We bring a lot of content knowledge, you bring technical expertise. If we work together, we should be able to get a better product than if we sit in our different camps and play it like tennis, bouncing things back and forth.
Eleanor Williams
Managing Director, Australian Centre for Evaluation
About This Episode
In this debut episode of It Depends, Matt Healey and Tenille Moselen are joined by Eleanor Williams, Managing Director of the Australian Centre for Evaluation, for a wide-ranging conversation on evidence, ethics, and embedding evaluation in the heart of public policy. Together, they explore what makes evidence fit for purpose, how to build meaningful relationships between evaluators and commissioners, and the everyday ethical dilemmas evaluators face. This episode is essential listening for anyone navigating the tension between rigour, relevance, and real-world constraints.
Key Takeaways
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1
Build relational, not transactional, commissioning relationships.
Trusted relationships between evaluators and commissioners allow for more open conversations that lead to better evaluation design and more useful findings.
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2
In-house evaluation capability adds real value.
Even when working with external evaluators, having internal expertise allows government to be a better commissioner and have more frank, vulnerable conversations about evaluation needs.
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3
Quasi-experimental designs offer practical opportunities.
Methods like stepped wedge designs and waitlist controls can work within real-world constraints such as phased rollouts or service backlogs.
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4
Match methods to questions.
Use frameworks like the UK Government's Magenta Book to identify which evaluation methods best answer specific types of questions, particularly causal questions about impact.
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5
Navigate "everyday ethics" thoughtfully.
Evaluators regularly face ethical challenges beyond formal ethics processes, such as requests to reframe findings. The key is distinguishing between substantive changes and reframing language to increase uptake.
Topics Covered
Resources Mentioned
- Australian Centre for Evaluation (ACE) — including the Commonwealth Evaluation Toolkit
- Relational Commissioning blog post — by Eleanor Williams and Skye Trudgett (Kowa Collaborative)
- UK Government Magenta Book — see Annex A on evaluation methods
- Australian Public Sector Evaluation Network (APSEN) — a special interest group of the Australian Evaluation Society
About Eleanor
Eleanor Williams
Managing Director, Australian Centre for Evaluation, Department of Treasury
Eleanor Williams is the Managing Director of the Australian Centre for Evaluation at the Department of Treasury, where she works to improve the volume, quality, and use of evaluation across the Australian public sector. With over 20 years of public and private sector experience spanning policy, strategy, and evaluation, she previously led the Centre for Evaluation and Research Evidence at the Victorian Department of Health. She is currently completing a PhD at the University of Queensland on how evidence is used in fast-paced policy environments.
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