Evaluation in health services research

Abstract

Since the introduction of general management in the NHS further major policy changes have made the role of managers in the process of change increasingly important. Paton and Bach (1990) argue that ‘the Government has not always been prescriptive about the manner in which policy should be implemented. Instead the onus has been placed on management to fashion policy in the most appropriate way to meet central objectives’ (p.4). This is important in the light of the realization that policy, implementation and evaluation are not only overlapping but interacting with each other to produce change (Fazey, 1987, p.2).