Top Tips

Top Tips for Evaluation

Planning and delivering programme evaluation is complex. Below are our seven top tips for practitioners to improve the evaluation of physical activity and health interventions and resources:

1. Develop a clear list of evaluation questions – what is it exactly you want to learn about from your evaluation?
2. Start designing your evaluation methods at the same time as you start planning your programme – both the final program and the evaluation will benefit and are likely to change because of the discussions.
3. Make sure that the data you plan to collect will actually help answer your questions – cross check with your key evaluation questions (see tip #1!).
4. Set realistic timeframes to measure the impact of your programme - knowledge may change in the short term but behaviour change can take much longer. Don’t set yourself up to see no change by assessing long term outcomes too early.
5. At least 10% of funding should be allocated to the evaluation activities.
6. Evaluation should be planned and in consultation with all relevant stakeholders – so start early and work as a team with the programme planners and those who will implement or use it.
7. Communicate your findings beyond a project report - this will help inform the development of your programmes and others. Use conferences, brief reports, media releases, professional and scientific journals.