Tracking Progress and Achievement

Managing performance is a vital part of partnership activity. Partnerships will want to identify key performance indicators and the supporting management information required to:

• ensure that projects and programmes stay on course and on budget

• target resources effectively

• demonstrate effectiveness and cost-effectiveness to partners, the business community and the wider public

• ensure that partners stay committed to the work being undertaken.

As well as tracking work in progress, on-going data will be an important means of picking up changes in the local situation and informing longer–term planning

Click here for simple graphics that you may find helpful in deciding what information to collect and how to display it.

Effective evaluations of crime reduction initiatives seek to answer the following questions:

- Has change occurred?

- If so, is the project or programme responsible for the changes, or would they have happened anyway?

- If the initiative has several components, have all the components contributed to the changes or have some been effective while others have not had any impact?

- Is the initiative (or elements of it) worth replicating?

In practice this means:

- Comparing changes in the project area with trends in the wider area and in a control area with similar characteristics

- Documenting individual components in a programme separately to identify which elements have had an impact.

- Calculating costs and savings arising from the project to assess value for money.

- Looking at specific local circumstances which may have influenced the outcome of the project and affect the ease with which the project can be replicated.

Key general principles for evaluators