Business Basic interim and full evaluation report

BEIS requires a contractor to support to produce an interim Business Basics report 21/22 and a final 22/23 evaluation report to present progress and findings for the entire 4-year programme.

Interim report 21/22

The interim report 21/22 will present findings to dates and set out details of the programme, unique design approach, projects funded, learnings to date, policy findings, policy implications and any recommendations for future approaches to Business Basics. This report will be a follow on from the progress report published in 2019 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-basics-programme-progress-report-october-2019)

The interim report will provide the contractor the opportunity to set the ground work for the final evaluation report in 22/23. There is also a requirement to support BEIS in ensuring that final reports from the individual projects are assessed to ensure reports are of a "standard" as set out in the BEIS evaluation framework.

Final Business Basics Evaluation report 22/23 The final report will amalgamate and set out detailed outcomes of all the 32 funded projects under the Business Basics fund and evaluate and report on the overall outcome and outputs of the programme. Content would be agreed with both BEIS and the contractor but would involve, bringing together lessons learnt, general findings and policy recommendations, scalability opportunities and present a case for more experimentation in policy making. This will support in embedding outcomes into wider business support policy and set the future direction for similar experimental programmes.

Please see the Additional information, below, for further requirements for the reporting.

Additional information: There is a requirement to report on: 1. An overview of the Programme and the experimental design of the programme, including its unique approach and value of findings. 2. An overview of lessons learnt covering process, implementation and policy leanings and their implications. 3. A discussion of the characteristics of the experiments undertaken of each project e.g. location, sector etc. 4. Undertaking robustness checks such as the sensitivity of findings to the structure of derived outcome variables. 5. The barriers that each funded project set out to address and the interventions tested. 6. Individual findings from each project - evidence of impacts and lessons learnt. 7. Where projects are closely related, a comparison of findings and explanations for why any differences may exist. 8. Recommendations for future research on individual projects including replication or scalability opportunities. 9. The robustness of findings and gaps or inconsistencies - A determination on whether the findings have not just 'statistical significance' but also 'policy significance. 10. A set of over conclusions/recommendation including, future approaches for the programme and policy recommendations. 11. Support with dissemination activities and stakeholder engagement. 12. Support in gaining internal approval of the report.