Contribution from Deirdre Hughes and Geoff Gration, Centre for Guidance Studies, University of Derby (2004)

How do we know that our services are effective and represent value for money?

The guidance community is facing increasing pressure to demonstrate that investments in Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) are paying off and with this increasing pressure has come an increase in the number of performance criteria, quality standards and reporting requirements.

The result is that practitioners, and managers alike, may be suffering from data reporting and accountability overload. There may also be confusion about what “effective guidance” means, about what matters and what we should really be trying to measure. 
 
       So what does “effective guidance” look like, and how could it be measured?

 What do you, as a practitioner or a manager, think effective guidance looks like and how do you think it can be assessed? How does your own practice, or organisation, measure up? To try and answer these questions it may help to have a look at a number of different theoretical models of assessment, from the UK and elsewhere, each reflecting the backgrounds of their authors and their particular focus on impact assessment. Here is an opportunity to carry out a “health check” against four assessment models which are detailed in the links below. The development of these health checks forms part of a doctoral thesis (Hughes, 2004).