David Parsons 
Demystifying Evaluation 
Practical Approaches for Researchers and Users

Social research practitioners and others working in the public and voluntary sectors, in academia and consultancy are increasingly under pressure to provide policy-related evidence with limited resources and rising expectations. Demystifying evaluation is an accessible introductory guide setting the foundations for tackling those challenges, explaining the options open to evaluators, their merits and uses, and how to make appropriate choices of research methods. Drawing on his experience of policy and programme evaluations for the public sector and outside, David Parsons provides a practical roadmap cutting across different evaluation theories. He covers issues such as managing expectations of evaluation, using and mixing quantitative and qualitative methods, engaging stakeholders and providing action-orientated approaches to help end-users.

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Prof David Parsons is a programme evaluator with over 30 years’ experience of independent public policy analysis in the UK, Europe and internationally. He is also a Visiting Professor at Leeds Beckett University, and Principal Consultant at P&A Research and Consulting. He has previously held faculty posts at the Universities of Sussex and Cranfield, was an advisor to the National Economic Development Office (UK), Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and European Commission and a specialist associate to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. He also leads the Social Research Association’s programme in Advanced and Impact Evaluation, and has acted as advisor and trainer on evaluation methods to numerous publicly-funded bodies in the UK.