Appraisals, business cases,evaluations,
matched to project size
PolicyDepartment builds business cases and appraisals, and designs and delivers process and impact evaluations and light-touch reviews. We follow HM Treasury's Green Book and the Magenta Book, programme-specific evaluation frameworks (where they exist), and we scale the work appropriately to the size of the funding envelope.
The Appraisal and Evaluation Readiness Checker
TRY IT - 20 SECONDS
Tell us what you need, the stage, the audience and the scale. We match you to a proportionate framework, with the methods, indicative sample sizes and ethics to plan for.
Principles underpinning a credible appraisal or business case
01
A clear case for change, with SMART objectives and strategic fit
Set out why intervention is needed and what success looks like, so everything that follows is anchored to a defined problem rather than a preferred answer
03
A credible counterfactual to appraise the short-list against
Compare each option to a realistic do-minimum, because the value of an intervention is only the difference it makes over what would have happened anyway
05
Robustness tested through sensitivity analysis and switching values
Show how the result holds when key assumptions move, and identify the point at which the decision would change, so confidence is earned rather than asserted
02
Genuine options, generated and narrowed through an options framework
Put real alternatives on the table and filter a long-list down to a short-list transparently, rather than reverse-engineering the case for a decision already made
04
Honest value for money, adjusted for optimism bias
Weigh social costs and benefits against the counterfactual and correct for the systematic tendency to overstate benefits and understate costs and timescales
06
Built to be delivered and evaluated, with monitoring designed in from the start
Carry the commercial, financial and management cases through to deliverability, and bake in the data and indicators a later evaluation will need before delivery begins
WHAT WE DO
The support we offer for project and programme design and review
Whether you are exploring the case for investment or testing whether it worked, the output is built for the decision-making process and audience
Business cases (Five Case Model)
The strategic, economic, commercial, financial and management cases, written to SOC, OBC or FBC level.
Economic appraisals
Options appraised against a do-minimum counterfactual, with optimism bias, social value and sensitivity analysis
Evaluation frameworks
A theory of change, evaluation questions and a proportionate design, set up before delivery wherever possible
Process and impact evaluations
What was delivered and why, or what difference it made and how much can be attributed to it.
Light-touch reviews
A rapid, proportionate assessment, often when funding arrangements change and a full evaluation is not yet justified
Monitoring and evaluation plans
The KPIs and data to capture from day one, so the programme can be evaluated well later.
HOW WE WORK
Scope, design, deliver honestly
Design proportionately to the funding and the decision-making process, straight reporting of findings
Step 01
Scope and evaluability
Clarify the objectives and theory of change, define the questions, and check what is feasible given data, timing and budget
Step 02
Design proportionately
Match the method to the decision-making process and the funding envelope, building in the data a credible ex-post evaluation will need later down the line
Step 03
Deliver and report honestly
Carry out the work and report the findings, and the limits of attribution, in a way funders and partners can act on
A RECENT COMMISSION
An impact and performance framework for a UK public body
CLIENT
Office of the Small Business Commissioner
YEAR
2026
SERVICE AREA
Evaluation and Impact
The Office of the Small Business Commissioner wanted to evidence how its activities reduce the burden of late payment on small businesses, beyond headline economic statistics. PolicyDepartment built a theory of change linking activities to short, medium and long-term outcomes, designed an attributable set of impact metrics for small businesses and larger firms (each with a data source and reporting frequency), gathered supporting evidence, and set out a practical tracking framework the body could run itself. The result was a concise, board-ready impact and performance framework, with clear recommendations for how to measure and report impact over time.
"PolicyDepartment helped us set out clearly how the Office of the Small Business Commissioner makes a difference for small businesses. They delivered a practical framework for measuring and evidencing our impact, together with an excellent report and board presentation that we are taking forward in how we report our work. It was a pleasure to work with them."
EMMA JONES CBE, UK SMALL BUSINESS COMMISSIONER
QUESTIONS CLIENTS ASK