a wider JRF programme of work on risk and relationships in the care sector. A theory of change framework was used to explore how local authority commissioners can work in partnership with the care home sector to ensure older people consistently receive high quality, relationship-centred care. The main data collection was through nine case studies in a sample of Essex care homes. http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/commissioning-relationship-centred-care-essex-evaluation
Theory of Change Programme Evaluation of the Manchester City Council Macmillan Libraries Information and Support project. The report brings together a wide range of primary and secondary data collected between January 2012 and March 2014, and focuses on the outcomes and impact of the three years Big Lottery funding. The report explores why these changes have occurred and for whom. In particular, it shows how the project was able to reach people, including people with a learning disability, men and Asian women, who do not easily access cancer services. View publication
Evaluation of a five year Regional Campaigns programme of work at Age UK London between 2008-2012: The report brings together the findings from 15 multiple campaigns across London focusing on older people’s health and wellbeing and their contribution to London. A theory of change framework was used to identify the outcomes and impact, to show what drove the changes and clarify the contribution and attribution from the organisation to the changes that occurred. View publication
Evaluation of a five year programme of work exploring how housing organisations can address the issues of an ageing society through bringing generations together in communities: The evaluation was commissioned by HACT and covered 15 community projects in Cumbria, East London and Somerset and two Homeshare initiatives. A programme evaluation was used to draw together the impact of five years of investment and a self evaluation framework supported the individual projects. A key feature of the evaluation was the facilitation of five action learning events to share practice and learning among the participants. View publication
Theory of Change to support the development of a maternal mental health strategy for the Maternal Mental Health Alliance: Facilitating the development of a national campaign strategy using a theory of change framework. It involved two full day workshops, with over 30 Alliance members from a wide range of organisations, professions and sectors. The theory of change model has been used to support funding bids, recruit new organisations to join the Alliance and to guide the future direction of the Alliance’s work. View MMHA ToC Diagram
Evaluation of a service supporting women offenders and those at risk of offending: This evaluation commissioned by the Salford Foundation was a follow up to a previous study we did two years ago. This second stage evaluation measures the project outcomes and impact of a ‘One Stop Shop’ model of service for vulnerable women, many of whom suffer domestic abuse. It explains the essential features of the service that need to be in place to sustain and replicate the services outcomes. View Publication
Evaluation of a pilot service in a maternity hospital for victims of domestic abuse: NHS Manchester, Public Health Directorate commissioned a two year evaluation of an innovative service to support women and professionals in an NHS setting. In spite of austerity cuts in the public sector, the service has become a mainstream service based on the findings from the evaluation. It has also being included in the ‘Call for Evidence’ for the forthcoming NICE guidance: “Preventing and Reducing Domestic Violence between Intimate Partners”. View publication
Evaluation of a Social Enterprise that builds on the strengths and skills of parents living in less advantaged communities: Parents 1st commissioned us to carry out a three-year evaluation of their new social enterprise and gather evidence on the effectiveness of their nationally acclaimed volunteer peer support model for pregnancy, birth and the first 3 months of life. View Report Publication and Summary
Evaluation of the Strategic and Cultural Impact of the Tower Hamlets Healthy Borough Programme: Commissioned by NHS Tower Hamlets and the Local Authority, this assignment was carried out in partnership with Shared Intelligence (link). It drew on evidence right across the programme in order to assess the extent of the long term, embedded change in partner organisations and the wider community as a result of a ‘whole systems’ approach to tackling the environmental influences of obesity. View publication
Evaluation of a Youth Sector Development Fund project to reach and engage young people who have multiple barriers to education and employment: Salford Foundation commissioned us to carry out a two-year local evaluation of an innovative approach to reaching young people who do not engage easily with mainstream services. We used a variety of methods, including peer evaluation to engage with a large number of young people using the service. View Publication
Evaluation of a national project to encourage disadvantaged young people aged 13-19 years to take up cycling: For this assignment we worked again in partnership with Shared Intelligence (link). Bike club is a UK-wide initiative led by three national charities – CTC, UK YOUTH and ContinYou and we were commissioned to evaluate this multi-site initiative. We used a theory of change approach and a place study method in order to understand what worked in different environmental and political contexts. It is due to report in spring 2012 View publication
Evaluation of an intergenerational digital inclusion project across 7 London Boroughs funded by the Greater London Authority: This project forms part of the Mayor of London’s ‘Team London’ initiative to dramatically increase volunteering in communities in London. A theory of change was developed to test the stakeholder assumptions of how an intergenerational approach can contribute to connecting communities in terms of age and culture. View publication
Evaluation of the Northern Ireland Changing Ageing Partnership: For this assignment we worked in association with the National Development Team for inclusion (NDTi) (link). A three-year evaluation was commissioned by The Atlantic Philanthropies to explore the impact of four organisations working together to increase the voice of older people in Northern Ireland and influence policies on ageing and older people. This evaluation showed clearly the need to understand the local context and the political structure in order to understand the outcomes. The final report is due in 2013.