Evaluation for impact
High-quality evaluation is essential to making a difference for people in need.
And understanding how things are being done is just as important as knowing what works.
CEI helps partners in government, philanthropy and the social sector to generate practical evaluation insights that improve outcomes, grounded in the best available implementation science and evaluation methods.
Here are a few of our latest contributions to the field.
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Creating public goods: New guidance from CEI for evaluators
A new step-by-step guide to evaluating the implementation of social interventions will drive greater knowledge of how we can best make a difference for people facing adversity.
Developed by CEI with Youth Futures Foundation and Dartington Service Design
Lab, the guide to Theory-informed Implementation and Process Evaluation offers how-to actions for evaluators, as well as practical, plain-language information for program commissioners and delivery partners.
Publication of this new guidance comes as the UK Government’s newly revised Magenta Book (HM Treasury's guide to program evaluation) cites our guidance on place-based evaluation.
Partnering with government to assess support payments for young care leavers
CEI and our collaborator Curijo are engaged in an evaluation partnership with the State Government of New South Wales (Australia) to assess the difference made by a fortnightly financial allowance paid to 18- to 21-year-olds transitioning from statutory out-of-home care.
Grounded in both implementation science and person-centred approaches, our process evaluation will assess whether this financial intervention has been designed and implemented in ways that meet care-leavers’ needs, including cultural safety and responsiveness for Aboriginal young people.
What can we realistically expect from training in children’s social care?
CEI and Bryson Purdon Social Research recently completed the first RCT to evaluate the impact of social worker training on outcomes for young people in care.
Evaluation of the trauma-informed Fostering Connections program offers hard-won lessons about what training alone can – and cannot – achieve in overstretched systems, and why rigorous evaluation must reflect real-world system complexity.
Measuring social impact through the arts
Arts initiatives with a social or educational purpose are not typically evaluated – a lost opportunity to learn from and enhance programs. CEI’s evaluation of an immersive in-school theatre program in Singapore shows how the arts can create social impact, as well as how this can be measured.
CEI has found that a 90-minute theatre, discussion and self-exploration experience devised by Gateway Arts led to young teens showing greater emotional awareness and expression, better knowledge of coping strategies and openness to seeking mental health support.
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