Our latest thinking on the issues that matter most in economic and social development through our Viewpoint series, and our latest published reports. Our older Viewpoint ‘thought piece’ publications are available from the archive.
April 2022
The Student Engagement in Knowledge Exchange programme is supporting higher education providers to develop and share understanding of effective practice. SQW has been commissioned to undertake a longitudinal evaluation. Summaries of the first two formative reports have now been published by the Office for Students.
April 2022
The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund is an initiative delivered by the government-owned British Business Bank. It is a key part of the Government’s ‘Northern Powerhouse’ vision and provides Microfinance, Business Loans and Equity Finance to fund SME growth and development. SQW's interim evaluation has now been published.
March 2022
The Innovation Loans programme is a government funded repayable finance product seeking to bridge the funding gap for innovative SMEs. Our follow-on interim evaluation to assess programme delivery and the extent to which additional outcomes and impacts had been achieved has been published by Innovate UK.
December 2021
DFE supported nine areas to pilot a new approach to mental health assessments for looked after children. The aim was for the assessments to be thorough, high quality, accurate, timely and person-centred. Our evaluation identified a range of good practice as well as some key challenges.
November 2021
In 2018, South Warwickshire introduced Place Based Teams to support people with non-clinical needs. SQW undertook a qualitative evaluation of these Teams, in particular the multi-disciplinary teams that sat within each Place Based Team.
October 2021
Our study to assess the future skills needs of the Foundation Industries led to the development of an Action Plan, designed to address four themes: raising awareness of Net Zero and demand for skills; developing management and leadership; improving skills provision; and improving sector attractiveness