Offer

I can help you to capture, understand and use the evidence you need to make a bigger difference

EVALUATION & LEARNING AND STRATEGY TO HELP TACKLE SOCIAL ISSUES

Evaluation & Learning

Helping you to move beyond ‘collecting evidence and measuring things’ and start using the evidence to understand the ‘what, how, for whom and when’ of the value you’re creating
Offer 1: Making better use of the evidence you are already collecting to understand, improve and tell your story to different audiences

You’ve been collecting lots of different types of evidence, but you don’t quite know what to do with it. You have a hunch that you could be using it more effectively to help you achieve your purpose.

If this sounds like you, I can help you to:

  • Draw insights, conclusions and the ‘so what’ from your existing evidence
  • Carry out research to quickly gather new evidence to fill any obvious gaps
  • Find practical solutions to improve the way you capture and use evidence
  • Translate findings into evidence-informed action and tell better stories for different purposes.
Offer 2: Co-designing and delivering an evaluation that’s tailored to what you hope to learn and what you want to do with the findings

You want to understand whether and how you are making a difference and what’s working and what isn’t. And you need to demonstrate impact, but you aren’t quite sure what to evaluate or how to go about it.

If this sounds like you, I can help you to:

  • Develop a theory of change and an evaluation & learning framework tailored to your needs and the resources you have
  • Implement the evaluation & learning framework and support your teams to collect, analyse and use evidence to assess progress and learn about the value being created.

Or I can conduct an independent evaluation. Each evaluation is different. I am a big fan of the mixed-method approach – capturing and weaving together quantitative and qualitative evidence to understand the ‘what, why, how, when and who.’

Strategy

Helping you to find clarity on your fit and focus, build on your existing strengths and identify the next best steps to achieve your purpose.

Offer 3: Understanding how you can best focus your efforts and your fit within the wider landscape and with what’s on the horizon

You’re doing a lot. You feel like you’re being stretched in many directions and you don’t have a clear picture of the combined impact of your efforts. You need some help to work out where to focus your energy to best effect and how things fit together.

If this sounds like you, I can help you to:

  • Bring together a connected picture of what you do, and understand how what you do contributes to your purpose
  • Make sense of the external context and priorities to understand where and how your work fits in, and your unique value
  • Identify quick wins and longer-term opportunities on which to focus your efforts to make more of a difference
  • Help you to establish where to go next and how.
Offer 4: Understanding how an idea might work in your context and getting your idea off the ground

You’ve got a great idea to tackle the problems faced by people, communities or systems, and you need some help developing it. You’re wondering whether it’s the right thing to do or how you can make the case to get the funding and support you need to get it off the ground.

If this sounds like you, I can help you to:

  • Understand the problems you want to tackle and establish what the people you hope to reach actually need to overcome those problems
  • Understand and define the change you want to create for who and when – and how your idea will help you to deliver that change
  • Understand how your idea might work in practice, or how it could be adapted to your context, and what to do next.

A mixture of both or just a little bit of help

You might want a mixture of evaluation & learning and strategy support. Or you might need help designing and facilitating a workshop (virtual or in person) to engage key partners and kick-start a strategy or plan, or to capture some learning about how a service or new intervention is working in practice. Or you might need support to develop and use a theory of change for more than just evaluation purposes. Whatever you need, if you’ve got a hunch I might be able to help, let’s have a chat.

My approach – what to expect

There’s no one-size-or-shape-fits-all approach. I’ll work with you to tailor my approach to your needs and context (I’m big on working in partnership and building trusting and honest relationships with my clients). You can expect to be challenged, supported and encouraged throughout.

On the process side, all of my projects include four key stages: Clarify, Agree, Create, Use.

The stages don’t always flow in a neat linear direction. Things change when they unfold in the real world, and often your needs will change in response. So it’s sometimes necessary to dip back and forth across the key stages.

CLARIFY the support you need, why and when you need it, how and when the outputs be will be used and by who

AGREE how we will work together, what the process will involve, the outputs and the outcomes you need and how much it will cost

CREATE all the things you need, including capturing, analysing and triangulating evidence to generate insights, learning, conclusions and recommendations

USE what has been created to draw out the ‘so what’ and ‘next steps’ to support action and facilitate the sharing of findings.

FAQs

Is it just you or do you have team – what’s your set up?
So far, it’s just me (but I am more than happy to work with others!). You get 100% me and my full attention. More than a decade of working in fast-pasted consultancy environments has given me the skills and experience I need to manage my workload and capacity realistically. I also have a trusted peer network across the UK which I could call upon (with your approval) to mitigate any delivery risks, should unforeseen circumstances arise (to date, this hasn’t happened). I’m set up as a limited company (Understanding Value Ltd).
Do you have a minimum budget or size of project that you’ll work with?

It depends on the scope of the work required and your needs. If I can add value in a handful of days’ support and have the capacity to do so, then I will. If I don’t think I can add value/meet your needs within a given budget/time envelope I will say so and discuss with you what might be possible.

I have worked with clients to deliver projects ranging from small pieces of work completed in a relatively short timeframe (involving 3 to 5 days’ input) through to complex, multi-site programme evaluations involving a considerable number of days’ input over a year or more.

Are you on any frameworks and are you interested in responding to tenders?
I have been awarded a place on several frameworks, including Age UK’s Consultancy Framework and NESTA’s Research Framework. If you’ve just put out a tender that you think I might be interested in, do let me know about it. Or if you’re at an early stage and just want to talk through your ideas, I’d be very happy to chat.
Do you work across the UK?
Yes. Even though I am based in the North East of England, I routinely work across the UK.

I am writing on behalf of the Cancer Programme Board to thank you for your tremendous endeavor in putting our recent conference together. I believe we have given ourselves a firm platform upon which to build. I am aware of the fantastic feedback we have had, and this is due to the excellent way the conference was put together.

Dr Richard Mendelson, Chief Medical Officer, NHS Birmingham and Solihull CGG

Yvonne’s knowledge and experience, delivered from an objective independent perspective, have been invaluable. Her understanding of our operating environment, her knowledge of social prescribing, and her understanding of developing NHS agendas and priorities and how they will affect future initiatives were a major factor in our ability to submit a full SIB proposal.

Martin Green, CEO, Age UK South Gloucestershire

Yvonne helped us unpack our thinking around our team theory of change. She has been an excellent facilitator, thoughtful, flexible and ready and willing to adapt and change to meet the needs of our team. She has enabled the leadership team to prioritise in order to maximise the assets in the team and measure and understand success.

Glenys Ruan, Programme Manager, Age UK

Find out how I can help you

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