Evaluation in Practice: Our Approach

Abstract

Increasing attention is being paid to evaluation in the personal social services and in social welfare more broadly. The 1980s and 1990s have witnessed new languages and approaches to social welfare. Citizenship, citizen charters and consumerism; inspection and complaints procedures, and quality control requirements of the 1989 Children Act, the 1990 National Health Service and Community Care Act and the Criminal Justice Acts; total quality management; value for money; performance measurement and performance indicators; the need for public services, including voluntary projects, to be publicly accountable for economy, efficiency and effectiveness; all these developments have had the effect of placing evaluation near to the top of the agenda in many social welfare organisations.