Evaluation in Government

Evaluation in Government

Phil BradburnAudit Manager – National Audit Office.

Key Facts

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How much of it?

How good is it?

How is it used?

What money spent?

Our approach

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Evidence on coverage or gapsNo comprehensive overview 70 cost-effectiveness / 305 Chief Analysts – gapsMajor projects

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Many chief analysts recognised the poor quality of the evidence

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Our assessment showed significant variation in robustness

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Worryingly - poor evaluations tend to be associated with bold claims

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Many spending decisions did not refer to evaluation evidence

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Evaluations were not used to inform many policy decisions…

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Government says evaluation should be done… BUT…….

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Government does not {really} know how much it spends on evaluation

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Recommendation : Quality of evaluation

Intention

Publish

Review

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Recommendation : Use of evaluation

Response

Perm secs

Spend Review

Parliament

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Recommendation : Coverage of evaluation

Overview

Priority gaps

Data access

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Recommendation : Resources for evaluation

Allocation

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phil bradburnNational Audit Office

[email protected]

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