Evaluation

Measuring What Matters

An Evaluation guide to support practitioners delivering activities to prevent unintentional harm or injury

Download the full draft Evaluation report

Download the logic model

This guide has been developed by practitioners, for practitioners, in response to a request for a tool to help them evaluate their activities to prevent unintentional harm. During early 2019 we had three sessions with a range of practitioners working directly with people and communities at the local level to tackle unintentional harm. With this group we co-created this evaluation framework, logic model and user guide.

We think it will be useful for practitioners who are asking themselves these kinds of questions:

  • What kind of things could I measure to show the difference I am making in preventing unintentional harm?
  • I deliver talks on home safety and count the number of people I've reached... but I can't show that they are safer as a result.
  • I'm asked to report back on national targets but that doesn't show the full picture of what we achieve.

This framework helps to shift the balance from measuring only what can be counted (such as number of people, number of events) to measuring what matters in order to focus on outcomes for people. By using this framework practitioners will:

  • Be better able to show the impact of their work on people and communities
  • Over time, have a better understanding about “what works” in delivering preventative activities and be able to share this with others to promote learning

The framework, logic model and bank of indicators that you can see in the framework  is a draft version that needs to be tested by practitioners and refined as people use the framework. It is also not a proven theory of change – only by testing the framework and getting feedback from practitioners on their experiences and exploring why something has worked (or not) will we be able to say with any certainty ‘What Works’.

The framework is available to use by any practitioner working in this area, but we would really like to hear your experiences (see Page 19 of the framework for a feedback sheet) of using the framework. You can sign up to test the framework and get some support with using, or send any feedback on the framework (including suggestions on new activities, outcomes, indicators) to hannah.dickson@scsn.org.uk.

Happy evaluating!