Having a robust evaluation for the programme as a whole will generate reliable data which can be used and quoted with confidence. The national evaluation will enable Big Lottery Fund and your partnership to provide meaningful evidence about what works in reducing and preventing social isolation in older people. The CMF will shed light on whether the programme is delivering as planned and support continuous improvement through ongoing reporting on emerging findings. Furthermore, data from the CMF will provide evidence about what interventions are being delivered, the characteristics of older people that are being reached and the outcomes that they are reporting following their participation in the programme. This will contribute valuable knowledge to the evidence base in the field of social isolation, feeding into future policy and programme development. However, these ambitions can only be realised with the support of each partnership. It is essential that the research tools developed for the CMF are used comprehensively and consistently across all partnerships. The CMF User Guide (provided under separate cover), and the research tool implementation guides provided with each tool in this document, have been provided to support programme and project staff in capturing the required data on their participants. Through the proper application of these tools, every project will be enabled to demonstrate the diversity of participants they have reached and the full range of positive outcomes they have achieved. To best enable the collection of this data, projects should be encouraged to account for the resources required in their planning. Thinking through how best to give participants the time and space to complete the self-completion questionnaires around
Having a robust evaluation for the programme as a whole will generate reliable data which can be used and quoted with confidence. The national evaluation will enable Big Lottery Fund and your partnership to provide meaningful evidence about what works in reducing and preventing social isolation in older people. The CMF will shed light on whether the programme is delivering as planned and support continuous improvement through ongoing reporting on emerging findings. Furthermore, data from the CMF will provide evidence about what interventions are being delivered, the characteristics of older people that are being reached and the outcomes that they are reporting following their participation in the programme. This will contribute valuable knowledge to the evidence base in the field of social isolation, feeding into future policy and programme development. However, these ambitions can only be realised with the support of each partnership. It is essential that the research tools developed for the CMF are used comprehensively and consistently across all partnerships. The CMF User Guide (provided under separate cover), and the research tool implementation guides provided with each tool in this document, have been provided to support programme and project staff in capturing the required data on their participants. Through the proper application of these tools, every project will be enabled to demonstrate the diversity of participants they have reached and the full range of positive outcomes they have achieved. To best enable the collection of this data, projects should be encouraged to account for the resources required in their planning. Thinking through how best to give participants the time and space to complete the self-completion questionnaires around
cmf_toolkit_5.1_large_print.docx