Evaluation provides practical information to help decide whether a development or service should be continued or not. Evaluation also involves making judgements about the value of what is being evaluated” - NHS Research and Development Forum (2006)
Service Evaluations are designed and conducted to appraise the effectiveness or efficiency of an individual service with the intention of providing information to inform local decision making.
It can be difficult to differentiate between service evaluations, clinical audits, and other research activities. However, the Health Research Authority (HRA) provide a useful list of definitions and there is also an educational toolkit available from the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership to support clinicians, managers, and researchers
The research and innovation team supports an array of Trust wide service evaluations from all disciplines. Examples include:
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Content of patient-to-patient bullying record keeping and quality review of follow-up actions: Enhancing existing policy
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An evaluation of a cognitive stimulation therapy group in an older adult community service, from the perspective of staff, service users and carers
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A retrospective comparison of postal versus telephone opt in, for Pulmonary Rehabilitation to address potential barriers to uptake and adherence
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Exploring service users and staff experience of collaboratively developing and implementing positive behavioural support (PBS) plans
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Analysing non-attendance rates of initial appointments in the perinatal mental health team at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital
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An evaluation of peoples’ experience of the autism diagnostic pathway
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Service evaluation of emergency re-admission within 30 days’ discharge - analysis and understanding of factors
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Using the Geko (First Kind Medical) as an adjunct device on mixed aetiology lower leg ulcers with optimum treatment of graduated compression 20mmhg
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Clozapine patient survey- knowledge of agranulocytosis / neutropenia.
Mersey Care staff who want to carry out a service evaluation should as a first step complete the Mersey Care Service Evaluation Registration Form (which is available on the Research pages of the internal YourSpace intranet site). Please note evaluators must also provide:
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Evidence of service support
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Evidence of academic institution support (if applicable)
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Copy proposal/outline (if for an academic project)
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Copy HRA decision tool certificate confirming the study is an evaluation or other correspondence from the HRA confirming the study as an evaluation (if applicable).
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Copy of all associated paperwork which may include information sheet(s), consent form(s) (MCFT templates available upon request), data extraction proformas and questionnaires (if applicable).
The submission will then be reviewed to ensure it is of a high standard, feasible, supported by the relevant service and demonstrates clear benefit to the Trust.
Following review, the evaluation will be assigned a Trust reference number and recorded on the Service Evaluation database. Once reviewed and approved, a Confirmation to Commence email will be sent to the lead reviewer. You will be required on completion to submit a summary sheet outlining the main findings of your evaluation.
Support to publish and/or present is available on request via the Trust Evaluation Lead and Library and Evidence Service.