|Title: ||Evaluating the early excellence initiative: the relationship between valuation, performance management and practitioner participation|
|Citation: ||Evaluation, 2005, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 331-349|
|Issue Date: ||Jul-2005 |
|Additional Links: ||http://evi.sagepub.com/|
|Abstract: ||This article focuses on an evaluation of the pilot implementation of the UK ‘Early Excellence’ programme, designed to improve Early Years services and achieve national impact. As with other ‘New Labour’ programmes, the evaluation approach was based on addressing the relationship between ‘context, process and outcome’; to facilitate this, nationally defined indicators were adopted through collaboration between a national evaluation team, local evaluators and local practitioners. This approach left considerable scope for interpretation and participation by local evaluators and practitioners, as they engaged in data collection and analysis. However, two major shifts later undermined the original scope: first, a shift from evaluation to performance management, and second, a shift from central practitioner participation to marginal practitioner involvement. In conclusion, we note the parallels and contrasts between this experience and others in UK public services, and propose some general learning points for similar evaluation initiatives.|
|Description: ||Full-text of this article is not available in this e-prints service. This article was originally published [following peer-review] in Evaluation, published by and copyright Sage.|
|Keywords: ||Early years|
|Appears in Collections: ||ESRI Research Group: Early Years, Language and Literacy |
|Files in This Item:|
There are no files associated with this item.
All Items in e-space are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.