Big Lottery Fund

Through Realising Ambition we want to replicate effective, evidence-based interventions that support young people to fulfil their potential and avoid pathways into offending and anti-social behaviour. The programme is our first systematic investment in the replication and scaling up of evidence-based practice.

While there is a burgeoning body of literature on how best to replicate proven approaches, there have been few large-scale investments that focus on putting replication into practice. So through Realising Ambition we are putting our money where our mouth is – we want to learn more about what works and what doesn’t, and to disseminate our findings to other funders and interested organisations.

We have appointed the Tavistock Institute to undertake a comprehensive process evaluation of Realising Ambition. The evaluation will explore a number of questions, including:

• the relative success of different approaches to replication
• how organisations can best work together to promote effective replication
• the support – both practical and financial – that organisations need to scale up or replicate practice.

The partners who will deliver the programme for us will work with Realising Ambition projects to help them raise the standards of evidence they use to demonstrate their impact. They will also evaluate the impact of projects on the young people they work with.

Please contact us if you have any questions about our evaluation and learning plans.