Involvement is a bit like a wedding – it’s easy to focus on the wedding day but the hard work comes in maintaining the marriage. With involvement, it is easy to focus on getting people together and setting things up, but it is the ongoing dialogue that will make a difference.
Local involvement co-ordinator

Why evaluation is important 

Evaluation is an important part of making involvement happen. You need to know if the work has been delivered effectively and if it has had any impact on diabetes care in your organisation, service or team.

Evaluation will help you to:

• Identify what works well and think about how to do things differently in future.
• Demonstrate the value of user involvement to senior staff by showing how involvement actually makes a difference.
• Celebrate success and recognise achievements.
• Share learning and improve the planning of future projects.

If you have access to expert staff, you may be able to do a thorough evaluation. If you don’t, follow these basic steps.