This report provides a regional overview of the evaluation of all nine local change projects across three pilot sites within the Pacesetters programme in the West Midlands. The evaluation team, from Liverpool John Moores University, was contracted to work with 9 local projects across 3 participating sites between June 2008 and November 2009.

Background & Context

• Pacesetters was viewed as a partnership between local communities experiencing health inequalities, the NHS and the Department of Health (DH)
• Pacesetters initially sought to 'test' interventions through innovative approaches via small, discreet projects
• The resultant learning and models of intervention would be utilised to catalyse and bring about large-scale, system-wide, transformational, change
• Pacesetters was seen as complementing and strengthening existing objectives and priorities and as a catalyst for change and Improvements to Services 
• Criteria for project selection focused on the six equality and diversity strands: Gender, Religion, Age, Disability, Ethnicity and Race, Sexual Orientation (G-R-A-D-E-S)
• The 3 sites represent different organisational and geographical contexts serving diverse urban populations with varying levels of experience in community partnership and equality and diversity working
• The West Midlands team were first to develop ideas around an 'Associate' site spread; this informed both DH and the other 5 participating regions

The three strands chosen across each pilot site were:

• Wolverhampton Primary Care Trust: Disability, Ethnic Group and Sexual Orientation
• Heart of England NHS Foundation Acute Trust: Age, Religion and Belief and Gender
• Walsall Integrated Learning Disability Service: Ethnic Group, Disability and Gender

The Approach to Evaluation

• Principles of participatory evaluation have underpinned the approach involving stakeholders at the various stages
• The evaluation methods included:interviews with key stakeholders, local evaluation workshops, local project (management) support, evaluation capacity building with service users and providers, open space events and story-telling workshops

  Download the overall evaluation report