Image of people at the 2024 TASO annual conference engaged in a session.

Last year, TASO commissioned researchers from The Brilliant Club and the University of Cambridge to conduct a sector-wide consultation into the barriers and enablers of evaluating access and success interventions. Through a survey, workshops, and roundtables with a broad cross-section of stakeholders, the team uncovered valuable insights into the challenges providers face, and how these can be addressed.

In our last update on the sector consultation, we highlighted that, while the sector is committed to more rigorous evaluations, many respondents lacked confidence in conducting them, often due to limited experience and resources. To address this, we designed our upcoming training series ‘How to evaluate’, to enhance attendees’ evaluation knowledge – from designing theories of change to conducting causal evaluations.

The first two sessions in the training series, ‘Developing a theory of change’ and ‘Running an implementation and process evaluation’, will help evaluators kickstart their evaluation journey. These sessions focus on creating a theory of change and designing an implementation and process evaluation to assess why an intervention works, for whom, how, and in what context. By covering the essential skills of identifying outcomes and creating an evaluation plan these sessions provide a solid foundation for conducting more complex impact evaluations.

The third session, ‘Implementing empirical evaluations with correlational (Type 2) evidence’, focuses on designing and strengthening correlational impact evaluations. The sector consultation highlighted logistical challenges in conducting RCTs and QEDs, such as difficulties accessing control groups and identifying institutional datasets. When RCTs and QEDs aren’t suitable for a given intervention, correlational impact evaluation offers a valuable alternative to generating evidence on programme impact, and can help identify future opportunities for RCTs and QEDs. This session will guide attendees in planning and conducting robust correlated impact evaluations using both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

While acknowledging that conducting RCTs and QEDs can be challenging, consultation participants expressed interest in conducting more robust evaluations to assess the causal impact. The final two sessions in the series, ‘Exploring causal impact evaluation using RCTs‘ and ‘Exploring causal impact evaluation using QEDs‘, will cover both the theory and practice of evaluations using these methods. They will provide attendees with the opportunity to learn directly from the TASO team, apply the guidance and resources to their context, and get answers to their evaluation questions. These sessions build on our previous webinars and guidance on RCTs and QEDs released after the sector consultation.

Finally, feedback from the sector consultation highlighted the value of coming together and connecting with fellow practitioners and evaluators. In-person workshops and roundtables allowed attendees to share their experiences of the barriers and enablers to evaluation, and strengthen their connections with colleagues in other organisations. The training series will provide opportunities for attendees to come together and learn not only from the TASO team, but from each other.

For those looking to strengthen their evaluation skills, our upcoming training series provides an opportunity to learn directly from the TASO team about a range of evaluation methods. You’ll have a chance to apply our guidance and resources to your own context, ask about everything evaluation, and connect with colleagues across the sector.

Find more details and secure your spot: ‘How to evaluate’ training series‘.