The Bradford Evaluation Framework

Written evaluation reports

40 minutes

What is an evaluation report?

An evaluation report is an output from an evaluation that communicates key and detailed information about the evaluation to an audience. The evaluation reports produced by our team were developed over the decade during which we did evaluation with Better Start Bradford to communicate findings with a wide audience, including service managers and staff, the commissioner, and community stakeholders including service users. Our reports primarily took the form of a written document, but a similar approach could be taken with a slide deck/presentation and the techniques for thinking about what to include are relevant to all outputs. 

Key features of an evaluation report

  1. It directly responds to the evaluation plan
    This is critical, as it makes the evaluation coherent. We will address ways to do this below
  2. It presents information accurately and concisely
  3. It presents information in an accessible way to the audience

You can find an example of an evaluation report here.

Useful sections of an evaluation report

    • An executive summary
      Typically 1-2 pages which contain headline information – brief explanation of the service, and the evaluation, key findings and recommendations, as well as figures related to key performance indicators (KPIs) and if qualitative work was central to the evaluation, then any key aspect of that.
      Note: Although all these elements are covered in more detail (later on) in the report, it is best to write the executive summary last despite it appearing first in the report
  • More detail on the service
    What was its goal, how does it deliver to service users, what challenges were faced, were there any changes to the service during delivery and evaluation?
  • An explanation of the evaluation aims and how it was conducted
    For a simple implementation evaluation that went to plan it should be possible to almost copy this from the evaluation plan. If deeper evaluation was conducted this may need a full scientific methodology
  • Any systemic shocks that may have impacted delivery and/or evaluation
    Our reports always included a section on the impact of COVID-19, while we hope there are no similar systemic shocks, things happen in the world that impact service and evaluation processes so if something did happen you can recognise it here
  • Information about the data
    How it was gathered, the quality of it, any changes to any aspect of the service delivery or evaluation process
  • Detailed findings
    Main content of the report, here the headline figures or concepts are broken down into all the detail you have available (see interpreting and analysing basic data), it should address individually all the evaluation questions set out in the evaluation plan. Within this section you are likely to find:
      • Charts and diagrams
      • Details of figures over time
      • Analysis of qualitative work, which may include quotes, case studies, themes, etc 
      • Written explanation about the context of figures and quotes
      • Participant flow diagram
      • Satisfaction or other feedback collected from participants
  • An assessment of whether/how this evaluation has changed the evidence on this service
  • Conclusions
    A written explanation of what the findings tell us, often broken down into themes or by the key evaluation questions. 
  • Recommendations
    Detailed written explanations on what could be continued, increased/decreased, enhanced, changed, or stopped as a result of the evaluation findings. This is the most important part in many ways. This may refer to both the service itself and the evaluation process. 
  • References and/or acknowledgements
    Evaluations involve input from many people, so it is important to recognise this. 
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