Designing evaluations of policies and programs

Thinking of evaluating your policy or program? Wanting to know about the strengths of different approaches? Need some advice about mixed methods?

The Sax Institute invites you to a workshop with a world leader in designing policy evaluation that is feasible in real world policy contexts.

This small group, interactive workshop will provide an opportunity for discussion and guidance on the methods of evaluations and their use in policies or programs.

The workshop will consider a range of evaluation approaches, such as mixed methods, stepped wedge designs, cluster RCTs, pre-posts and interrupted time series and discuss issues such as logic models and contribution analysis. Participants will provide introductory material so that relevant approaches are discussed.

The workshop will be led by Professor Nicholas Mays, who directs the Policy Innovation Research Unit (PIRU) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Professor Mays has held senior roles in both government departments and in academia, with extensive experience in evaluating government policies and programs. He will draw on his extensive experience of working in government and his expertise in conducting national level evaluations in health and social care in England.

At the end of this Workshop participants will be able to:

• Identify the most appropriate evaluation design for their policy or program

• Get the best value from the available data

• Interpret evaluation evidence for a given context

Who should attend?

This workshop will be of interest to those designing, conducting or managing evaluations in government departments or non-government organisations.

About the presenter

Professor Mays is the Professor of Health Policy, Department of Health Services Research and Policy, in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Nicholas has extensive experience in health policy and health services research, holding positions in the National Health Service and at the Universities of Leicester and London and the Queen’s University of Belfast. He has worked in the independent sector with the King’s Fund, where he was the Director of Health Services Research and as a policy adviser with the New Zealand Treasury for five years.

Professor Mays current directs the Policy Research Innovation Research Unit (PIRU), funded by the Policy Research Programme of the Department of Health in England. The Policy Innovation Research Unit (PIRU) brings together leading health and social care expertise to improve evidence-based policy-making and its implementation across the National Health Service, social care and public health.

Examples of PIRU’s work include evaluations of the Public Health Responsibility Deal, the National Cold Weather Plan, the General Practice Patient Choice Pilot, the Social Impact Bond Trailblazers, Direct Payment in Residential Care Pilots and Integrated Care Pioneers, as well as methodological work to improve the handling of selection bias in quasi-experimental evaluations using improved methods of matching. The Unit is also studying the ways in which evaluations of pilots are commissioned, designed and used in health and social care in England.

Professor Mays continues to maintain a direct involvement in health and wider social policy making by providing periodic advice to the New Zealand Ministry of Health and Treasury.

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