As understanding and the demand for and supply of evidence shift over time, how much of a gamble is evaluation today? Come and spin the wheel with us!

Drawing on the experience of the Tavistock Institute, this interactive event created a debate between evaluators, commissioners and evaluation/evidence users.

An invited panel co-created the dialogue to illustrate some of the challenges associated with commissioning and carrying out evaluation including:

• asking which questions really matter from what works to how it works;
• seeking certainty through evaluation in an uncertain world;
• managing boundaries;
• negotiating roles;
• balancing power and
• still ensuring ‘good’ evaluation outputs.

EVENT LEADERS

Richard Allen’s expertise is in working with organisations on the development and redesign of key processes particularly in relation to organisational performance management, change management, quality management, impact assessment, strategic planning, capacity building and improved customer focus. He has also provided coaching and direct support to people undertaking this work within their own organisations with a background in organisational psychology.Georgie Parry-Crooke has over three decades of experience in evaluation as a social scientist. Combining practice, teaching and training, she has worked with statutory and voluntary sector organisations supporting them in the demand (funders/commissioners) and supply (providers) of evidence of what works or doesn’t to improve project and programme outcomes. Much of this work has been supporting capacity building where Georgie frequently worked with groups and individuals who wish to develop their research and evaluation skills for practice reasons.