New government projects have been awarded over £1 million in
funding as part of the £15 million Evaluation Accelerator Fund
(EAF).
The EAF delivers additional departmental capacity to
deliver robust, evidence-led evaluations of interventions in
critical policy areas.
Since 2021, £13.7 million of funding has been awarded to 20
unique government projects through the Evaluation Task Force’s
Accelerator Fund.
The final phase of the government’s £15 million Evaluation
Accelerator Fund (EAF) has been announced as part of the
commitment to making the UK a global leader in evidence-based
policy-making.
In his keynote address at the Evaluation Task Force (ETF) annual
conference, the Minister for the Cabinet
Office, the Rt. Hon. MP, revealed the
recipients of the final phase of funding from the ETF’s
Accelerator Fund.
These projects receiving funding in this latest round will help
boost the government’s understanding of delivering effective
policy interventions in youth crime, net zero, and civil service
recruitment.
Since 2021, the ETF has sought to tackle critical evidence
gaps across government to ensure that decisions about which
projects to stop, modify or expand are informed by good quality
evidence.
The Accelerator Fund was open to teams from across the public to
pitch innovative solutions for evaluating the impact of new
policies or new ways of delivering public services.
Minister for the Cabinet Office, said:
“Ensuring data-driven evidence sits at the heart of all
government decisions is critical to delivering lasting and
measurable change for the country.
“This funding will help to channel the innovative potential
of our public sector and allow them to take the lead to improve
the delivery of public services and drive value for taxpayer
money.
“Through the rigorous evaluation of these government
programmes, we can help to create blueprints for success which
all departments can learn from.”
One successful bid from the College of Policing will evaluate the
impact of Operation Divan. The evaluation will measure the long
term impact of the scheme, which intervenes with young people who
have previously carried or been suspected of carrying a knife or
other weapon. The scheme allocates specialist officers to young
people to provide advice and communicate the risks of carrying a
weapon and refer them to support services if necessary.
Another funded programme is the Department for Energy Security
and Net Zero’s proposal to use evaluation data to improve the
projects and appraisals of net-zero policies. In the Cabinet
Office, c.£200k will be awarded to a project to evaluate the
Civil Service Fast Stream's impact to better inform decisions
about its operation.
The money was awarded by the Evaluation Task Force, a joint
Cabinet Office and HM Treasury unit set up as part of a
commitment in the Declaration on Government Reform to embed
gold-standard evaluation in government.
To date, the ETF has worked on 382 programmes with a value of
£202bn, supported 18 departments in developing and
publishing evaluation strategies that outline each department’s
approach to evaluating programmes and building robust evidence,
and ensured evaluation is integral to each department’s
policy-making process.
To find further information on the successful projects, please
refer to the Evaluation Accelerator
Fund page on GOV.UK.
