The challenge:

The Healthy Communities Programme is funded by the Department of Health and run by the Health Communities Team at the Improvement and Development Agency. The national programme aims to achieve a step change in capacity and capability within councils across England to tackle health inequalities and improve the health of local communities.

As the programme was about to enter its third year, we were commissioned to conduct an interim impact assessment to review the difference the programme had made and to capture learning and good practice.

Our approach:

We used a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches that involved focus groups, one-to-one sessions, small group meetings, an e-mail questionnaire, telephone interviews and a web-based survey.

We examined initial impact, learning, transfer into practice and results from the programme activity.
Over 170 people – including internal and external stakeholders and service users – across 54 organisations were contacted.

The result:

The findings were used to plan the priorities for the next funding period, which runs 2011. You can find a copy of the executive summary here.