Helen Barnard, Director of Policy & Research, Trussell Helen Barnard was formerly Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Research and Policy Director at Pro Bono Economics. She is a leading national expert on poverty, inequality and social policy. Her extensive body of research and policy work have covered poverty, destitution, labour markets, housing, social security and civil society. She is author of ‘Want (Giants: a new Beveridge Report)’ which examines modern day poverty and the institutions and reforms required to address it.

		James Yarde, Head of Impact and Evidence,Trussell James leads Trussell's team of highly skilled evaluators and data analysts, whose work informs strategic decision-making and use data insights to inform policy and campaigns. Prior to joining Trussell, he led the Sutton Trust's impact evaluation work, with specialism in quantitative evaluation approaches. James' background is as a quantitative analyst and survey methodologist and he has worked on a range of national surveys, including British Social Attitudes (BSA), the COVID Social Mobility and Opportunities Study (COSMO), and the Family Resources Survey (FRS).

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Equ(al)ity, diversity and inclusion as a concept has been widely present in professional life for long enough that the acronym EDI rarely needs an explanation. But with this acronym’s infiltration, the terms ‘lip service’, ‘box ticking’ and ‘peripheral bolt on’ often accompany it. Truly embedding EDI into processes, programmes and culture requires systemic change. An alternative meaning of EDI can be used to identify, support, and implement that change: Evaluation -> Decisions -> Impact. Evaluation professionals (generally) aim for evidence from evaluations to be used to inform decision making, and UKES 2026 is all about that part of the evaluation process – what works, what doesn’t, and how can we do it better. But what happens when our evaluations are not equitable? What decisions are made when diverse populations are not considered? What is the impact of decisions on those that are not included in the data? In this interactive panel session, UKES Vice Chair Dr Fiona Larner discusses the real life consequences of not considering equ(al)ity, diversity and inclusion in evaluation and decision making, with data, evaluation and policy experts striving to advocate for marginalised groups, and explores how evaluation professionals can drive a cultural shift by embedding EDI in their work.

		Celia Chartres-Aris, Government Special Advisor, & Co-Founder of Disabled By Society Celia Chartres-Aris is a multi-award winning Disabled Government special advisor, campaigner and lobbyist, researcher, policy and legal expert, founder of multiple Disabled-led organisations and an investor focused on improving the equity of deal flows. Celia has received multiple awards recognising her work including being named The Most Influential Disabled person in the UK, on The Global Diversity Leaders list, and a Global Future Young Leader. She is also the author of the bestselling book Unlearning Ableism.

		Reema Vadoliya Reema Vadoliya is a UK-based data practitioner with over 10 years’ experience working across multiple roles in the data and insight space. She specialises in making data more accessible, ethical and human-centred, helping organisations move beyond metrics to understand the stories and experiences behind the numbers. Reema has worked with charities, social enterprises, public sector bodies and industry teams to design approaches that centre equity, lived experience and care in how data is collected, interpreted and used.

		Sophie Wall, Head of Strategy and Learning, Mission 44 Sophie Wall is Head of Strategy and Learning at Mission 44, a charity founded by Formula 1 driver Sir Lewis Hamilton. She leads the organisation’s approach to strategy, evaluation, and organisational learning, embedding a culture of curiosity and continuous improvement to ensure strategic insights guide decision-making. Previously, Sophie held roles at Turn2us and Unlocked Graduates, where she designed and delivered a range of evaluation projects.

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		Hetan Shah, Chief Executive, The British Academy Hetan Shah is chief executive of the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. He is Chair of Our World in Data, a website providing long run data and evidence on global challenges. Hetan was appointed in 2024 by the UK Parliament to the board of the National Audit Office, the UK’s independent spending watchdog. He is Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, Kings College London and a Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London. Hetan serves on a number of advisory boards including at the Resolution Foundation and UCL’s Policy Lab.

The politics of evaluation
Hetan will ask about when evaluation matters, and why it often does not make a difference. He will consider how politics in the widest sense is a major factor in whether evaluation has an impact, and what this might mean for the evaluation community. He will encourage looking more widely at successful examples such as the National Audit Office and what can be learned. Hetan will also make the case that the evaluation community should draw common cause with the world of official statistics to ensure that essential data infrastructure is maintained.

