New VfI guide for UK public services

This new guide, commissioned by Verian Group, co-authored with Alex Hurrell, introduces the Value for Investment approach in the UK domestic policy context to meet needs that CBA alone can’t fulfil.

With the recent change of government in the UK heralding the establishment of an Office for Value for Money, I see a pressing need for value for money (VfM) assessment that can combine insights from cost-benefit analysis (CBA) with a broader range of evaluation methods and tools. So when Alex Hurrell, Head of Evaluation at Verian Group (formerly Kantar Public) invited me to collaborate on this new Guide, I leapt at the opportunity.

There’s more to value for money than CBA alone

This new document (King & Hurrell, 2024) fills a gap in VfM guidance, focusing on the relationship between CBA and other evaluation methods.

In the UK domestic policy context (and elsewhere), VfM and CBA are sometimes used as almost interchangeable terms. We challenge this notion. VfM and CBA are not the same, and conflating them impedes our ability to make good resource allocation decisions.

VfM poses an evaluative question about good resource use that we can answer using various methods, including but not limited to CBA. When assessing VfM there are compelling arguments for combining methods and tools from evaluation and economics.

An interdisciplinary approach

The Value for Investment (VfI) approach is designed to navigate this nexus. It’s an interdisciplinary system to guide the integration of theory and practice from evaluation and economics, with a set of principles and a practical process to support contextually responsive evaluation of VfM.

While we recognise the importance of economic analysis, this Guide advocates for a more inclusive approach that can integrate multiple values (social, economic, environmental, and cultural), diverse evidence sources (qualitative and quantitative) and stakeholder participation for more comprehensive VfM assessment.

An evaluation guided by the VfI system can draw on the strengths of CBA without privileging economic methods and metrics over wider evidence and criteria.

Complementing existing guidance

Our new Guide is designed to complement existing VfI guidance such as Assessing Value for Money – the Oxford Policy Management approach (King, Wate, Namukasa, Hurrell, Hansford, Ward, & Faramarzifar, 2023) and Value for Investment – application and insights (King, Crocket, & Field, 2023).

The unique contribution of this Guide is addressing the interface between CBA and broader evaluation methods and tools, including:

• How CBA contributes to VfM assessment

• When and why CBA alone may not be enough

• How to design and conduct a VfI evaluation that matches methods to context, incorporating CBA where feasible and appropriate

• Using VfI as a viable alternative when CBA isn’t possible.

In setting out these arguments, we acknowledge the UK Green Book as HM Government’s central guide for appraisal and evaluation, and the Magenta Book as its central guide for evaluation methodologies and practices across the policy cycle.

Pedigree and track record

This Guidance builds on my PhD research at the University of Melbourne (which developed the VfI approach), together with more than a decade of real-world VfI evaluations in diverse contexts, in collaboration with colleagues from the Kinnect Group, Oxford Policy Management, and many others. It also builds on the learning from ongoing collaborations to refine and publish aspects of the approach such as defining value propositions, incorporating break-even analysis in VfM assessments, and pushing the boundaries of VfM assessment. It includes content developed and refined through training workshops that Alex and I, with other colleagues, have delivered through evaluation societies around the world over the past decade.

The VfI approach has already gained considerable traction in the UK through the release of OPM’s guidance documents (2018, 2023), our ongoing collaborations in evaluations and VfM assessments, and our regular training workshops through the UK Evaluation Society. This traction was boosted when HM Treasury and Cabinet Office’s Evaluation Task Force began recommending the use of the VfI approach (citing OPM’s guide) throughout the public sector.

Bottom line

Given the increasing scrutiny on VfM in the UK and around the world, this new Guide aims to help those tasked with assessing VfM to design and deliver context-appropriate assessments that contribute to good resource allocation decisions and positive impacts.

Download the free Guide

King, J., Hurrell, A. (2024). A Guide to Evaluation of Value for Money in UK Public Services: Why cost-benefit analysis alone may be insufficient to evaluate VfM, and how to navigate a solution. Verian Group. Download.

Training is available

VfI training workshops are jointly offered to UK domestic public sector staff and consultants by Verian Group and Julian King & Associates. Training workshops can be provided online or in-person and can be customised to meet needs, typically ranging from three hours to two days duration. Workshops can be scheduled on request.

VfI training workshops for evaluators are also offered periodically through the UK Evaluation Society through a collaboration between Oxford Policy Management, Julian King & Associates, and Verian Group.

Contact us to discuss training options

Alex Hurrell
Head of Evaluation, Verian Group
London 
email alex.hurrell@veriangroup.com   

Julian King
Director, Julian King & Associates Limited
Auckland, New Zealand
email jk@julianking.co.nz