This free webinar is organised by SRA Cymru and is open to all.

Sioned Pearce (Cardiff University) will present a critical exploration of evaluation as a concept within a state-led social policy programme.

She will argue that evaluation plays a part in the reinforcement and resistance of hierarchy in three ways:

• As a means of defining and ultimately producing (contested) constructions of value
• As a mechanism for securing forms of vertical accountability
• As a lost saviour: an entity with untapped potential for safeguarding a set of principles

Richard Thurston (Welsh Government) will respond.

Sioned is a Lecturer in Social Policy at Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences and currently completing her ESRC Fellowship examining devolved, sub-state policy to address youth unemployment and labour market precarity across the UK, and the role of civil society in this. Her interest in devolved social policy originated from a long term study of Communities First, the Welsh Government’s key policy to address poverty in Wales. This presentation will draw on that research and the more recent sub-state comparison of the four UK nations.

Richard Thurston is Deputy Chief Social Researcher at the Welsh Government.

This is a free event & everyone is welcome.

The webinar will be hosted via Zoom.