Create pre- and post- intervention surveys

If you have created a logic model, it should help you to understand what data you could collect to understand if your programme is working.

We recommend using surveys to gather this data throughout the programme. You should create these surveys before the programme starts, so that:

1. you can prepare participants about what to expect
2. you can create a better, more thought-out survey – avoiding a rushed job in the middle of the programme

When to survey participants

We recommend evaluating your programme with pre- and post- intervention surveys. This means that you survey participants both:

• before an intervention takes place
• again after an intervention takes place

Your survey would usually contain at least some of the same questions so you can compare the results to earlier responses, and understand if there is a change.

Case study

Civil Service LGBT+ mentoring programme

During this programme, surveys were undertaken at 3 points:

1. before they took part in speed mentoring
2. after they took part in speed mentoring, but before they started their long-term mentoring arrangements
3. after 6 months of long-term mentoring had taken place

Most of the questions were the same throughout, but each survey also contained questions specific to that stage of the process to understand if the mechanics of the programme worked.

What to ask

Your survey questions should be tailored to your logic model. Overall, you will want to consider how your questions can enable you to understand:

1. what are your participants’ experiences of the programme are at each stage. For example, did the logistics work, was the guidance clear, did they find it easy to participate
2. whether the matching process created, on average, good outcomes for the participants
3. whether participants took part or continued to take part in the programme over time
4. whether the participants saw a benefit from taking part