Posts tagged theory of change
Fed up with traditional Theories of Change? Try Dartington’s integrated approach.
Fed up with traditional Theories of Change? Try Dartington’s integrated approach.

There are many different approaches to producing a Theory of Change. It can be a tricky balancing act between bold ambition and feasibility. Go too big, and your Theory of Change feels unattainable and fails to become a useful tool. Get too boxed in by practicalities, and it feels uninspiring. 

We’d argue for a Theory of Change to be useful, it must adopt an integrated approach. We talk about the strengths of an integrated approach in our strategy paper launched early last year. We have been attempting to further progress it ever since (with a lot of success, failure, and learning along the way).

Read More
NewsBLOGresearch, Catherine-rose, Katie Potter, Ediane Santana De Lima, Cattanach, Kate, Kate Tobin, earlyyears, Scotland, Service Design, systems change, theory of change
Using evidence to improve - sharing our learning to date
Using evidence to improve - sharing our learning to date

We talk about evidence a lot at Dartington, and using evidence ‘in new ways’. We try to put this in practical terms without too much jargon, but we know it still sounds pretty abstract. What do we actually mean? Our new report tries to bring it all down to earth.

Read More
ReflectionBLOGfamilies, Young people, Programmes, Programme Adaptation, resilience, theory of change, Salford, Rapid Cycle Testing, Evidence, evaluation, Jenny
Discovering the shared importance of family resilience
Discovering the shared importance of family resilience

At Dartington, we have been working with Salford Council to develop a systemic Theory of Change for their Better Outcomes New Delivery (BOND) programme. In the course of the work with managers and practitioners from across the BOND programme, we discovered that family resilience was felt to be central to all the programmes – but also under-explored. What did it look like, and how could it be supported? We worked with teams to create a testable model of the dynamic causes of family resilience to underpin and inform subsequent work within the systemic theory of change for all BOND programmes. Here’s what we learnt...

Read More
ReflectionBLOGfamilies, Young people, Programmes, Programme Adaptation, resilience, Leanne, Keira, theory of change, Salford