Design your programme evaluation
How will you know your programme is working?
You should gather feedback from participants throughout the programme. This feedback will help to improve the programme as it takes place and to inform changes for the next round.
You should decide how you will evaluate the programme before you start to deliver the programme. This will enable you to build evaluation into your delivery programme throughout, and enable a more through understanding of the impact of your programme.
There are many different ways you could evaluate your programme, depending on the structure of your programme and what you want to achieve, but you should consider:
- How will you gather feedback – in a structured way or in an informal way?
- How will you know that the mechanics and logistics of your programme are working?
- What are the metrics you will measure to understand if your programme achieves its objectives?
We recommend creating a logic model (sometimes known as a “theory of change”) to help you understand how your activities will result in outcomes and impacts, and how you could measure success.
We also recommend using pre- and post- intervention surveys to gather structured data throughout the programme.
Case study
Civil Service LGBT+ mentoring programme
The Civil Service LGBT+ mentoring programme surveyed participants:
- before they took part in speed mentoring
- after they took part in speed mentoring, but before they started their long-term mentoring arrangements
- after 6 months of long-term mentoring had taken place
All the participants in the programme – both mentors and mentees – were surveyed and asked for feedback.
Feedback was also sought directly from participants during induction sessions held early in the programme.