Smart Play Network (SPN) is the national organisation supporting play services and play providers in Scotland.
ESS provided tailored support shortly after the Smart Play Network was set up in 2011, and again in 2023 when CEO Lesley Fox felt it was time for an evaluation refresh for her bigger team.
ESS ran two sessions with managers, and then the wider team, to:
- Review evaluation plans
- Build staff comfort with evaluation
- Improve some methods
These sessions were about moving from “good to great”!
“It was great for us to see that the Smart Play Network was still building on the work we did with them in 2011!”
Evaluation support scotland
What difference did we make?
“In general, it helped to bring everyone together to reflect on a shared vision and learn from one another. [it] was great value for both the front-line workers and office/admin teams to hear how each other gathers and uses the information for reporting i.e. understanding everyone’s roles in evaluation.”
Aimee Hunt, Manager at smart play network
Following the sessions with us, Smart Play Network:
• Created a new logic model for the whole organisation
• Updated the organisational values
• Made changes to how they pull together evaluation for the whole organisation
• Updated training questionnaires and issued a members’ survey
• Created a new evaluation tool for children – Bubbles the teddy bear!
What did we learn?
- This 2023 support was successful because CEO Lesley was clear what she needed and briefed the staff well, so they knew what they were coming to.
- It was valuable to give people from different teams the chance to understand each other’s roles in the evaluation process.
- It was important for us to make the support really practical and harness staff practice expertise. Building analysis of existing evaluation data into the session allowed the team to celebrate impact and spot gaps in the data that would be useful to collect in future!
See below for the case-study that this story is based on:
Case Study: Smart Play Network
ESS provided tailored support for this organisation in 2011, and again in 2023 when the CEO felt it was time for an evaluation refresh.
Our principles for good evaluation can help you to judge if you are happy with your evaluation. They are used within this story to highlight the principles that are being demonstrated.