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This panel will bring together leaders from economics, evidence translation, academia, policy advisory systems and the humanities and social sciences to explore how evaluation evidence can be generated, mobilised and governed to improve public decision‑making. Strategic and reflective, the session will draw on panellists’ practical experience across sectors.

This panel will:
• Examine how evaluation evidence is currently used (and misused) in policy and public service decision‑making
• Explore the institutional, political and organisational conditions that shape evaluation evidence uptake
• Consider how evaluation, academic research and “what works” approaches can better connect to real‑world decisions
• Identify practical implications for funders, governments, universities and intermediaries

		Andrew Leicester, Executive Director, Frontier Economics Andrew is Frontier's Head of Evaluation and co-leads its Public Policy Practice. With more than a decade experience in evaluation, he has particular interest in policies to promote productivity, innovation and industrial strategy, and expertise in evaluating policy impacts on businesses, sectors and the wider economy. Key clients include UKRI, DSIT, DBT and DfT. He has also written on value for money, and the need to link appraisal and evaluation more closely.

		Aoife O'Higgins, Director of Evidence, Foundations: What Works Centre for Children and Families Aoife O’Higgins is Director of Evidence at Foundations, the National What Works Centre for Children and Families, where she leads research, evaluation, and grant‑making to strengthen evidence based support for children and families. She also contributes to teaching and academic supervision at Oxford’s Department of Social Policy and Intervention. Her work focuses on building rigorous, policy‑relevant evidence to improve outcomes for children, especially those with experience of children's services.

		Sarah Pearson, Dean of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange, Sheffield Hallam University Sarah Pearson is Professor of Social Policy Research at the Centre for Regional Economic Research and Dean of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange at Sheffield Hallam University. She is an expert in neighbourhood renewal and community engagement. She is Director of the Centre for Collaboration in Community Connectedness, a recent £10m UKRI investment under its Creating Opportunities, Improving Outcomes priority. The Centre brings together researchers, practitioners, policy makers, funders and residents to deliver an ambitious vision for better connected communities across the UK.

		Dr Justin Parkhurst, Associate Professor of Global Health Policy, LSE Department of Health Policy Dr Parkhurst’s research interests lie in global health politics and policy, as well as the political nature of evidence use to inform policy decisions. He is the author of the Open Access book The Politics of Evidence: From Evidence Based Policy to the Good Governance of Evidence; and is currently co-leading an NIHR supported project on Systems of Evidence to Inform Health Policy in Africa (SEIHPA) which studies evidence advisory systems in Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda and Uganda.

		Hetan Shah, Chief Executive, The British Academy Hetan Shah is chief executive of the British Academy, the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. He is Chair of Our World in Data, a website providing long run data and evidence on global challenges. Hetan was appointed in 2024 by the UK Parliament to the board of the National Audit Office, the UK’s independent spending watchdog. He is Visiting Professor at the Policy Institute, Kings College London and a Fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London. Hetan serves on a number of advisory boards including at the Resolution Foundation and UCL’s Policy Lab.

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		Sam Freedman, Senior Fellow, Institute for Government Sam Freedman is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and writes regularly on politics and policy for the Observer the FT and others. Sam’s politics substack newsletter ‘Comment is Freed’ is the most popular in the UK and has over 80,000 subscribers. His first book “Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How to Fix It” was released in 2024, made the Sunday Times bestseller list and was named an Economist, FT and Daily Telegraph book of the year. Sam is also a senior adviser to the education charity Ark; Vice-Chair of Ambition Institute; and a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

What does it really take to get policymakers to engage with evaluation?
Not just read the report—but to use it. To act on it. To let it shape decisions in real time. In his keynote, Sam will explore why evaluation so often struggles to land with policymakers and how we can better bridge the gap between evaluation and action. If your work sits anywhere near policy, influence, or impact—this is one conversation you won't want to miss.

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		Andi Fugard, Director, IFF Research Dr Andi Fugard is a social policy evaluator and Director at IFF Research, specialising in quantitative impact evaluation. With over 15 years’ experience, they have led evaluations commissioned by government departments and What Works Centres, spanning policy areas including crime and justice, mental health, and education. Previous roles include leading evaluation teams at Verian, the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), and Anna Freud, as well as holding academic posts in social research methods and statistics at University College London and Birkbeck.

