Evidence Gathering
To ensure that food projects are focused clearly on achieving outcomes for local communities, and making the most effective use of often limited funding, it is essential that evidence is sought to show a clear foundation and need for a project.
Food projects will frequently be inspired by an understanding of local needs and issues. This understanding can stem from statistical information and anecdotal evidence gained from working within a community. Evidence sought at the beginning of a project more easily allows the inclusion of measures of the effectiveness for the project and makes subsequent evaluation of the project easier. A good project will have a sound evidence base.
This guidance aims to help local authorities consider what evidence would be helpful in supporting thier prosposed project. It shows how to undertake an assessment of need and guides to a number of sources of statistics, both national and local, which can be used as evidence for projects.
This guidance is in three parts -
-
What evidence do I need?
-
How do I assess need?
-
Where can I find further evidence?
1. What evidence do I need?
What kind of evidence you need will depend on the size and type of your project and why you are undertaking it. For those considering a large project, funded by public money, then a full and rigorous process will be needed. Robust evidence is also critical to successful funding applications and award processes. For those who are undertaking a small community based project some initial research can help ensure that a project is as effective and targeted as possible.
There are two stages to utilising evidence to support a project. The first stage is gathering evidence and the second stage is to use the evidence gathered to assess need.
1.1 Statistics
Section 3 of this guidance provides a wealth of ideas and links to possible sources of statistics, some of which relate directly to health and others which provide evidence on broader public health issues.
It really is helpful not to think too narrowly when considering which statistics may be appropriate as evidence for your project, for example an allotment/community garden is likely to increase local fruit and vegetable uptake but it may also reduce vandalism/crime statistics because the community has more of a focal point or have a direct impact on community engagement and cohesion.
Statistics can also be sometimes be used as a measure of your projects effectiveness, although often in terms of public health the number of determinants are too great to allow a direct cause and effect to be shown. They can however give you ideas of the kind of outcome measures you might consider. For examples of how to measure change go to www.foodvision.gov.uk/pages/evaluation
1.2 Academic evidence
Academic papers are often focused on assessing the effectiveness or cost effectiveness of a type of public health intervention. Papers which comment on your proposed type of project, agreeing they are an effective measure, or outlining those aspects which do not work and suggesting alternative approaches, can be useful both in justifying your projects and also honing its content.
Some research papers can provide you with statistical evidence about a specific disease/disorder/health effect or a local area. These can be useful to set context or as part of your needs assessment.
2. How do I assess need?
A needs assessment should be undertaken early in the planning process of a food project. This ensures that you can understand if a project is needed and what difference it might make before you have invested a lot of time and effort.
A good needs assessment process will -
- Identify the needs of a target population in a particular area;
- Help to prioritise those needs to ensure better planning of local projects and effective allocation of resources;
- Develop an implementation plan that outlines how identified needs will be addressed through that project.
However, the approach you take will vary according to what you are aiming to achieve, and what funding you have.
2.1 Large scale needs assessment
Some needs assessments are large scale and undertaken by large organisations such as Primary Care Trusts or local authorities. These are often run to assess how best to develop publicly funded work or can be used to gain a broad understanding of public health and health inequalities in local area and how these can be addressed.
Guidance available on how to undertake large scale needs assessments from the National Institute of Clinical Evidence (NICE). NICE is an independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on promoting good health and preventing and treating ill health. Although the public health guidance from NICE is focused at a clinical audience it does contain helpful advice on how to approach a number of topics, including assessing needs.
NICE have produced specific guidance for those working with communities to consider the approach taken to community engagement and community development including collaborative methodology and community champions. The guidance aims to support those working with communities and guide them in ways to involve communities in decisions on health improvement that affect them. It is for people working in the NHS and other sectors who have a direct or indirect role in - and responsibility for - community engagement.
The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 requires PCTs and local authorities to produce a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) of the health and wellbeing of their local community. Guidance on undertaking a JSNA is available from the Department of health website. This guidance is wide ranging and assumes a large scale assessment but the principles, and in particular the core dataset of indicators, may be useful to smaller projects.
2.2 Smaller scale needs assessment
For individual community focused food projects, needs assessment may simply involve gathering a few statistics, and asking a few questions of the local community you want to effect, to find out if they’d be interested in supporting or joining in with the project.
If you are particularly interested in meeting the needs of deprived communities or are working with public money which will be later scrutinized, you will need to back up your research with statistics about the health, nutritional or other relevant needs of local people. Help finding these can be found below in the ‘Where can I find more evidence’ section.
Sustain has produced information on needs assessment when setting up food cooperatives at . The principles of the guidance are relevant to food projects in general and highlight nine key things to think about –
- What do you want to find out?
- Who is the information for? Just for your own planning, or will it also be used for a funding application? If so, then will the needs assessment answer the types of questions your funder might ask?
