Online | One-to-one | Practical support | Critical friend
One-to-one online support from an experienced evaluation practitioner and critical friend.
Evaluation Mentoring provides personalised online support for those responsible for planning, delivering or using evaluation within third sector organisations and public services.
Whether you’re developing outcomes, planning an evaluation, collecting data, making sense of findings or reporting to funders and stakeholders, an experienced Evaluation Support Scotland practitioner will work alongside you as a supportive critical friend.
Evaluation Mentoring provides dedicated time to explore challenges, test ideas, reflect on progress and build confidence in your evaluation practice.
For many people, Evaluation Mentoring is a natural next step after attending our training, helping them apply their learning to their own work and context. However, you do not need to have attended our training to benefit from mentoring.
All mentoring sessions are delivered online.
“It was a relaxed and enlightening session that fully addressed our needs and more. There was room for discussion that flowed naturally, and I left with practical recommendations, useful resources and clear next steps.”
How does Evaluation Mentoring fit with our support?
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Training | Learn about evaluation |
| Evaluation Mentoring | Apply evaluation in your own role |
| Tailored Support | Develop evaluation across a team, service or organisation |
Evaluation Mentoring focuses on supporting individuals. If you need support for a team, service or organisation, our Tailored Support service may be a better fit.
What can mentoring help with?
Evaluation Mentoring can support you to:
| Develop outcomes and indicators ✓ |
| Plan an evaluation ✓ |
| Choose appropriate methods and tools ✓ |
| Collect and analyse data ✓ |
| Make sense of findings ✓ |
| Report to funders and stakeholders ✓ |
| Use evaluation findings to support learning and improvement ✓ |
| Build confidence in your evaluation practice ✓ |
| Apply learning from training and professional development ✓ |
As part of the mentoring process, your mentor can also help you identify relevant Evaluation Support Scotland resources, tools and guidance that support your learning and development.
Programme options
All mentoring sessions are delivered online.
Both programmes provide personalised one-to-one support tailored to your needs. The main difference is the level of support and the time available to explore and develop your evaluation practice.
| 3-session programme | 6-session programme | |
|---|---|---|
| Level of support | Focused mentoring support | Extended mentoring support |
| Duration | Up to 3 months | Up to 6 months |
| Sessions | 3 x 60-minute online one-to-one mentoring sessions | 6 x 60-minute online one-to-one mentoring sessions |
| Agreed actions after each session | ✓ | ✓ |
| Brief follow-up support between sessions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Personal mentoring plan | – | ✓ |
| Feedback on one evaluation document or tool | – | ✓ |
| COST | £350 (including VAT) | £695 (including VAT) |
Is Evaluation Mentoring right for me?
Evaluation Mentoring may be helpful if you:
– Are new to evaluation and would like guidance from an experienced practitioner
– Have attended training and want support applying your learning
– Are responsible for evaluation within your organisation or service
– Need a trusted sounding board for ideas and challenges
– Would benefit from dedicated time to reflect, plan and problem-solve
– Want support from a critical friend as you develop your evaluation practice
What people say about our support
“I was reminded that it is always good to think about outcomes and indicators with a beginner’s mind as it helps to shift out of automatic mode and remember what the purpose of evaluation is, rather than just being another exercise to perform.”
One participant described the support they received as:
“A relaxed and enlightening session that fully addressed my/our needs (and more). I appreciated the summary of the key discussion points along with practical recommendations for both our current project and our upcoming project. The additional recommendations for reviving our evaluation data collection and interpretation as an organisation gave us something to work towards, share and inspire our fellow colleagues.
Both the analysis support and the navigation through ESS website resources was helpful as I could pinpoint those that could be the most useful to start with. I was reminded that it is always good to think about outcomes and indicators with a beginner’s mind as it helps to shift out of automatic mode and remember what the purpose of evaluation is, rather than just being another exercise to perform.
There was room in the session for discussion that flowed naturally. I felt that we had enough time to speak, ask questions, reflect and look at resources.”
A note about mentoring
Evaluation Mentoring focuses on supporting your learning, confidence and practice.
If you need support for a wider team, organisation or partnership, our Tailored Support service may be more appropriate. We will always help you identify the most suitable type of support for your needs.
Interested in Evaluation Mentoring?
If you would like to discuss whether Evaluation Mentoring is right for you, please get in touch. We would be happy to talk through your needs and help you choose the most appropriate level of support.