Evaluation in Government
Phil BradburnAudit Manager – National Audit Office.
Evidence on coverage or gapsNo comprehensive overview 70 cost-effectiveness / 305 Chief Analysts – gapsMajor projects
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Many chief analysts recognised the poor quality of the evidence
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Our assessment showed significant variation in robustness
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Worryingly - poor evaluations tend to be associated with bold claims
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Many spending decisions did not refer to evaluation evidence
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Evaluations were not used to inform many policy decisions…
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Government says evaluation should be done… BUT…….
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Government does not {really} know how much it spends on evaluation
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Recommendation : Quality of evaluation
Intention
Publish
Review
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Recommendation : Use of evaluation
Response
Perm secs
Spend Review
Parliament
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Recommendation : Coverage of evaluation
Overview
Priority gaps
Data access
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Recommendation : Resources for evaluation
Allocation
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phil bradburnNational Audit Office
phil.bradburn@nao.gsi.gov.uk
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