Evaluation and research

OPM’s work on evaluation is led by Shelley Dorrans and Dr Chih Hoong Sin, while Sophie Ahmad leads our research team.

There is an increasing focus on accountability and user involvement in public services. Commissioners and providers are under pressure to understand their service users, involve them in service delivery and demonstrate the difference they can make to people’s lives. This pressure has intensified in the current economic climate of budget cuts and the need to deliver ‘more for less’.

OPM's evaluation and research teams do not underestimate the challenge of getting beneath complex issues and demonstrating the value of interventions. Through tried and tested tools and approaches, a strong collaborative style of working, and using techniques that reflect our values as a public interest organisation, we provide expert help and support to help you meet these challenges.

Research that sets the agenda

Understanding the complex issues that shape the needs of service users is crucial to setting policy and strategic direction. Many of the problems facing decision-makers are difficult to define, multi-causal, and hardly ever reside in one organisation. OPM’s innovative ‘deep-dive’ research connects with a diverse range of citizens to help define the issue and set the agenda. We help you to gain an in-depth understanding of how people live, what motivates their behaviour and how they interact with the people and environment around them. Using our research as a basis, policy makers and practitioners can effect real change.

Assessing impact

Assessing impact is vital for informing ongoing service improvement and commissioning. Our experience is that organisations can struggle to demonstrate exactly how they make a difference. Through effective engagement and robust frameworks, we can help you understand what works and why, and support you to use these insights to improve your service. For instance, with GFK and the University of York, we evaluated the NHS information prescriptions pilots for the Department of Health.

Demonstrating value

Nowadays it is critical that public services represent good value for money. We know that convincing commissioners of the value of services is vital for sustaining funding, but can be extremely complicated and time consuming. Through techniques such as SROI, cost-benefit analysis, cost effectiveness analysis and more, we tailor our approach to meet your specific needs. Our Economic Assessment Tool (EAT) offers a practical and cost-effective solution to help you demonstrate value. This has been used successfully on a number of high-profile national projects that have attracted significant media attention.

Building evaluation capacity

Building the capacity to manage, monitor and review your services helps you to understand and sustain improvement. Evaluation is not simply a measurement issue. Through tailored training and user-friendly tools, such as our Pathways to Outcomes tool, we can help you embed a culture of evidence based learning and improvement.

Key reading

• CDF (Community Development Foundation) has published the final evaluation report on the Take Part programme. OPM conducted the research on the regional champion strand.
• Mencap has published Don’t Stand By, OPM's research into how police services tackle hate crime against people with learning disabilities.
• Getting It Right: Piloting Specialist Care for People with Radiation-related Problems. Dr Chih Hoong Sin and OPM Fellow Jean Taylor contributed to the data analysis and the report.
• The UK Commission for Employment and Skills' review of employment and skills in England, to which we contributed (UKCES 2011).