In today’s world of global wicked problems, constraints and imperatives imposed by an external and uncertain environment render strategic action a quite complex endeavour. Since the 1990s, within community initiatives and philanthropic projects, the construct of Theory of Change has been used to address such complexity. Theory of Change can be defined as the systematic and cumulative study of the links between the activities, outcomes, and context of an intervention. The area of focus for this paper is to explore whether Theory of Change can support more strategic approaches in design. In particular, the paper examines how Theory of Change was applied to DESIGNSCAPES - a project oriented, among other things, toward offering a supporting service for all those city actors interested in using design to develop urban innovation initiatives that tackle complex issues of broad concern.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the wider context in which the national evaluation of the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) was delivered and raise concerns about the sustainability of the early outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The paper briefly summarises the outcomes of a two-year mixed-methods evaluation. This included a two-wave postal survey (n=792) and follow-up (n=481), an online survey of adopters (n=586) and professionals (providers n=50, local authority staff n=124) and in-depth family interviews. The focus of the discussion on sustainability is drawn from the qualitative research of 10 local authority case studies based on 86 interviews with adoption teams and 33 providers and the perspectives of parents. Findings Whilst the ASF showed modest early outcomes for families in terms of improved mental health and wellbeing without the scaffolding of wider support of services able to understand the complex lifelong needs of adoptive children and their families, the sustainability of the benefits of therapeutic support is questioned. Adoption teams struggled with the increased burden of administration of the fund, their knowledge of therapeutic interventions, an evidence base and quality of provision from a market that is difficult to regulate. In a society that is failing to meet the mental health and wellbeing needs of children generally, how can a single intervention meet the needs of a very vulnerable group? Research limitations/implications Research and evaluation on interventions in children’s social care could be more systems aware and instead of narrowly focusing on outcomes pay attention to the complex network of services that interlink to support vulnerable children and their families and the restraints on resources that they are working with. Social implications To prevent adoption breakdown and increase recruitment of adopters, support for adoptive families needs to be improved beyond the current scope of the ASF. A wide range of services are required to support adopted children particularly as they grow into adolescence. While families have the right to live independently of social services, the awareness of their needs throughout public organisations should be raised particularly in schools. Originality/value This paper represents the views of the evaluators at TIHR of the ASF beyond the scope of the original evaluation. It reflects on the wider context of the role out of the Fund and raises important questions about the failure to support the mental health and wellbeing needs of the most vulnerable children in society. It is an organisation reflection drawing on early research in children’s social care from its archive.
This article explores the usefulness of Contribution Analysis to understand and assess the outcomes and impacts of emergent, large-scale and transformational change processes. As these take place over long periods of time and at national if not supra-national scale, they amplify some of the key challenges complex interventions pose to evaluators, most notably that of the emergence of activities and outcomes. While Contribution Analysis is discussed in the literature as useful for the evaluation of complex change processes, it is not usually recommended for experimental and emergent interventions. This article draws on the authors’ experience of using Contribution Analysis in one such case and explores the relative merits of the method for large-scale/transformational change interventions generally.
Since the 1990s, the framework of Theory of Change has been used to address complex contexts of intervention especially in relation to planning and evaluating social practice. Theory of Change can be defined as the systematic and cumulative study of the links between the activities, outcomes, and context of an intervention. The aim of this paper is to explore through a case study whether Theory of Change can support more strategic approaches in design. In particular, the paper examines how Theory of Change was applied to DESIGNSCAPES - a project oriented, among other things, toward offering a supporting service for all those city actors interested in using design to develop urban innovation initiatives that tackle complex issues of broad concern.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.