Short Abstract

Discover how the Monitoring & Evaluation Hub turns evaluation into action in DESNZ by ensuring evaluation is timely and action focused. This session shares real world examples from the smart metering rollout.

Description

How do you move evaluation from the margins to the mainstream? At the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Hub has taken on this challenge head-on. Our work spans influencing policy, shaping programme delivery, and building a culture where evaluation is integral to decision-making.

This session will explore the Hub’s dual mission: (1) ensuring that policies most critical to our mission have robust and timely evaluation, and (2) embedding evaluation capability and culture across the department. We’ll share insights from our work packages, which prioritise high-impact projects and tackle questions that matter.

We focus on the UK's smart metering rollout as a case study to illustrate how evaluation has informed real-world decisions and has provided actionable recommendations for programme design and delivery.

Beyond influencing individual policies, the Hub champions continuous learning. We’ve introduced frameworks, training, and communities of practice to build capability and confidence in evaluation. By fostering partnerships internally and externally, we’re creating a networked approach to evidence generation - one that values innovation and methodological rigour. This includes promoting mixed-method evaluations, encouraging experimentation, and ensuring that findings are communicated in ways that drive action rather than gather dust.

Attendees will leave with insights on how DESNZ embeds evaluation for action, strategies for cultivating evaluation cultures, and inspiration from a team that’s proving small hubs can have big impact. Whether you’re in academia, local government, a consultancy, or the charity sector, this session offers insights into making evaluation a driver of change - not just a tick-box exercise.

Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how evaluation in DESNZ can support decision-making in large programmes, and some practical takeaways on what the department is doing to make evaluation timely, proportionate, and useful. Join us for a candid discussion on what works, what doesn’t, and what’s next for evaluation in the department.