Insights
Evidence-based policy is at the heart of good practices in policymaking. Impact evaluation provides a key source of evidence to help understand what really works and we need more impact evaluation of local economic growth policies to improve policy development.
However, designing and carrying out impact evaluation can be intimidating for policymakers. Most economic development practitioners have never undertaken impact evaluation, and many will not have commissioned evaluations either.
Designing an impact evaluation can also be complex. The process involves many stages and there are different methodologies(some better than others), each with their own assumptions, requirements and limitations. Going through all the steps, choosing an appropriate methodology and finding a suitable comparison group can be difficult. These issues also make commissioning an impact evaluation and finding the right provider a challenge.
Fortunately designing an impact evaluation can be a collaborative process.
Start by consulting the evaluation, research or insights team in your organisation (including those working in other areas). They may be able to provide support and feedback on evaluation design, commissioning process, and implementation. Delivery teams, as well as other colleagues, can help define success, identify data requirements and availability, and provide ideas and feedback.
What Works Growth can also help. We offer evaluation support to central government and local government. We provide training, resources, and can often offer bespoke support. This can include early conversations about whether an intervention is suitable for impact evaluation. We can also offer advice and feedback on impact evaluation design, reviews of draft methods and more, all free of charge. For local government, we also coordinate an MCA evaluation network, where evaluation managers offer each other advice and share best practice. Other What Works Centres, peer organisations, professional networks, and universities may be able to share previous evaluation experiences and help think about what and how to evaluate.
In short, it’s possible to ask for help and support at any step of the process.
A final note – Asking for help is an additional, ninth step in our guide to better evaluation. This series looks at how good evaluation can be designed into local economic growth policies. We talked about the importance of starting early, of defining success, of thinking about what to evaluate, of finding a control group, of collecting data, of when to evaluate (how long) , of using approaches from other studies (plagiarise) and of getting everyone on board.
