Depaul

Evaluating a "payment by results" project

Fiveways worked with Depaul to evaluate their “Your Chance” project which supported vulnerable, homeless young people to find stable accommodation and access education and employment. As “Your Chance” was a payment by results project, extensive data was collected to evidence outcomes achieved. In order to clarify key learning and recommendations for the future, our analysis included:

  • A review of project documentation (e.g. board reports, project briefings)
  • Analysing and cross-referencing participant level project data captured on Depaul’s database – this involved 80 different data fields relating to the achievement of accommodation, education and employment outcomes and participant risk variables including mental health status, violence to and by others, use of drugs and alcohol, criminal activity, and harassment from others.
  • In-depth face to face interviews with young people who participated on the programme
  • Discussions with support workers
  • Interviews with representatives from referral gateways

Some of the feedback we received from young people was inspiring! “[My Your Chance support worker] has changed my life around completely. I never thought I would have seen my 21st birthday. I’m not going to lie I seriously would have been an alcoholic, druggie or dead. It’s the best service I’ve ever engaged in”

Our evaluation report can be downloaded here

“Fiveways delivered on every point of the brief. We are very happy with the final report which will be a useful guide for future projects. They were a pleasure to work with, they understood our client group, took on board our comments, met deadlines, and kept us in the loop at every stage. Nothing could have been done better.” – Rita Pilkington, Evaluation Officer – Depaul UK