Guide to resources

Resources: staff, equipment and funding

It is important to consider what resources are required for the evaluation from the outset.

This may need to be reviewed throughout the planning process. The resource requirements will be informed by the type of evaluation you need and quite often impact on the design of your evaluation. This is an important step and should be considered early when planning and developing your intervention – service, innovation or other change.

Plan your evaluation early, alongside using your new service or innovation. This will enable you to ensure that you use the most appropriate methodology, collect the right data, allocate adequate resources and set appropriate timescales

Question	Evaluation resources
Who is responsible for overseeing the delivery of the Evaluation?	There will usually be an identified lead for the evaluation who may be a project manager or the service manager, healthcare commissioner or innovator. You will also want to consider your reporting (governance) arrangements for the evaluation, this may be an established project group or committee.
Who should be involved in the evaluation? Who can help you to deliver this evaluation?	Who are your key stakeholders? Are there local experts that can help? Consider involving citizens as potential users or discuss with your public and patient involvement (PPI) lead if you have one - service users and their families are often well placed to help evaluate service changes.
What resources are available to support the evaluation? Include financial resources.	This could be money and/or staff time depending on the evaluation. If you are conducting an in-house evaluation then you will need input from staff. If you need to commission an external evaluation then you will need to also identify a budget (approximately 5% of the project value). Utilise existing data and project resources where possible and appropriate.
Who will conduct the evaluation?	Evaluations can be conducted in-house, externally by an independent organisation or a mixture of the two. What you decide will depend on the purpose of your evaluation: if it is to learn and improve then an in-house evaluation may be adequate; if it is to demonstrate objective effectiveness or accountability then consider an external evaluation, Your decision will also depend on the level of risk involved to the organisation, the participants and the skills and resources available.

Case studies

Find inspiration for your own evaluation with these real life examples

Guidance

Guidance from a range of organisations for in-depth advice

Services and support

Knowledgeable organisations who may be able to help you

Training resources

Want to learn more? Our training resources are a good place to start