Service evaluation toolkits refreshed

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West has relaunched its popular evaluation and evidence toolkits which aim to give people working in the health and care sector advice on running service evaluations and using evidence to inform service development.

The toolkits are now available with improved structure and design. They can be downloaded via the following links:

NIHR Evaluation toolkit

NIHR evidence toolkit

In 2016, the team behind the toolkits launched them to fill a gap in the information available to people who want to do smaller scale evaluations and use evidence to help improve services. They are created and managed by Health Innovation West of England, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (BNSSG ICB) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West).

Both toolkits include a step-by-step guide to the evaluation and evidence cycles, checklists and resources. They are a great place to start for anyone new to evidence and evaluation, or for people wanting to brush up on their skills.

Dr Jude Hancock, Senior Clinical Effectiveness Programme Manager at BNSSG ICB and one of the brains behind the toolkits, said:

“I’m excited to see our toolkits relaunched. We hope everyone who uses them agrees that it’s a huge improvement. The websites have been well used since we first launched them and so the time was right to refresh them to make them easier to use and update.

“We believe they are now much easier to navigate, and we hope our users feel the same.”