Key points

•  The collection of data required for an evaluation should be planned before policy activity commences, where this does not occur an evaluation may not be possible or may be severely limited.

•  Ethical and data protection requirements need to be taken into account and planned for prior to collecting data.

•  Administrative, long term structural survey and monitoring data are important sources of evaluation data but where they are not available, or inappropriate, alternative data collection methods can be used.

•  Monitoring and evaluation are complementary activities, and ideally the design and requirements for each should be considered together, so that the comprehensive data needs of the policy can be considered in the round. This will facilitate the collection of relevant and high quality data and avoid duplication or missed opportunities for the collection of key data. Early identification of any existing data, or other ongoing data collection processes, that can be utilised for the evaluation will ensure best use of resources and effort.

•  It is important to design data collection tools so that they are consistent with relevant existing, or previous, data monitoring and collection tools to enable comparison.