Use this page to learn about how to create a monitoring and evaluation framework.
Developing a monitoring and evaluation framework helps you work out which pieces of information to collect to evidence your story of change.
It’s useful to look at this once you’ve read our guidance on the evaluation process and planning your evaluation.
It’s good practice to include people who will be collecting the data when you develop your framework. You could also involve:
It’s best to write your framework before your project starts so you can make sure you’re collecting appropriate data from the beginning.
The example below is based on a monitoring and evaluation framework we’ve created. It’s for a project looking to improve access to employment for people leaving prison.
Be clear about what you’re trying to achieve. Most organisations are driven by a clear sense of shared purpose and mission, but this isn’t always captured on paper.
This can lead to problems when you’re deciding what data to collect for your evaluation.
You can use an evaluation planning triangle or a theory of change to get started.
Set out what you do. This may be an activity (such as a workshop), a service (a helpline), or a campaign. We suggest you don’t include internal processes such as fundraising or recruiting volunteers here.
Activity indicators are specific pieces of information that you collect to keep track and report on the work you’ve delivered.
Activity indicators give you information about:
There will be some activities you’re more interested in gathering information on than others.
Set realistic priorities for measurement and try to limit the number of indicators you set.
Many funders and commissioners ask for specific profile information about the people you provide your services to. This may include:
More importantly, you’ll need this information to understand whether or not your service is accessible to everyone you intend to reach.
Outcomes are the changes that come about as a result of your work.
If you’ve developed an evaluation planning triangle or a theory of change, you’ll have created a list of outcomes.
Make sure you:
Outcomes should describe the changes you want to create, not the work you’re delivering.
Be cautious of writing outcomes that are about accessing your services.
If you’re running skills workshops in prisons, for example, there’s no real value in measuring the outcome ‘increased access to skills workshops'.
This doesn’t tell you anything about what changed for people as a result of your work.
There can be an exception to this if your users are very hard to engage, and getting them to access a service signifies a real change for them.
This might be the case with street homeless people, for example, who have never accessed a day centre and feel uncomfortable indoors.
Consider which outcomes are priorities for measurement – it’s unlikely you’ll be able to spend time measuring everything that changes. Priority outcomes may:
Outcome indicators are specific, measurable pieces of information that you can collect to keep track of the difference your work is making.
They tell you whether or not you’re achieving your outcomes and how much change has occurred.
Setting outcome indicators is very useful for deciding what to measure and what not to.
Writing a clear list of indicators will make developing data collection tools (such as questionnaires) much easier.
Review your list of priority outcomes, and think carefully about what information you need to collect as evidence of change.
Your outcome indicators should:
It’s good practice to set at least two indicators to measure each outcome. When putting your indicators together you might do the following:
Some of the most important outcomes from your work may be ‘soft’ outcomes – internal changes to the way people feel or think that are impossible to observe directly.
For example, improved self-esteem, improved confidence, increased happiness or increased job satisfaction.
To set indicators for soft outcomes, think about how you would tell if the outcome had been achieved. You may be able to measure observable behaviour changes – sometimes known as setting ‘proxy indicators’.
For example, when self-confidence goes up, you might see changes in the way people talk, dress, or behave with others.
Self-confidence indicators might be readiness to make new social contacts, and how comfortable they are with speaking in a group or making a presentation.
Simply asking people if they think they know more than before will not necessarily give you meaningful or accurate information. It’s better to set more targeted indicators.
For example, a campaign that plans to increase awareness of local recycling facilities could set indicators about whether or not people know where to recycle different materials rather than asking about their ‘level of awareness’.
After drafting your outcome indicators, you may be left with a long list of information to collect. Think carefully about your priorities for measurement.
Which outcomes are most crucial to evidence? If you have set a large number of indicators for each outcome, which are the most interesting or revealing?
Consider whether you’re already collecting information that could be used for monitoring.
For example, if you’re using validated scales and tools, such as the CORE counselling tool, you can use the score as an indicator of overall mental health.
Check your list of outcome indicators. Will they give you accurate information about your outcomes?
If you collected evidence against your indicators, would it be easy for someone external to find issues in your data, or to discount it?
Your indicators will be the foundation for your questionnaire questions, your focus group topics, and your interview schedules so it’s important to make sure they’re measuring what you intend to measure.
Your impact (the broad or longer-term effects of your work) can be difficult to evidence.
It takes time to measure change over time, and a number of different actors and factors will be involved in creating significant, longer-term changes.
In our example project, the impact would be ‘Improved access to employment for people leaving prison’.
It’s easy to see how other factors, such as the work done with prisoners by similar organisations, the job market, and changes to government policy could all affect whether or not this longer-term change comes about.
This makes figuring out the specific role of the project more problematic.
To track impact in a meaningful way, you need to be able to demonstrate the role that your work had to play in creating longer-term change.
This involves understanding the role that other organisations and wider factors have (attribution).
It also involves understanding how much change would have happened if your organisation did not exist (sometimes referred to as the counterfactual, or deadweight).
Getting to grips with these issues often requires a more sophisticated approach to evaluation and a more detailed research design.
Generally, evidencing your organisation’s longer-term impact will need more time, skill and resources than evidencing your outcomes.
However, you may decide to set indicators for keeping track of your impact if you feel you can measure longer-term change in a meaningful way.
In this case, review your impact statement and think about which indicators you would need to collect information against.
In our example project, impact indicators for tracking improved access to employment for people leaving prison might be:
To understand why your project is bringing about change, you need to identify the factors that really matter in the way you do things – your processes.
This may include looking at the way you deliver certain activities, or other aspects of your work.
Such as your relationships with other agencies or the way staff and volunteers work together.
It can be helpful to set specific indicators for processes. Examples might be:
To complete your evaluation framework, you will need to decide on your information collection methods. Read more about choosing your evaluation methods.
Last reviewed: 18 September 2023
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