We are seeking to recruit a diverse set of organisations to join our new panel of evaluators which, we anticipate, will demonstrate a wide range of interests and expertise in the evaluation of housing and homelessness programmes and interventions. We look to appoint independent evaluators to provide rigorous evaluation of the implementation, process, cost and impact of interventions, programmes and policies. 

Individual organisations will not be expected to work in all of these methodologies, however our expectation is that the panel will collectively offer the following expertise:

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• Randomised controlled trial design and analysis
• Quasi-experimental methods, including difference in differences, matching, synthetic controls, among others
• Small-n evaluations, including process tracing, contribution analysis, among others
• Systems-wide evaluations, including system mapping and system dynamics, discrete event simulation modelling, among others
• Implementation and process evaluation, including qualitative research methods
• Cost-benefit analysis/value for money assessments 
• Pilot evaluation (including studies to test the feasibility interventions, or pilot randomised-controlled trials)
• Primary data collection
• A strong understanding of the homelessness and housing policy environment across the UK (not just England)

The rationale for setting-up this panel is to ensure information on our commissioning opportunities reaches a pool of specialist organisations to partner with us. This panel will streamline the commissioning process for evaluation, by allowing us to develop an understanding of the organisations on our panel prior to each commissioning round. 

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How we will use the panel of evaluators

We plan to continue research and evaluation with local authorities, charities and other organisations and groups working to end homelessness. For each specific project, CHI will run two parallel Invitation to Tender (ITT) processes:

• One for partner(s) that will generally be running the activity which we are seeking to evaluate (for example, triage tools). 
• One for evaluation partner(s) to provide independent, rigorous evaluation of the implementation, process, cost and impact of the activity being run.

For each evaluation partner ITT process, CHI will run a short competition and evaluators on the panel will be expected to complete a proposal to apply for that project. Evaluators are encouraged to collaborate with other organisations and experts to complement their experience and expertise, if needed. These may include subject expertise in a specific topic from organisations not included in the panel of evaluators. 

We will develop guidance documents and application forms which clearly specify the parameters of the work to be undertaken and how applications will be scored. For each project, the ITT for evaluation partners will only be open to our evaluation panel.

It is important to note that CHI is also seeking to develop evaluation expertise and capability within the sector. Therefore, while we will continue to appoint independent evaluators to our projects, they may be encouraged to collaboratively work on elements of impact evaluation and process evaluation with delivery partners. The exact scope of the evaluation will be determined on a case-by-case basis with input from CHI’s advisory groups and will take into account the need for independent evaluation versus the drive to build capability in the sector.

With this in mind, evaluators will need to be prepared to be responsible for leading on all activities evaluation, including protocolisation (consistent with CHI’s approach), seeking research ethics approval, data collection, randomisation (where appropriate), coordinating and conducting qualitative research and fieldwork, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and economic analysis. 

We anticipate reviewing membership of the panel every two years and inviting new organisations to apply, as well as reviewing the participation and performance of panel members at this stage.

How to apply 

Please download the application pack to find out more.

To apply, please complete the expression of interest form in Annex 1, which you can download here.

If you have any questions about the Evaluation Panel or the application process, please get in touch with Guillermo Rodriguez-Guzman by 17^th February 2023 with the subject line ‘Panel of evaluators query’. You can get in touch with Guillermo on Guillermo@homelessnessimpact.org

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