- How can you express your questions in plain language that people will understand and respond to?
- What specific questions will you ask, and will the answers really tell you what you want to know? (Long questionnaires may result in a low response rate.)
- How will you gather the information?
- Who is going to do the research? How much can you do yourselves and with which parts do you need help?
- Where are you going to do the survey, or find information?
- How much is it all going to cost? Draw up a budget.
- Your time is also valuable. When will all this be done? Draw up a timetable.
A good needs assessment will show you your project is a good idea and should also point to some outcome measures and evaluation methods.
2.3 Food Mapping
Food mapping is a very specific method to assess need solely in terms of food access. For more information go to: http://www.foodvision.gov.uk/pages/food-mapping
3. Where to find your evidence
3.1 National evidence sources
NHS Evidence service provides easy access to a comprehensive evidence base for everyone in health and social care who takes decisions about the use of resources – including clinicians, public health professionals, commissioners and service managers. It provides access to a range of information types, including primary research literature, practical implementation tools, guidelines and policy documents. Those with an interest in diet and health will use the national library for public health which has subsections on obesity and physical activity.
NHS Information service for health and social care This organisation acts as a hub for high quality, national, comparative data for secondary uses. They provide information for local decision makers to improve the quality and efficiency of frontline services. Primarily aimed at primary care trusts the information on this site can be useful to other especially the data at neighbourhood level and those on local levels of obesity.
Childhood obesity -The South East public health observatory take the lead on Childhood obesity, physical activity and obesity statistics. The statistics provided are listed with other resources including relevant NICE guidance & guidelines.
DEFRA – Food statistics pocket book. This annual publication contains UK statistics and has chapters on: Food Chain (beyond agriculture); Consumer Demand; Food Supply and Prices; Environment; Health; Food Safety; and Regional results. The publication is good for identifying trends.
DEFRA –Family Food report. An annual report setting out UK trends in annual expenditure on food and drink, both in the home and eating out and the derived energy and nutrient intake. It also has regional comparison. Most recent report available 2007.
Food Matters – towards a strategy for the 21st century. This report pulls together a selection of facts from a number of government departments (including those above) to paint a picture of food in the UK. The analysis report details a large number of UK food statistics on health and environment whilst the report
National food access statistics - This document from the New Policy institute gives an brief summary of food access issues and also outlines a set of key national statistics. It also gives an outline of a number of projects which tackled this issue.
National food waste statistics This report from Wrap gives statistics on the amount of food wasted in the UK and some idea of the reasons why. It also suggests ways of reducing food waste.
3.2 Where to find local statistics
The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 requires PCTs and local authorities to produce a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) of the health and wellbeing of their local community. This needs assessment will have elements relating to health and these may be useful in providing evidence for your local project. It should be available from your local strategic partnership.
To find your local JSNA enter the name of your local (county) council and the term ‘Joint strategic needs assessment’ into your search engine.
Association of Public Health Observatories produce to sets of useful local statistics:
Health Profiles. Health profiles allow you to have a snapshot of the health in your local councils area using key indicators. Using the e-atlas the profile can be compared geographically or over time. Indicators include: No. of obese children, % healthy eating in adults, and no.’s of physically active primary aged children.
APHO Good indicators guide this document aims to gives some background to the use of indicators in the health service, challenging their use and setting out how they should be used amongst other measures. Although specific to the health service the principles and thought processes are useful to those who are considering using indicators (such as those above) for evidencing their project.
Hospital Episode statistics Contain details of all admissions to hospital across the UK, allowing the identification in trends of disease in specific health authority areas. These can be viewed by region and local health on the interactive e-atlas
Office for National Statistics – Neighbourhood statistics. This site gives a large number of local statistics at ward level including both health and environment. The site also give a rank on the deprivation index for the UK.
Your Regional Public Health Observatory can provide you with a large range of intelligence and statistics specific to your locality. To find your PHO simply search for your ‘region’ & PHO in your search engine. E.g. North East PHO.
Your local council may have undertaken some local needs research which they can make available to provide evidence for your product. (Click here to find your local council). And / or your local PCT public health team may have undertaken local needs research which they can make available to you.
In addition to the sources provided above, some councils may have carried out other research about their locality. Research at this level could be to gain very general information about a local community or focused on specific needs. It would be worth contacting relevant services internally to see if any information is available or if research is planned.
For example, corporate policy teams may have information available at a broad locality level or children and family services may have information about this specific element of the local community.
IDeA Communities of practice – Local authorities can access the IdeAs communities of practice an online facility which provide a secure environment for knowledge development and sharing online. The healthier communities section may offer information and advice on evidence gathering.
Whilst this guidance is aimed primarily at Local Authorities it may also be useful for other grouops who are considering setting up a project.
Guidance produced November 2009.