		Shivonne Gates, Evaluation Manager, Money and Pensions Service Dr Shivonne Gates is an evaluation specialist who believes strongly in purpose-driven evaluation activities that inform impactful programme design. She has designed, delivered and commissioned a broad range of evaluations of interventions seeking to tackle social problems affecting children and young people. She also has extensive experience conducting qualitative research exploring race and ethnicity, youth identities, and linguistic practice. Her previous work experience includes the National Centre for Social Research, Youth Futures Foundation, Frontline, and Class 13.

		Fatima Husain, Head of Business Development, The National Centre for Social Research Dr Fatima Husain is a social policy researcher and, currently, Head of Business Development at the National Centre for Social Research. She has led evaluations commissioned by public sector clients and WWCs across a range of policy areas including employment, education, child poverty, and children and family policy, more broadly. With a deep commitment to equity and inclusive research practice, she is a Race Equity Associate for the Youth Endowment Fund, on the Research Advisory Panel for Equi and recently served as a Trustee for Class 13.

		Levin Wheller, Deputy Director, Head of the Evaluation Task Force Levin is an Evaluation Lead in the Evaluation Task Force (ETF), a joint Cabinet Office and HM Treasury team set up in April 2021 to deliver a step change in the scale, quality and impact of evaluation in government. Levin works with HM Treasury spending teams and analytical teams in departments to help develop robust evaluation plans in areas of priority spending. Levin also leads the delivery of the Evaluation Accelerator Fund, which aims to drive forward evaluation activity and create actionable evidence in government priority areas.

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		Isabelle Bourgeois, Ph.D, Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Canada Isabelle Bourgeois, Ph.D., holds the positions of Full Professor at the Faculty of Education and is the inaugural holder of the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue Professorship on Public Policy at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Her ongoing research work focuses on measuring and building organizational evaluation capacity (EC) in the public and community sectors, as well as evidence and research use by policymakers. Dr. Bourgeois was the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation from 2017 to 2022. She has received multiple awards for her work, including the Karl-Boudreault Award for Leadership in Evaluation from the National Capital Chapter of the Canadian Evaluation Society (2017), the Parenteau award from the Canadian Public Administration journal (2021), the Contribution to Evaluation Award from the Canadian Evaluation Society (2025), and the University of Ottawa’s Knowledge Mobilization Award (2025).

From Insight to Impact: Reimagining Evaluation for Real-World Change
Evaluation’s potential to drive real-world change depends not only on the quality of its findings, but on the systems and cultures that enable their use. Over the past two decades, research on evaluation capacity has underscored the importance of individual competencies, leadership support, and institutional structures in fostering sustainable evidence use. These insights resonate with broader scholarship on evidence-informed policymaking, which highlights organizational readiness, political context, and trust as critical factors shaping whether, and how, evidence informs decisions.
This keynote examines how strengthening organizational evaluation capacity can serve as a strategic lever for embedding evidence into policy and program development. Rather than viewing evaluation capacity as an individual set of competencies held by evaluators and evaluation users, we position it as a foundational component of organizations that value and act upon evaluative evidence to foster learning and improve policies and programs.
Through concrete examples, we will explore how evaluators can become partners in shaping more responsive, equitable, and learning-driven systems—moving evaluation from the margins of decision-making to the heart of organizational change.

Bio
Isabelle Bourgeois, Ph.D., holds the positions of Full Professor at the Faculty of Education and is the inaugural holder of the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue Professorship on Public Policy at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Her ongoing research work focuses on measuring and building organizational evaluation capacity (EC) in the public and community sectors, as well as evidence and research use by policymakers. Dr. Bourgeois was the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation from 2017 to 2022. She has received multiple awards for her work, including the Karl-Boudreault Award for Leadership in Evaluation from the National Capital Chapter of the Canadian Evaluation Society (2017), the Parenteau award from the Canadian Public Administration journal (2021), the Contribution to Evaluation Award from the Canadian Evaluation Society (2025), and the University of Ottawa’s Knowledge Mobilization Award (2025).

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This exclusive panel, chaired by headline sponsor Ipsos, will explore the journey of professionalisation in evaluation across different sectors, including insights from academia, private sector, and professional societies. It will delve into diverse pathways and critically discuss where evaluation started, our current position, and our aspirations for the future. The discussion aims to uncover both commonalities and differences across sectors with implications for the future for everyone who works in evaluation in the UK.