Evaluability Assessment of Rediscover the Joy of General Practice

Research and Evaluation Programmes 2024-2025

Evaluability Assessment of Rediscover the Joy of General Practice

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Project background: What and Why

The evaluability assessment of Rediscover the Joy (RtJ) of General Practice Programme aims to determine whether the programme is ready for a formal evaluation. The programme is a collaborative project across seven Health Boards in Scotland that recruits GPs from around the UK to its Rural GP Support Team by providing GP cover to general practices. This evaluability assessment involves assessing the clarity of programme objectives, the availability of necessary data, the feasibility of evaluation methods, and the engagement of stakeholders. The assessment will ensure that a subsequent full evaluation can be conducted effectively and efficiently.

The objectives are:

To determine if the programme can be evaluated effectively.
To identify any gaps or issues that need to be addressed before a formal evaluation.
To ensure that all stakeholders are aligned on the programme's objectives and outcomes.
To establish a clear understanding of the programme's implementation process and its expected impacts.

An evaluability assessment ensures that the programme's design, implementation, and data collection processes are robust enough to support a meaningful evaluation, thereby maximising the potential for useful and actionable findings.

Project description: Who and How

The evaluation will be undertaken using a mixed-methods approach, including desk-based review and analysis of existing data and reports, qualitative evaluation methods, including semi-structured interviews with GPs, practice managers and board strategic leads. This will provide insights into programme operations and objectives and understandings of the effectiveness in providing GP cover to remote, rural and island (RRI) general practices. Logic Model outlining the programme’s inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts will be developed to help visualise the programme’s Theory of Change (ToC) and identify any gaps. Finally, feasibility analysis to evaluate the resources available for conducting a formal evaluation of the programme will be performed.

Expected outcome: When and What Difference

This evaluability assessment will be completed in a condensed timeframe from July 2024 to January 2025. The main output of this evaluability assessment is to inform operational improvements and ultimately to support the achievement of better evaluation results. This is important to provide quick, constructive recommendations that can be used to help improve the programme and to assist in producing more effective evaluation in the future. The Logic Model and ToC are also expected to contribute to a broader change in the activities and outcomes of the programme. The ToC, which will serve as a guide for the assessment, will reflect our understanding of the programme that was established through reviewing available documents and interviews with key stakeholders. It will also be used as a starting point for evaluating the programme's progress in providing GP cover for general practices.

The resulting evidence will be written up into a comprehensive report, including an overview of the assessment process, key findings, and recommendations for proceeding with a full evaluation. The results will also be presented to relevant stakeholders and the Scottish Government.