- Projects being funded include new approaches to tackling drug
misuse in prisons and preventing violence against women and girls
- The Evaluation Accelerator Fund will help test and evaluate
new policies through intelligent data-driven insights
- Fund run by the Evaluation Task Force forms part of a wider
push from Ministers for officials to drive efficiencies in new
ways
More than £12 million of funding has been awarded to teams
tackling deep-rooted issues, such as drug misuse in prisons,
violence against women and homelessness.
The funding, run by the Evaluation Task Force (ETF), is the
latest demonstration of the government’s drive to ramp up the use
of data as ministers work with officials to come up with
innovative approaches to tackle age-old issues.
The 16 projects awarded money via the Evaluation Accelerator Fund
will test and develop new data-driven approaches to policy-making
and evaluation.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster said:
We must constantly agitate and innovate to improve public
services, always eager to try smart solutions to complex,
deep-rooted problems across our nation.
Whether it’s tackling drug misuse in prisons or finding new ways
to confront violence against women and girls, this £12 million
investment will help explore and develop those solutions so we
can improve the lives of people in all of society.
The Evaluation Task Force invited bids from teams across
Whitehall and the What Works Network, asking
people to pitch new and innovative ideas for testing and
evaluating the impact of new policies or innovative approaches to
delivering public services. The bids were focused on addressing
the Prime Minister’s six core missions: Levelling Up, Net Zero,
Education, Health, Justice and Jobs.
The bids also needed to demonstrate how they would provide robust
evidence of financial or efficiency savings, tying in with the
wider push within the government to ensure taxpayers are
receiving the best possible value for their money.
One successful bid, which has received £933k from the Accelerator
Fund, will see wastewater in prisons monitored and tested for
illegal substances, making it easier for prison staff to identify
who is holding supply and reduce drug abuse in jails. Another
funded programme is run by the Centre for Homelessness Impact
which received more than £200k to assess the effectiveness of a
one-off payment to 18-year-olds leaving care on homelessness,
employment and their involvement in criminal activity.
Around £1.7m also went towards work being undertaken by the
College of Policing to identify promising interventions aimed at
tackling violence against women and girls. Possible options
include forensic tagging of perpetrators of crime in the Night
Time Economy and the use of domestic abuse courts.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury said:
Making the most of innovative ideas is one of the best ways we
can continue to drive efficiency in the public sector, so it’s
great to see funding going towards creative solutions to such
important issues.
Alongside cracking down on fraud and cutting the Government’s
property bill, a focus on evidence-led policy will help us ensure
that we are making the most of taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
The money has been awarded by the Evaluation Task Force, a joint
Cabinet Office and HM Treasury unit, which was set up as part of
a commitment in the Declaration on Government Reform to embed
gold standard evaluation in government.
ETF is an efficiency-focused unit whose work regularly
demonstrates value for taxpayers. The team are currently working
with the Department for Work and Pensions to support their
evaluation of labour market interventions including Kickstart and
Restart. Evaluations of similar initiatives in the past have
delivered returns of more than £3 for every £1 invested.
Up to this point, the Task Force has worked on 162 programmes
with a value of £47.9bn. If a relentless focus on evaluation
across the whole of government drives only a 1% efficiency, the
ETF would already have saved around £480million through its work
advising departments’ spending.
To find further information on the successful projects, please
refer to the Evaluation Accelerator
Fund page on GOV.UK.
