Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 2) | Page 88

Practice Issues
of information which begins right at the start of any project. It is necessary
to consider how knowledge will be translated and applied to extend its use.
Findings that do not translate into learning have limited use. It is good to
communicate the learning to policy makers, managers, health and social
care providers, health and social care users and community leaders.
Knowledge translation, when it is part of a project, consciously builds on
communicating research and findings to close the gap between evidence
and practice. What is required today is focused and dedicated investment
of time to seek out what is already known, translate it into application in
practice or in practical ways to services and programmes. We can then
evaluate the outcome from such conscious efforts.

What to evaluate
To evaluate, we should be clear about what needs to be evaluated and how
it is supposed to work. The purpose of the evaluation needs to be clear. It
should formulate useful evaluation questions and criteria or standards to
judge the performance. It also involves determining who will be the “judge”
of the performance.
A major challenge in evaluation is in understanding the causes and what
contributed to the results. It is also necessary to decide what to do with
contradictory information and who will help to identify possible explanations
for the outcomes. It is useful to have a participatory way of synthesizing the
data and information and deciding recommendations or lessons learned
and how these will be communicated to partners.
To finish well, findings need to be communicated to those who need them
most or can use them for further causes. They should be communicated in
ways that are user and audience appropriate and this may mean supporting
users to make use of the findings.

Designing participation
The aim of participation is to allow contribution, input, sharing and
involvement. As this involves the investment of time, effort and resources,
there is usually an expectation about what happens after participation.
Designing public participation processes requires us to analyse the context
closely, to be clear about the purpose of the participation effort, and to
iteratively design and redesign the process accordingly. Setting appropriate
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