Using Evidence in Reports

This FrankGroup course, in partnership with Taituarā, teaches practical skills for finding useful data and evidence, judging if it’s suitable, and using it to take a project or proposal right through to a funding request. 

What you will learn 

By attending this course, you will learn: 

• the kinds of evidence that are useful and suitable for advice.
• how to use evidence to take a project or proposal right through to a funding request. 

Who should attend 

This course is suitable for local government officials who have no training in how to work with evidence, who want to learn to apply their evidence skills in an advisory context, or who want to understand funding basics. All career levels can benefit from this course. 

Course format 

The course consists of three two-hour modules. 

What is covered in this course 

Module One – Understanding evidence types for Council decision making 

• Breaking down an ‘evidence need’ into answerable questions. 
• The different types of evidence that could answer the questions. 
• Major data sets, and how they can help answer questions. 

Module Two –  Evaluating evidence quality and suitability 

• What are research, monitoring and evaluation, and how they can help answer questions? 
• Other evidence inside and outside your council, and what it might tell you. 
• Judging whether evidence answers the questions you need it to, and whether it’s good enough. 

Module Three – From evidence to action 

• What to do when the evidence available doesn’t give the full picture. 
• The basics of turning evidence into cost-benefit analysis to help with a funding request.