Evaluation is a priority for our organisation and we’re working towards making evaluation a part of all our services.
By evaluating our services we are trying to answer the following questions:
- Are we achieving the results we set out to achieve?
- Are our clients and communities better off as a result of our services?
- Is the way that we work the most effective and efficient way to achieve those results?
Our approach to evaluation is:
- Outcomes focused – each of our services can describe the outcomes they are aiming to achieve and are measuring the achievement of these outcomes
- Linked to continuous improvement – Our evaluation findings are reported back to services regularly so that they can inform service development and review
- Rigorous – As far as possible we build rigour into our evaluation design to make sure the results have external as well as internal value
- Collaborative – we work closely with our service staff in the design, implementation and reporting of evaluation, and to build their evaluation capacity. We also support the meaningful participation of clients in the design of our evaluations
- Realistic – we build on systems and processes already established within our services to collect the information we need.
During year one of our strategic plan (2006-07) we developed and piloted our approach to evaluation. This year we will be rolling this approach out across the organisation. Check this page regularly for more information on our approach to evaluation and findings from our evaluation activities.
For further information please contact Andrew Anderson, Senior Manager of Research and Evaluation andrewa@bensoc.org.au or 02 9339 8075.
Browse our evaluation reports.