So, it’s tricky to measure outcomes and claim them as
‘ours’, but we would still advocate trying to answer the
bigger questions, rather than just measure outputs. It
is certainly valid to want to ‘deliver education to 300
children’, and this might be a good intermediate output
measurement of our progress, but this won’t tell us if
our education was any good, or if anyone was actually
paying attention. So it won’t tell us if we were successful
in creating the outcomes we want - changes to
attitudes, behaviours or the safety of our roads.
It is important to develop aims that are both achievable,
and can be measured, and this might mean a mixture
of ‘outputs’ and ‘outcome’ measures. Remember
outcomes can be harder to prove (and harder to
demonstrate that it was our actions that led to them),
but outputs can be a little artificial if measured on their
own.
Ask yourself:
Can you actually measure what you want to
achieve? If not, are there any valid ‘proxies’ that you
could measure instead?
Outputs:
Number of children
shown video, number
of leaflets distributed,
number of people
taking a safe driving
pledge.
Outcomes:
Observed levels of
handheld phone use*,
number of serious
collisions where
mobile phone use is
recorded as a factor**,
self-reported attitude
and/or behaviour
change.
You need to make sure that the outputs and
outcomes you identify are logical and possible
given your chosen approach (we know, we’ve not
got to that bit yet, but it’s coming). Logic mapping
is a really useful way of working through your
idea to see if there are logical links between one
activity and the next, ending up with the outputs
and outcomes you want. If there are gaps in the
logic, then what you are planning won’t get you
when you want go. A really useful guide to this
process is the DfT’s Logic mapping: hints and tips 1 .
* Of course, we need to consider if we have displaced
the danger on to hands-free use….
** Of course, we need to consider if anything has
changed in police recording practices….
¹ DfT (2010) Logic mapping: hints and tips for better transport evaluations. Available from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/logic-
mapping-hints-and-tips-guide
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