Ecorys' evaluation of Moving on Tyne and Wear published

Ecorys has been evaluating the Moving on Tyne and Wear project (MOTW) since 2018. With £6.6m of funding from the Building Better Opportunities Programme (co-funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and the European Social Fund), the project provides bespoke support to people with health barriers to work across the Tyne and Wear area.

The project has been delivered by a partnership of ten voluntary sector organisations, with a core delivery team of 30 navigators, health pathways officers and job coaches. They have worked on a one-to-one basis with participants, providing flexible support focused on individual needs and goals. The programme also has an employer engagement offer, volunteering support and a team providing specialist support to those on the autism spectrum or with a learning difficulty or disability. The programme supported almost 2,000 participants; half of those had left with a positive result, including moving into employment, education, training and job-search.

Ecorys used a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the project’s progress. This included a before and after survey of 269 programme participants, case study visits to each of the delivery areas, and interviews with delivery partner staff, managers, other stakeholders and participants themselves. The evaluation also included an economic assessment of the programme; our cost-benefit analysis found that for every £1 spent on delivering the programme, £1.40 of benefits were generated.

The findings from each of the research strands were pulled together to create a final evaluation report, a summary report and an infographic. These usable outputs will support the project in their efforts to secure future funding.