Our vision for the Evaluation Action Plan

The FSA’s vision for this Action Plan is that it creates a climate in which proportionate, good quality evaluation evidence is consistently generated and used. This vision is grounded in our belief that effective policy and regulation needs to be evidence led, something outlined in our guiding principles.   

Strengthening our existing evaluation capability and skills and ensuring consistent practice across the FSA is key to achieving this. This section sets out our vision for what fortifying evaluation capability and skills will deliver. The next chapter provides detail on how this can be delivered.  

Anticipated outcomes of the Evaluation Action Plan  

The FSA’s Evaluation Action Plan is centred on strengthening evaluation capability and skills across the FSA. This will deliver the following outcomes:  

• increased understanding and awareness of the value and need for evaluation evidence
• increased capacity to design and deliver robust evaluations internally
• improved ability to commission evaluations with methodologies that are fit for purpose and in a timely manner
• improved ability to apply evaluation and monitoring evidence in policy development and operational delivery
• strengthening of an evaluation mindset among FSA.  

This last outcome – a stronger evaluation mindset – is perhaps the most important outcome of this Action Plan, as it will drive the realisation of the other benefits. Having an evaluation mindset means being focused on the organisation’s ultimate mission, rather than the success (or failure) of individual activities. This mindset means that evaluations, the findings of which can sometimes be uncomfortable, are seen as valuable learning tools which support mission delivery and organisational outcomes, even when they demonstrate that activities are not working optimally.