The Evaluation and Trial Advice Panel (ETAP)

Overview of the Panel

Bringing together individuals who are expert evaluators and passionate about evidence-based policymaking, the Panel provides advice on a variety of evaluation methods and approaches. It supports civil servants, local government and What Works Centres in the design and implementation of robust, high-quality evaluations.

The Panel comprises individuals from academia, government, research organisations and other areas with an understanding of the policy environment and the realities of undertaking evaluations at pace in complex areas of social policy. They have the ability to turn expert knowledge into practical, helpful advice; have substantial work experience in the field of evaluation and have extensive practical and applied evaluation skills. Please see the above documents for details of our current panel members.

Since 2015, the Panel has advised on over 170230 projects across government departments. The Panel has advised a range of policy areas, including education, transport, employment, crime and more.

Examples of the Panel’s work

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ETAP’s moreadvice likelywas toinstrumental usein localhelping amenitiesus refine and developfocus friendshipsour withevaluation peopleplans fromfor differentthe backgrounds.Department for Education’s free breakfast clubs programme. The trialpanel fedmembers’ intoinput helped us narrow the government’sscope, 2018prioritise integratedoutcomes communitiesbased strategyon greenboth paperpolicy relevance and adata availability, and strengthen our theory of changes. They encouraged us to consider new £6ideas millionin Integrateda Communitiesway Englishthat Languagefelt Programmeproportionate and practical, including considering methodological options for quasi-experimental design to future-proof the evaluation. The advice was thoughtful, pragmatic, and well-evidenced, and it gave us confidence that our evaluation would be robust and credible, even in 2019/20.a rapidly changing policy landscape.

Nick Boase, Social Research Team, Agri-Food Chain Directorate, Defra

Engagement with the panel has been immensely helpful for our work at Defra on trials to encourage healthy sustainable diets. The panel’s wide-ranging expertise, a wealth of experience and constructive challenge helped refine our programme of work. The impact of this advice is that our research programme is more robust, and better equipped to deliver high-quality actionable evidence which can inform future policy across government. We’ve been well supported from initial contact with the panel, through to the meeting and follow-up afterwards with panel members. We wouldn’t hesitate in recommending this group to others seeking advice on trials.

The Panel helped the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) design their first-ever randomised controlled trial showing that providing English language classes to women in segregated communities made these women more likely to use local amenities and develop friendships with people from different backgrounds. The trial fed into the government’s 2018 integrated communities strategy green paper and a new £6 million Integrated Communities English Language Programme in 2019/20.

Being part of the Panel

Read below for our panellists’ reflections on their time on the Evaluation and Trial Advice Panel.

ProfessorAnouk ClaudiaRigterink, Cooper,Associate Professor of PsychiatryQuantitative ofComparative OlderPolitics, Age,Durham University College London

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PeterLaura John,Hayward, ProfessorDeputy Head of PublicEvaluation, Policy, King’s College LondonIpsos

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ProfessorAlex RichardSutherland, Lilford,Professor Directorin ofPractice, NationalCriminology Instituteand forPublic HealthPolicy, ResearchDepartment (NIHR),of AppliedSocial ResearchPolicy Centreand WestIntervention, MidlandsUniversity (ARCWM)of Oxford

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More information

Contact us at trialadvicepanel@cabinetoffice.gov.uk for advice and support.

Related content

• Evaluation Task Force