Case Studies

External Evaluation – Age Discrimination Training Project
Venture Arts

External Evaluation – Age Discrimination Training Project

Age Concern Halton commissioned an external evaluation of their two year pilot Age Discrimination Training Project.

The government has been working to eradicate age discrimination and have made recommendations in key documents such as the National Service Framework for Older People where standard (chapter) one is about “Rooting out Age Discrimination” in health and social care services. Age Concern Halton’s response to this agenda was to initiate a project that was developed, lead and facilitated by older people who would deliver training around age discrimination issues to professionals and workers in health and social care fields.

Maxine was appointed as the external evaluator to work alongside the project from the outset to capture the impact of this innovative important piece of work. The evaluation was to evaluate and consider the impact of the project on three levels:- older people who were involved in designing and facilitating the project, on training participants from health and social care fields that attended the workshops and on agencies responsible for delivering health and social care.

The evaluation process was carried out over 25 days spaced out over the period of the project using a range of methods to gather quantitative and qualitative information. The focus of the evaluation was to ensure that the voice of older volunteers and participants who attended training was recorded and heard.

The evaluation culminated in a full evaluation report with a separate executive summary which was circulated to many health and social care agencies in the Borough. This has been an important piece of work in terms of ensuring older people truly influence local services and raise awareness in Age Discrimination issues especially with Age Discrimination legislation coming into force in October 2006.

"Maxine enabled us to take a step back from the detail of the project and really look at what we were trying to achieve. She has a great ability to get alongside everyone involved and help to look at the work objectively and critically. The regular visits and reports always left us feeling enthused and energised, with a clearer focus on what needed to be done."

Melissa Critchley –Director Age Concern Halton

For more information on Age Discrimination and Older People’s Issues visit Age Concern Halton