The importance of evaluating outcomes

Evaluating the impact of a project in the justice sector is more than just an administrative task. Understanding the impact is vital in achieving meaningful, sustainable change. This process involves measuring outcomes that go beyond just the immediate deliverables and include longer term outcomes.

In this article, we’ll explore why impartially in evaluating impact is so important, and how the logic model is used within Skills for Justice for evaluating impact.

The 3 reasons evaluating outcomes is so important

1. Enhancing effectiveness and efficiency

Evaluating the outcomes of a new change ensures that the initiative (it could be a training programme or new policy, for example) is achieving its intended goals and that the resources are being used effectively. This also helps with identifying areas for improvement, eliminating inefficiencies, and maximising the positive impact for the organisation, as well as informing decisions about future initiatives

2. Supporting long term sustainability

Evaluation helps ensure that initiatives have a lasting impact. By identifying best practices, unintended consequences, and lessons learned, organisations can adapt and improve initiatives to extend impact further into the future and to meet the changing needs of the sector. Identifying better outcomes may include reduced crime rates, for instance. As a result of reduced crime rates, an organisation may see cost savings due to the reduction in demand and/or improved utilisation of the workforce.

3. Driving policy and decision making

Evaluating outcomes can generate data and insights that can inform broader policy decisions. By understanding what initiatives have worked, successful strategies can be scaled, policies refined, and resources allocated more effectively to strengthen the sector as a whole.

Logic model of evaluation

The research team at Skills for Justice are experts in conducting external impact and process evaluations of frameworks, programmes, projects, and services across the justice sector. Depending on the requirements of an evaluation, we may use a logic model to map the chain of events that will lead to change, or a Theory of Change (ToC) model that works to uncover the mechanisms behind developments and how impact is achieved. These frameworks help us evaluate the effectiveness of a project in a structured way, ensuring the outcomes are thought about on a short, medium, and long-term basis.

A logic framework provides a clear understanding of how a programme or project operates, its intended outcomes, and the activities required to achieve them. It helps to identify any external challenges or assumptions that may impact progress, and maps the relationship across the inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes, providing clarity on how each component is connected. It will help to identify whether the resources are available, and activities, outputs, and outcomes are achievable, measurable, and deliverable.

Research and evaluation services at Skills for Justice

We adopt and adapt good practice in all our evaluation work, seeking to review and assess the following as a minimum:

• Success characteristics and areas of good practice.
• Processes adopted in setting up and running programmes, projects, and interventions.
• The barriers and enablers associated with processes.
• The expectations of stakeholders in relation to programmes, projects, and interventions.
• The extent to which the programmes, projects, and interventions have met (or are working towards) objectives.
• How the evaluation aligns with other research / evaluations.
• Gaps / potential gaps in programme, project, and intervention models.
• The factors that have motivated and/or incentivised change at individual / organisational level.
• The impact on systems and people.
• Soft outcomes alongside hard outcomes.
• The changes experienced by the various stakeholders, delivery agencies, and service users.

Our team has a long history of successful evaluation projects across the justice sector, including the following examples:

• An evaluation of the efficacy of the DRIVE domestic abuse perpetrator programme in reducing reoffending → Explore case study
• A Ministry of Justice newly published study on how police in England and Wales use options to resolve cases out of court to support adults (aged 18 or over) with health-related vulnerabilities. → Explore case study
• National evaluations of the Police Uplift programme: including Communications and Positive Experiences research.
• Violent Neighbourhoods in London report for the London Violence Reduction Unit (LVRU) estimating violence rate in local neighbourhoods and what caused these rates (2021). → Explore case study
• Systematic reviews on approaches to community safety and violence prevention in ‘Evidence-Based Policing and Community Crime Prevention’.
• Extensive research into violence prevention using a public health approach e.g., COVID-19: a public health approach to manage domestic violence is needed (Lancet, 2021).