Through Realising Ambition we want to replicate effective, evidence-based interventions that support young people to fulfil their potential and avoid pathways into offending and anti-social behaviour. The programme is our first systematic investment in the replication and scaling up of evidence-based practice.
While there is a burgeoning body of literature on how best to replicate proven approaches, there have been few large-scale investments that focus on putting replication into practice. So through Realising Ambition we are putting our money where our mouth is – we want to learn more about what works and what doesn’t, and to disseminate our findings to other funders and interested organisations.
The Tavistock Institute are undertaking a comprehensive process evaluation of Realising Ambition. The evaluation explores a number of questions, including:
- the relative success of different approaches to replication
- how organisations can best work together to promote effective replication
- the support – both practical and financial – that organisations need to scale up or replicate practice.
The partners who deliver the programme for us will work with Realising Ambition projects to help them raise the standards of evidence they use to demonstrate their impact. They will also evaluate the impact of projects on the young people they work with.
The first report from the process evaluation notes that we have built the factors necessary to lead to success into the programme, including:
- design of the programme,
- using specialist experts to choose which projects to fund and to run the UK Consortium that manages the programme, and
- specific replication support for funded projects (such as developing logic models and outcomes).
But doing this has also led to challenges, such as:
- finding UK projects that meet the rigorous standards of evidence ideally required to justify replication,
- adapting approaches to local needs without undermining what makes them successful,
- establishing new contacts and referral pathways in areas where the projects will run, and
- adjusting the procedures and policies of organisations that will run the projects to meet the needs of replication.
Read the first report from the process evaluation.
Read a summary of the first report from the process evaluation.
Find out more about wider evaluation and learning plans and the 25 projects that Realising Ambition is supporting.
Please contact us if you have any questions.