Our Approach to Outcomes and Impact – And Why it Really Matters.

If we’re not helping young people improve their Essential Skills, we are failing them, and we are failing at our mission.

That’s why we take outcomes and impact so seriously. And here are the building blocks to our approach – we must:

1. Be clear about what we’re trying to achieve and who we’re doing it for.
2. Measure the right things
3. Check if change happened – ideally, a positive one!
4. Compare our results with a counterfactual, checking if the changes we see are more than would have happened without our support.

The first three steps happen inside Envision, led by our Programme & Impact team, but supported by everyone here. Step four? That one’s harder… and a little scary.

Why? Because it is never straightforward to develop good counterfactuals – especially in the world of Essential Skills. It’s also because the answer might be uncomfortable. What if the change we see isn’t meaningful?

The truth is, we know most evaluations show that there is often little to no effect. Sometimes even a negative one. Of course, it is just a snapshot in time and should be a building block for more improvements. But it can also scare away investment or funding and really demoralise a hardworking team doing everything to have a positive impact on young people. A charity like ours wants to know that the work we are doing is truly making an impact.

But if you don’t ask the question, you’re only hiding from the answer.

That’s why, over the years, Envision has invited external specialists to take a magnifying glass to our work, and we’re excited to share a bit more here in this blog series. Because the most important thing isn’t always the result, but whether you’re willing to constantly ask the right questions!

Why Essential Skills Deserve Rigour

At Envision, we believe that the Essential Skills of communication, creativity, determination and teamwork are just that – essential. And just like academic outcomes, they deserve to be measured with rigour, challenged with high expectations, and celebrated when progress is made.

That’s why over the past two years, we’ve once again put our outcomes under the spotlight, building on our two, previous full Randomised Control Trial (RCT) evaluations, to find out what’s working in our programmes, and where we can do better.

What We Found

The results? Clear, independent evidence that Envision supports rapid and meaningful improvement in the skills that are proven to support young people’s education, employment and overall wellbeing.

We’re excited to share those findings. In this blog series, we’ll walk you through:

• A benchmarking evaluation conducted by dmh Associates in partnership with Skills Builder Partnership
• Our latest RCT, funded by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), Bank of America, and the Careers & Enterprise Company.

You can also view or download the full reports on Our Outcomes and Impact page, where we’ll continue to publish future findings and evaluations.

Why We’re Sharing This

We are sharing this because we believe in being transparent, accountable, and open to challenge. We’re proud of the progress, we’re committed to the learning, and we’re ready to keep doing better – for the young people we serve.

Stay tuned for the next blog in the series, where we’ll dig into what the data really says – and what it means for the future of skills education.