Outcome Planning
Definition of an outcome
• Outcomes are the change you want to make
through your services or activities…
Writing Outcomes
• Who is changing?
(e.g. the service user,
beneficiary,
organisation,
community etc.)
What is changing?
(e.g. knowledge,
skills, environment,
feelings etc.)
How will it change?
(e.g. increase,
improve, reduce,
etc.)
Examples of who, what, how…
Parents’ confidence is increased
Young people have reduced, stabilised or eliminated their drug use
Communities are better represented in decision making
Outcome Language
‘How’ means describing the change not the action which led to the change
Decrease
Improve
Maximise
Minimise
Expand
Reduce
Enhance
More
Less
Produce
Increase
Strengthen
Sustain
Support
Assist
Engage
Encourage
Enable
Help
Offering
Seeing
The ‘so what’ test
• Delivered a health services awareness session- SO WHAT?
• Older Asian women have better access to community health and social care
services  OUTCOME
• Worked with a group of 16 S4’s who are young carers about future planning- SO
WHAT?
• Young carers are able to make informed choices about the future  OUTCOME
• Arranged group visits to colleges and took part in indoor climbing sessions - SO
WHAT?
• The group have learned what courses are available at local colleges and how to
access these courses  OUTCOME
Things to remember about outcomes…
Outcomes…
1. Are about change or difference.
2. Don’t happen by themselves – they are not the activity – they are the
result of the activity.
3. Must link logically to the activity.
4. Use words like improve, decrease.
5. Answer the ‘so what?’ question.
6. Should be realistic – achievable in a few years.
7. Should be (largely) in your power to deliver.
8. Should be simple – don’t overcomplicate!
How do you know when
you have achieved an
outcome?
Discussion…
Writing outcome indicators
What would an outcome look like if we achieved it?
• These are your outcome indicators
• What are the 2-3 most important (and most likely) indicators
for each outcome?
• Involve users and stakeholders.
• Your indicator list = your evaluation plan
Things to consider when measuring outcomes…
1. Measure indicators more than once to show change.
2. What is your baseline (the starting point) for the service and for
individuals (from referral info, assessment, evidence of need etc)
3. Don’t collect information on all outcomes all the time.
4. Do you need to ask everyone or can you sample?
5. Follow up some users if you can to find out what happened next.
6. Use one system – but a range of methods.
7. Build into planning – and if possible activities.
8. Test your methods.
9. Be honest and involve clients.
10.Record unexpected outcomes (e.g. 6 volunteers got a job)
Outcome Planning
Outcome
Indicator
Older Asian women have better •
access to community health
and social care services
•
•
Older Asian women know
what community health &
social care services are
available in the local area
Older Asian women know
how to access community
health & social care
services
Older Asian women receive
more community health &
social care services
Evidence
•
•
•
•
One-to-one mapping with
the women to find out what
services they know about at
the start & end of the 1 year
project
Group interviews (focus
groups) with the women
Individual interviews with the
women
Interview a range of health
and social care providers to
find out if uptake of services
has increased
Outcome Planning and Evaluation Cycle
Getting Started - understanding
what you want to achieve.
Setting and agreeing your
outcomes
Collecting information - what
are you going to measure and
how? Getting systems in place
Learning from your findings What did you learn? How will you do
things differently? Any unexpected
results?
Analysing and Reporting - making
sense of what you’ve collected and
reporting on progress and learning.
Source: Evaluation Support Scotland