Service Evaluation

NHS service evaluations are a type of project used to assess how well a service is working. Unlike clinical research or audit, the purpose of a service evaluation is not to test a new treatment or compare interventions, but to understand, describe, and improve an existing service. It is about learning and understanding the impact of work that we do.

In simple terms, Service Evaluation asks the question:

“How well is this service working for the people who use it?”

Understanding what's happening in a service

Types of Service Evaluation may include looking at a new service or comparing services. Also, they may ask patients about their experience now and ideas for the future.

How can you involve patients and the public with evaluations?

A simple way is to ask them to describe their experiences or opinions. This starts with surveys but can include interviews and focus groups.

How do we know which projects to carry out?

There are some national projects that we must do, whilst others are identified by the service or formulated at our annual Improvement Planning day.

Examples of Service Evaluations

Evaluating and adapting new approaches

Our child and family service are enthusiastic evaluators. When they introduced a new health visiting programme for families with young children in 2017, they followed it up with a series of evaluations based on staff and patient feedback which are showing high levels of need and consistent improvements in delivery.

More recently in response to COVID, they have conducted an in-depth evaluation of the use of virtual consultations including over 800 responses which have helped us understand more about where, when and how this works best.

Utilising students, improving health outcomes and joint working

Our pain services in Portsmouth and Southampton are another group of enthusiastic evaluators who also involve students on placement in their projects. They have looked at reasons why some patients engage more than others as well as the positive health and quality of life outcomes that patients reports from individual and group treatments.

Understanding and developing the relationship that their work has with other Solent teams has also recently demonstrated the value of patients with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia being seen by a combination of the pain service and the Talking Change counselling service.

Making comparisons and considering patient preference in a digital world

Evaluations can also be used to make comparisons, consider costs and look ahead to future patient preferences. Our sexual health service have used all of these evaluation approaches recently. An evaluation that included cost comparisons allowed them to consider the differences between some branded and generic medications.

They have also conducted a range of evaluations asking patients about their preferences for using social media, video consultations and on-line chat. In an increasingly digital world, they have also demonstrated the effectiveness of on-line requested test kits.