We've Moved!

Thank you for your interest. If you want to see more great content on this and other topics please go to the new website.

Commissioning an External Evaluation

One of the difficult things, which many people try and fail at, is to commission an evaluation of a project that you are leading. I have produced a "Top Tips" sheet which sets out 10 key things to consider when commissioning an evaluation. Follow the link to download it as a pdf file. Comments are welcome on this leaflet. I plan to produce further "Top Tips" sheets which give simple information about different aspects of evaluation.

Evaluation Improvement Leaders Guide

Follow the link to download the Improvement Leaders Guide "Evaluating Improvement" which I wrote whilst working for the NHS Modernisation Agency. It is freely available as a download or in booklet form.

What do you want to do now you are here?

So, you've found this site. Now you need to think about how it can be useful to you, and whether you can be useful to the site and its other readers.

Things you can do:

o You can just read and take whatever ideas you think might be useful.
o You can comment on any of the entries to the Weblog, through the link at the end of each posting.
o You can email me if you have a one-off contribution to the Weblog.
o You can email me if you are interested in becoming part of a team that contributes to the Weblog. You can then post thoughts, observations, tips and ideas whenever you want to.

It's your call!

Welcome

Welcome to the Evaluation in Healthcare weblog. This site is hosted by me, Stuart Eglin. I am Head of Evaluation for the NHS Modernisation Agency in England. I will be using this site to post a whole range of material. This will include:

* Tips for carrying out evaluations
* Useful websites on evaluation
* Information and links on governance & quality assurance
* Useful Books and articles
* Links to the Toolkit, Guides and "Top Ten Tips" sheets which I am developing
* How to commission an evaluation
* Experts in Evaluation

Material on this wide range of topics will be posted over the coming months. If there is anything else which you would like to see on the site, please drop me an email.

[This site has an RSS Feed. Subscribe to it with your newsreader to receive notice of updates.]

Useful Books

o Clarke A and Dawson R. Evaluation research. London: Sage, 1999
o St Leger A et al, Evaluating Health Services Effectiveness. Open University Press, 1991.
o Ovretveit J. Evaluating health interventions. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1998
o Ovretveit J and Gustafson D. Evaluation of quality improvement programmes. Quality and Safety in Health Care 2002;11:270-275
o Stecher BM and Davies WA. How to focus an evaluation. London: Sage, 1987
o Weiss CH. Evaluation: methods for studying programmes and policies, 2nd edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1998