Evidence in the Real World: The development of Project Oracle

Download the Project Oracle paper

On 14 March 2012 we hosted an event for the Greater London Authority to announce the development and expansion of Project Oracle. To coincide with the event we published this paper examining why - in the words of a recent Education Select Committee report - "many services are unable or unwilling to measure the improvements they make in outcomes for young people."

Project Oracle is an attempt to try and remedy this. It is the only city-wide evidence generation campaign of its kind anywhere in the world. Led by Greater London Authority with a consortium of co-funders, it strives to bring evaluations of youth programmes - many of which are delivered by small or charitable organisations - in line with academically rigorous and internationally recognised standards of evidence, improving consistency and quality in our understanding of what does - and does not - work.

Project Oracle is now expanding and developing to encompass more projects delivering youth services and work with more funders of them. It will involve a 'matchmaking' service between social researchers and youth projects in London to enable them to effectively move up the standards of evidence, generating useable information for a variety of decision makers, and benefitting future policy and practice.

A summary of the event will be available soon