Qualitative Evaluation |
Even when you use quite basic data collection, or very small numbers or have few service users, qualitative approaches are time consuming and more complicated than you might initially think. An external researcher is more likely to be able to do a detailed qualitative evaluation of the service and it’s likely to take less time than if you were to conduct it. They are impartial and particularly if you want to include the experiences of employees, volunteers, or partner organisations they will get more honest responses. |
Quantitative Evaluation |
Quantitative evaluation can include analysis techniques that are more complicated than using descriptive statistics, so using an external researcher can give you the expertise you need to conduct such analysis reliably (and it’s likely to be quicker too). An external researcher may be able to help you interpret the findings, ensuring you are correctly presenting the findings to stakeholders. An external researcher could be used to conduct multiple analyses exploring different avenues of exploration and/or conduct the same analyses at different time points (e.g., when you have collected more data). Again, this may save you time and it may help to have the same researcher involved at multiple points in your evaluation (for continuity). |
An external researcher will have the expertise to design a robust evaluation that will hold more weight with stakeholders and funders.
The advantages of using an external researcher when conducting a qualitative or quantitative evaluation:
Previously the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub, this team includes the staff who conducted the decade of evaluation upon which the Bradford Evaluation Framework is based. We are experts in the evaluation of services aimed at early years and youth services.
We would be happy to discuss your evaluation needs to ascertain whether we are able to provide support.
This organisation has existed since the 1980s providing training and building a group of evaluation practitioners.
They provide a page for advertising evaluation jobs and tenders which you can access with or without membership to the organisation.
These organisations have a range of experience and client types some of which may be suited to your service and budget.
Qualitative Research – Social Research Agency ¦ Market Research Company
M·E·L Research – Social Research Agency ¦ Market Research Company
Search for departments related to your service area and contact them to see if there are qualitative researchers within the department who may be available to support a local project.
If none of the other options seem appropriate to you then a simple web search will bring up further qualitative research consultancies, usually with a market research focus.
Before you approach possible researchers have a think about what you expect or require from your researcher (it may include some/all of the stages below):
The level of input you require will impact on the cost associated with using a third-party researcher. There may be ways to make the most of your budget, but it is worth engaging with a researcher sooner rather than later to understand what costs will be and if you can minimise this. It will also help you to think about what you can do to facilitate the evaluation and make it run smoothly.
You will need to work with researchers to establish expectations from both sides of the agreement, including what you are hoping they can provide you with and when this should be set out in your evaluation plan. It is important for you to understand that they will be aiming to be unbiased in their interpretations of the data and so it is possible that they may identify some weaknesses or problems with provision that you may not have expected. However, this can be extremely valuable information to you and either qualitative or quantitative researchers may be able to provide you with solutions; qualitative methods particularly offer detailed information that can be used to explore and understand problems and possibly identify solutions.
If you have the budget and/or hope to do an in-depth evaluation of the service, going beyond implementation then engaging an external researcher or consultancy at this stage is ideal. They may be able to:
Involving an external researcher (or consultancy) at this stage will also give them the deepest understanding of the project and its goals which will improve their ability to evaluate it.
Having a researcher or consultancy involved at the theory of change stage is helpful, particularly for in-depth evaluations. They may be able to:
Regardless of the kind or level of evaluation you hope to achieve having a researcher or consultancy at this stage will be helpful. They can:
Regardless of the kind or the level of evaluation you hope to achieve having a researcher or consultancy at this stage will be important to their ability to complete an evaluation. They can:
If you want to use an external researcher or consultancy for your evaluation, they must be part of the evaluation planning process. They will be part of the agreement on what the evaluation hopes to achieve and what criteria need to be met to make that possible.
If you have gone beyond writing an evaluation plan already and then realise you need support, you may still be able to get someone to join your team to help. It will be harder to produce an evaluation of the robustness that we would aim for. Be prepared to go a few steps back within the framework and expect to be more limited in the kinds of questions you are able to answer in your evaluation.
If you have an established service, but which has not involved any evaluation so far then you can still introduce evaluation. This will involve go back to beginning of this toolkit and ensuring you have all the key elements set out and it may require some changes to your internal processes such as data collection and storage. Do not expect to be able to do a robust evaluation on work completed before you put these things into place.
