Thames Reach has conducted regular internal and external evaluation and monitoring of its GROW service user employment project since its inception in July 2005.

NEWS February 2010: Thames Reach has commissioned Kevin Ireland, of Compendium Consulting, to undertake a research project into the costs and benefits of service user employment in the homelessness sector.

Kevin's report "Walking the Walk" is available to download here.

Internal evaluation

Internal evaluation has included:

Feedback exercises with trainees, placement supervisors and life coaches about the traineeship programme
Statistical reviews regarding the impact of changes made to recruitment procedures on the direct employment of staff who have experienced homelessness
Project reviews by the GROW Manager

Feedback obtained about the traineeships is regularly analysed and changes are made to the project, accordingly.

Lessons learnt - 16 months into GROW - [221 KB] A summary of learnings after the first 16 months of the GROW user employment scheme

Trainee's Induction - Final Evaluation Form - [25 KB]

Statistical analysis of Thames Reach's direct employment of people with experience of homelessness - [45 KB] A statistical analysis has been performed from our HR monitoring data on: all applicants for vacancies; all interviewed applicants; all appointed applicants.

External evaluation

Thames Reach has commissioned The University of Sheffield to carry out a two-year evaluation of the GROW project starting in July 2006. The information and recommendations provided through this evaluation have helped to improve and shape the project over its life span.

Summary of Findings from Interim Report July 2007 - [136 KB] A Powerpoint presentation summarising the findings of the interim external evaluation report