The government has introduced a cross‑Whitehall evaluation offer designed for pace and consistency. The Evaluation Services Unit (ESU), created by the Open Innovation Team in 2024, aims to make it quicker, easier and more affordable for civil servants to commission and deliver high‑quality evaluations.
Operating as an in‑house consultancy, ESU works across the full evaluation lifecycle. The team provides end‑to‑end support-from advice on scoping and design through to full delivery-covering both process and impact evaluations for programmes and pilots.
Access is intentionally procurement‑lite. Officials in policy, analysis, delivery and other functions can engage ESU without running a lengthy tender, with scoping and agreement of work achievable in as little as a week under the government’s announcement.
ESU works with all central government departments and arm’s‑length bodies, providing a single route to specialist capability. It partners with the Cabinet Office Evaluation Task Force to ensure activity is aligned, joined up and focused on generating decision‑grade evidence across government.
Since launch, ESU has supported a range of practical projects. These include trials focused on tackling organised exploitation with the Home Office; a randomised controlled trial of a police video‑call pilot with the College of Policing; and evaluations of Sanctuary Schemes for the then Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities).
For departments, the in‑house model is intended to provide specialist evaluation capability without the lead times associated with external procurements. This can help time‑critical pilots and programmes evidence impact earlier in the policy cycle and improve the quality of business cases and implementation decisions.
The offer is designed for teams that need structured support on scoping, design and delivery. With ESU covering process and impact evaluation delivery, officials can focus on policy and operational decisions while maintaining consistency with central standards through the Evaluation Task Force partnership.
Further information is available via the government’s ‘About ESU’ presentation (PowerPoint, 718 KB). Teams can contact the unit at enquiries@evaluationservices.gov.uk to discuss scope and timelines and to initiate work planning.