Aftercare Funding Programme Learning and Evaluation Partner

1. Overview

The Aftercare Funding Programme aims to in invest in aftercare provision, so people affected by gambling harm have a better chance of sustaining their recovery and can live happy and healthy lives – whatever that might look like. The programme aims to:

• Invest in aftercare provision to increase opportunities for people to access appropriate services and support.
• Provide opportunities for current providers as well as new providers to access funds, building a pipeline of evidence-based interventions to become part of the long-term gambling harm landscape.
• Use a funding programme model to identify high quality projects to invest in, using an open and transparent decision-making process which stimulates the development of innovative ideas.

GambleAware is funding 10 projects across the third sector, investing a total of £2 million. Funding ranges from around £70,000 for smaller projects, up to £350,000 for larger projects. Projects vary both in size and funding length (between 18–36 months), and are located across England, Wales, and Scotland. Some funded projects have existing expertise in gambling harms, while others are new to this area.

2. The Evaluation

The evaluation design includes an overall impact and process evaluation of the programme and fund as a whole, ensuring learning and emerging insights are fed back to key stakeholders at GambleAware. The learning team will work closely with the funded projects, to help them develop a clear narrative of the change they are looking to achieve and how, provide advice and guidance on data collection and project level evaluation, and help to share learning and emerging insights.

The wish to deliver an equitable evaluation lies at the core of the design of this project. This means that participant ownership is essential, and that those affected feel they are involved in defining what “success” looks like and the set-up of the evaluation.

3. Methods

The process and impact evaluation will be mixed-method, triangulating findings across a range of sources. It will comprise four phases: a scoping phase and three main phases. The main phases include a rounded case study produced on each project; peer interviewing as part of an innovative learning exchange; and project reports on a minimum dataset (MDS). Running alongside the evaluation there will be a training and coaching programme for projects, who will be invited to play a central role in the delivery of the evaluation. This will include events and training; peer interviewing, including in depth training; support for the development of a mini evaluation framework and MDS for each project.