Life Changes Trust
Evaluation of the Champions Board Approach
We evaluated the flagship Champions Board approach for the Life Changes Trust. This evaluation explored the difference that Champions Boards have made to the lives of young people with care experience. It involved an extensive desktop review of existing data from 21 Champions Boards, and gathering feedback from over 200 stakeholders - including young people with care experience, staff, corporate parents and wider partners. The research took place between spring 2020 through to autumn 2021 and was conducted remotely due to the restrictions in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
A team of young people with care experience worked with us on this evaluation as peer researchers. We strongly believe that their involvement strengthened this work.
The final report is available here.
Scottish Government
Evaluation of the First Minister’s National Advisory Council for Women and Girls
Scottish Government appointed us to evaluate the First Minister’s National Advisory Council for Women and Girls. We explored whether the Advisory Council was delivering its objectives of progressing equality for women and girls in Scotland, and identified what was working well and what could be better.
Our approach was participatory and inclusive. We worked with the Advisory Council, Empowering Women Panel and Scottish Government to develop a Theory of Change for the evaluation. We also worked closely with two Empowering Women Panel members who were involved as paid peer evaluation advisors – designing discussion guides, reviewing early findings and producing summaries.
We carried out depth interviews with members of the Advisory Council and Empowering Women Panel, Scottish Government officials, Scottish Ministers and wider partners and produced a full evaluation report.
To encourage people to learn about the findings, we worked with two women on the Empowering Women Panel to produce a short audio summary and a video summary, as well as a very short written summary.
The full evaluation report is published and available here and a summary report is also available.
Scottish Book Trust
Evaluation of Scottish Book Trust’s Reading Schools Programme, 2022/23
We evaluated the Reading School Programme in 2022/23 - the first year of the national roll out of Reading Schools. In 2020/21 we evaluated the Reading Schools Pilot programme.
Evaluation of the Reading Schools Programme involved analysis of online surveys of schools and interviews with schools and wider stakeholders involved in the programme. We reviewed school data which demonstrated the impact of the Programme on young people to ensure that young people’s voices were heard within the report. We produced interim and final reports and a short summary report. The Book Trust wished a very simply designed report that was fully accessible for all readers. Our reports explored learning around the delivery of the programme and the outcomes achieved. Our evaluation has been published and is available here.
Scottish Government and COSLA
Evaluation of the Regional Improvement Collaboratives
We evaluated the Regional Improvement Collaboratives for education in Scotland, for Scottish Government and COSLA. The review was paused and re-started running from spring through to autumn 2021 due to the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This review explored the development and early impact of the RICs, three years after they were established. This largely qualitative review involved interviews with head teachers and teachers in 50 schools during a time when schools had been through significant periods of change and restrictions due to the pandemic. The work also involved depth interviews with elected members, RIC teams, Education Scotland regional improvement team members and national stakeholders. Over 100 interviews contributed to this review.
sportscotland, Evaluations
Evaluation of sportscotland supported activity: Schools and Education and Clubs and Communities
We were commissioned by sportscotland to evaluate the work it supports in schools and education, and clubs and communities. This was a large scale research project which involved gathering views from a wide range of people, including practitioners, teachers, pupils, parents and wider stakeholders. We also explored how this work contributes to national outcomes, as set out in the Active Scotland Outcomes Framework. The published research reports are available below.
Inspiring Scotland
National evaluations of the CashBack for Communities programme
We evaluated the CashBack for Communities national programme in 2012, 2016 and 2020. The 2016 evaluation explored the outcomes achieved over three years, collectively across the funded projects, and reviewed the extent to which it addressed inequality and disadvantage. The 2020 evaluation, assessed the impact of the programme from 2017 to 2020. The Phase 5 impact evaluation, assessed the impact of the programme from April 2020 to March 2023.
The Phase 5 impact evaluation has now been published and is available here.
Scottish Government
Evaluation of outcomes and success factors of the Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF)
We focused this evaluation on 14 capital projects supported through this Fund. We interviewed project leads, service users, community members and partners about the difference a new or re-developed facility made to their community and neighbourhood. The work focused strongly on community involvement and social outcomes.
Donaldson Trust
Evaluation of the #JunX10n Project
#JunX10n was set up by the Donaldson Trust as a transition support service for young people aged 14 to 25 with neuro-diversities. The service aims to empower young people to identify goals and ambitions for the future. We were commissioned to evaluate the project. This involved in-depth discussions with neuro-diverse young people about the impact of the programme on their journey from school to further learning, training, volunteering, working and independent living. The evaluation also explored delivery of the service, the impact it has had and next steps for the project.
Skills Development Scotland
Evaluation of Foundation Apprenticeship Programme
Our team evaluated the Foundation Apprenticeship programme for Skills Development Scotland, to inform the roll out of the programme across Scotland. The work involved detailed research with employers and learners, exploring what worked and what didn’t about the programme, and what difference it made to employers and individual learners. We developed a series of case studies profiling learner and employer experiences.