Work plan

Promotingbest practice

Our vision

We aim tosupport...

How wedo it

Embeddingevaluation

s

We work in partnership with theScottish Government Third SectorUnit (TSU) . We co-designed a workplan based on the four pillars of thePublic Service Reform. We dividedthe work in two strands: doing (self-)evaluation and embedding (self-)evaluation and evidence.

Chair and Secretariat to Scottish Third Sector Research Forum andKnowledge Translation NetworkContribute to Third Sector Prevention Roundtable discussionsFacilitate and contribute to advisory groups (e.g. Building SaferCommunities)Support Scottish Government's work on evaluating prevention andpreventative spendWork with Analytical Services Division to share third sectorevidence of 'what works' and improve the evidence baseSupport What Works ScotlandSupport capacity building in third sector to embed best practiceProvide expert advice on outcomes and self-evaluation (e.g.

website, phone, etc.)

Third sector organisations to become more outcome-focused

Third sector funders to recognise and measure outcomes and outputs delivered by the third sectorThird sector organisations to explain, measure and demonstrate their contribution to local and national outcomesThird sector organisations to access effective measurement tools.

Support officials to develop outcome-focused fundingrelationships with third sectorSupport improvements in outcome-focused commissioning (e.g.

Community Planning Partnerships, CPPs)

Evaluation Support Scotland and Third Sector Unit:A successful partnership

Our vision is a world where people in the third sector have the skills,time and support to evaluate, reflect and learn from their work; a worldwhere learning from evaluation results in better services for people andcommunities.

Evaluation Support Scotland (ESS) works with the third sector and fundersso that they can measure and report on their impact and use learning toimprove practice and influence policy.

For further information, please contact: Patty Lozano-Casal (Patty@evaluationsupportscotland.org.uk) orSteven Marwick (Steven@evaluationsupportscotland.org.uk)

Evaluation Support Scotland and Third Sector Unit:A successful partnership

Work plan

Doing

self-

Doingself-

evaluation

Work plan

Doingself-evaluation

Facilitation Contribution Secretariat

ESS organised the forum's event in Oct 2014 tostart brokering relationships between the thirdsector and academics. The event was hosted byScottish government and received positive feedbackfrom participants. ESS produced a report from theevent. three forum subgroups are working onbenefits of befriending, partnership working andhealth of the sector.

Scottish Third Sector Research Forum

"Facilitators werereally friendly andapproachable. Alsovery knowledgeable.Participants were

friendly too. Reallyenjoyed all trainingfrom ESS so far.Great that it was

free - should be rolledout to wider sector."

"I just wanted to thank andcongratulate you and your colleaguesfor putting on a good event yesterday.It was well organised, with good

supporting materials, about the right lengths andgood foot to boot! Rob Craig, CUSP at Universityof Aberdeen

Feedback

Work plan

Doingself-

evaluation

Facilitating Contribution Chairing

The KTN supports the third sector to maximise theimpact of the knowledge and evidence they generateby ensuring it reaches Scotland's service providersand decision-makers. In 2014/ 15 we:* published "Evidence for Success: The guide togetting evidence and using it" to support use ofevidence to influence policy and practice* Delivered two Evidence for Success workshops* Produced an infographic of the guide

Knowledge Translation Network (KTN)

Work plan snapshots

Work plan

Doingself-

evaluation

What Works Scotland

Getting the best from the third sector toolkit

5-step evaluation

toolkit

Work plan

Doing

Contributions Secretariat Facilitation

We continued to take part in the evidencepartnership group. This year we produced andlaunched, led by SG Analyst Catherine Bisset, a 5-step evaluation toolkit, "Designing and evaluatingbehavior change interventions", which providesuser-friendly guidance and resources to supportpractitioners and commissioners to conduct andassess the quality of evaluations.

The Secretariat met in Dec 2014 to review and planthe work for 2015/16 and clarify roles. ESS's rolewill be to contribute with learning and help shapeand facilitate the meetings. The roundtable met inmar 2015 and, through a session facilitated by ESSusing logic modelling, members identified 4 focusareas of work for 2015/16, including evaluation.

Third Sector Prevention Roundtable

Evaluation in Commissioning & Funding

Increased thirdsector evidence andlearning withinCPPs

What about theRoundtable hasworked for you?

Outcome

"A real positive combinationof information and discussionoffering time, space andexpertise to think throughcomplex issues of relevance toprevention."

Outcome