Understanding Intermediaries’ impact – new resource launched

9 February 2018

The Scottish Government and Evaluations Support Scotland (ESS) have launched a new resource providing information about the role and impact of intermediaries, as well as the type of evidence to collect and report on.

The resource comes from a piece of work funded by the Scottish Government Third Sector Unit. ESS undertook a scoping report to gauge appetite for the work and identify what is working well and any challenges.

The scoping study involved desk research and dialogue with 13 intermediary staff members, including Children in Scotland staff, and five Scottish Government officials.

This was followed by a seminar in July 2017 attended by 39 people, including Scottish Government Officials and a wide range of third sector intermediary staff members.

At the seminar ESS was given a steer to develop the resource based on the findings from the scoping report and seminar.

ESS worked with a small working group to develop the resource. This included Simon Massey, Head of Engagement & Learning at Children in Scotland, and representatives from Social Firms Scotland, Voluntary Health Scotland, Built Environment Forum Scotland, Befriending Networks, Criminal Justice Voluntary Sector Forum, SCVO, Scottish Mentoring Network and the Scottish Government.

The resource was launched at an event in Edinburgh on Thursday 8 February which also looked at:

• effective dissemination of the resource
• the potential for providing more in-depth work on “how to” measures, and
• reporting on outcomes.

The resource can be downloaded from the ESS website with links available on this news page.