1. www.opm.co.uk restricted external Evaluating the vinspired 24/24 programme Ewan King, director OPM 30 September www.opm.co.uk

2. 2 restricted external Overview of 24/24 programme 24 hours a week for 24 weeks: a structured volunteering and social action intervention programme for NEET+1 young people Delivered by 13 organisations across England, in three separate cohorts Designed to meet DfE policy areas (Positive for Youth) –Support young people’s personal development –All young people to be able to participate in and achieve in education and training –Raise young people’s aspirations Participants receive a personalised development plan, volunteer, train for Level 2 qualification, engage in social action activity and have targeted support around employability/CV skills

3. Challenges to the evaluation Programme is delivered through 13 VCOs, with different experiences of working with young people, across different regions of England –Challenge of understanding ‘what works’ when delivery is through diverse organisations NEET+1 entry requirement implies a diverse and challenging cohort of young people: –Young people have specific and very different needs as well as not in employment, education and training –Begin the programme with different starting points, have different journeys and leave with different outcomes Limited budget and resources

4. Summary of the evaluation approach Phase 1: Scoping, development of ‘theory of change’ model, provider workshop, and survey design Phase 2: V administer panel participant survey Phase 3: Field work: Longitudinal case studies Phase 4: Integrated analysis and reporting

5. Why the theory of change approach? Provides a high level visual map of the programme that articulates the: Inputs – the things that are invested in the programme Activities – the project activities, what actually happens Outputs - the tangible ‘things’ that are created as a result of the project Outcomes – long list of potential results of the programme: these are short and long term outcomes Change mechanisms – the specific processes which lead to change, the link between activities and outcomes Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes

6. Vinspired 24/24 theory of change model

7. How this approach worked for 24/24 Provided a framework that guided the development of research tools for use during fieldwork and an analytical framework to guide the synthesis and analysis of findings Enabled us to target data collection on the most ‘explanatory’ data Allowed us to build a narrative of how the programme was intended to work and make a difference and then monitor the extent to which this theory was delivered in practice Flexible enough to incorporate individual participant journeys and outcomes within the evaluation –We could include case studies which explored a wide range of impacts that resulted from the programme

8. Powerful panel surveys analysis

9. Lessons learnt Theory of change can help build a more plausible explanation of how the programme works and makes a difference and allows a better targeting of data collection efforts In the absence of controls, Theory of Change – combined with triangulation of different data – can help towards explaining attribution Self administered validated surveying of participants is possible with committed project managers Approach is highly participative: 1. enabling participants to contribute and refine our theory of how the programme works;2. building understanding and commitment to evaluation In depth case studies provided compelling accounts of the participant journeys Tailored findings to inform future programmes ‘We have used this evaluation to create our new structured volunteering and learning programme, vInspired Talent. This year we are working with 10 local authorities and FE colleges to offer placements to 16- 25 year olds.’ (Terry Ryall, vInspired CEO)