Measuring and evaluating outcomes
Introduction
This toolkit is designed to support applicants to identify goals, measure success and report back to Norwich City Council. It will help
to fulfil the council’s monitoring and evaluation requirements and ensure a consistent reporting mechanism which fits with the
performance management systems currently used. This toolkit must be considered in all applications, blank templates are included
at the end of the document, and complete application forms must be accompanied by stage 1 and stage 2 templates.
Stage one – Identify goals
A detailed breakdown of issues the project will tackle helps identify what resources will be needed. Considering what goals will be
achieved and how you know you have achieved them will help formulate performance measures which are meaningful. This will
test the effectiveness of the project during its lifetime, and measure the impact it has had, ‘the distance travelled’ at the end of the
project.
So, in summary:
 Develop an idea of what issues you want to tackle.
 Decide what outcomes are to be achieved.
 Be clear about what resources will need to be committed to the life of the project.
Below is an example, and below that a flow chart for quick reference:
Issues:
Activity:
Outcome:
Youth crime rates.
High volume of antisocial behaviour calls to the police in the neighbourhood.
Fear of crime (perception of area).
Police engagement with the community, ‘Norwich community base project’, increased numbers of police officers in
area, regular safer neighbourhoods meetings, schools work.
People are proud of their neighbourhood and fear crime less.
Example case study, neighbourhood renewal fund (NRF) project
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Figure 1 – Issues flow chart
Issues
Activity
Outcomes
Youth crime rates
Police engagement with the community
Fear of crime (perception of area)
Increased numbers of police officers in
area
Regular safer neighbourhoods meetings
People are proud of their neighbourhood
and fear crime less
High volume of antisocial behaviour calls
to the police in the neighbourhood
Schools work
What are the issues that your proposal
plans to address?
Breakdown the number of potential issues
that can be addressed.
What action will be taken?
Detail what activities, outputs, resources
(including cost and staff time) are required
to advance the activity.
The outcome needs to be specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic and
timely.
This could be a service or corporate
objective.
The more detailed this stage, the easier it
will be to identify performance measures.
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Stage two – Formulate performance measures
Once you have a detailed breakdown of the purpose of your project and the issues being tackled, the next step will be to work out
how you measure the success of what activity is taking place against the outcomes you are seeking. Basically, think about what
you want to count, what information you want to collect, what questions you want to ask your service users and staff about how the
process is working, and what difference it is making.
It is important to try and measure the impact of activities like the perceptions of stakeholders so that the value of the intervention is
measured through the monitoring of activities in achieving soft, qualitative outcomes.
Effect
Effort
Figure 2 – Quadrant chart
Example case study, neighbourhood renewal fund project
Quantity
Quality
How much will we do?
How well will we do it?
Number of police officers on patrol in neighbourhood
Number of local meetings held with community
Number of school visits
Number of residents attending key meetings
Reduced level of crimes in area
Reduced number of anti social behaviour related calls for area
How much effect will we have?
What quality of effect will we have?
% of people asked who felt their neighbourhood was safe
% reduction in fear of crime
% of people who felt increased pride in their neighbourhood as a
direct result of the activity?
Is anyone better off?
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Stage three – How do we know it has worked?
The next step will be about engaging with the community on the service or activity undertaken, whether it has worked, and finding a
meaningful way of reporting progress.
It is likely that the organisation or service area involved will need to start gathering data and feedback from stakeholders for the
performance measures. This could be through surveys at the beginning and end of a project asking service users what change they
have experienced, or satisfaction with a service like refuse collections, or data on how many people have used a service. This is
both quantitative data (hard statistics) and qualitative data (subjective, perception based information).
Despite some of the information gathered being subjective, it is important to collect both quantitative and qualitative data to really
understand the impact of the project and judge the distance travelled.
An indicator demonstrates progress and provides evidence of changes connected to an intervention. A performance measure is the
mechanism used, and several measures can contribute to an indicator. The indicator always links back to the outcome.
Measure: Number of police officers on patrol in the neighbourhood.
Indicator: % reduction in fear of crime.
Outcome: People are proud of their neighbourhood and fear crime less.
Some agencies may already be using tools such as the Outcome star, or SOUL records with indicators which measure progress.
As these are robust tools which are already utilised across sectors, Norwich City Council will accept evidence from them. If
however, your organisation does not have a process in place, we have listed a series of potential indicators that may be relevant to
your project. These can be checked against the lower half of the quadrant exercise ‘how much effect and what quality of effect will
we have?’ to ensure that the indicators are robust.
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Social, economic and environmental indicators (with thanks to the National Economics Foundation)
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People feel involved in their community
Neighbourliness
Perception of neighbourhood area
Want to be involved and engaged in the community
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Increasing people’s skill/competence in social interaction
Increasing personal effectiveness and aptitude and life skills.
Increase basic work skills and attributes
Stability of living situation
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Minimise non-sustainable energy use
Minimise or decrease pollution caused by driving
Minimise use of landfills
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Decrease individual/household risk of problem debt/ default
Increase individual or household savings
Decrease financial exclusion
Increase resources in the local economy
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Support community groups to engage with the council*
People are satisfied when they deal with council officers*
*For internal use only
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Stage four – What next?
Norwich City Council is committed to ensuring that there is transparency on how public money is spent and what results have been
achieved with it so that residents are satisfied that services are effective and efficient.
It is a requirement that any organisation receiving funding for a project or service that is commissioned by Norwich City Council
uses this toolkit to develop performance measures and indicators, and submits statistics to the council as part of the reporting
process. These figures will contribute towards the council’s performance management structure and are therefore an integral part
of the commissioning process.
Blank report templates for you to complete are attached. Please print and use as many as you need, according to the number of
outcomes your project or service supports.
If you have any queries or issues then please contact us at Norwich City Council for further discussion.
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Stage one template
Issues
Activity
Outcomes
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Stage two template
Quality
How much will we do?
How well will we do it?
How much effect will we have?
What quality of effect will we have?
Effect
Effort
Quantity
Is anyone better off?
Measure: [effort]
Indicator: [effect]
Outcome
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Report template
Outcome
Indicators
Period
Actual
Target
Measure
Measure
Metric
The numbers behind any percentages eg 60% is 60 out of 100
Further comment, stories to share:
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Glossary
Outcome
An end result or consequence of actions achieved.
Indicator
Provides evidence which determines whether desired conditions / outcomes have or have not been achieved.
These could be outcome indicators which apply at the end of an activity, or performance indicators, which apply during the activity.
Performance measure
Identifies how well the activity is doing in working towards the desired conditions/outcomes.
Baseline
The first measurement before an activity starts.
Evaluation
Judging the performance of an activity using a range of information
Monitoring
Regularly gathering data from performance measures, feedback from customers etc, to check progress made.
Metric
The data which contributes to the calculation of a performance measure
If you would like this document in large print, Braille, audiotapes, or translated in to another language,
please call us on 0344 980 3333 or email info@norwich.gov.uk
www.norwich.gov.uk
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