We are keenly anticipating the arrival of the report following our latest independent external evaluation.

Our previous independent evaluations (Office of Public Management, 2013; Dr Mary Richardson, UCL 2014 & 2015; ‘Research Ally’ Moira Forrester, 2017) were interrupted by the pandemic. During that pause, we took the opportunity to reflect and refine our approach.

Rather than asking our evaluators to research intended outcomes and impacts using a case study approach in which the adult narrative tends to dominate, we’ve turned the approach upside down and used The Most Significant Change methodology to launch a bottom-up enquiry that puts children's voices at the heart of the research. 

What do Family Group children, parents/carers and school staff acknowledge as the most significant change that Family Group enables?

While we don’t yet have the results, I’m delighted to introduce the independent evaluators leading the work, who are both highly respected national experts in qualitative evaluation.

We’ve been incredibly fortunate to engage the services of these leading academics, who are working independently of any institution in conducting this research. Dr Amy Smail is currently the lead on Evaluation at the Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of Cambridge, and a Programme Research Fellow at UCL Institute of Education, Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment. Jonathan Schulte is Evaluation Lead at LSE.

Why we chose the Most Significant Change Technique (MSC)

Now in our fifteenth year, we saw a timely opportunity to reflect on how our unique therapeutic model has created meaningful, sustained change for children. We sought an approach that could truly capture the complexity of that change, not just through numbers, but through stories.

Children instinctively know how to tell stories, and storytelling brings the messy, personal, and relational aspects of their experiences to life in ways that other evaluation methods struggle to do.

What makes the Most Significant Change Technique (MSC) different?

MSC is a qualitative methodology, unique because it is participatory, collaborative, and especially effective at capturing the relational. As a social-justice oriented approach, the method begins with hearing directly from the children who have participated or are currently participating in Family Group to understand what change matters most to them and why.

We wanted each child to be the storyteller—the narrator of their own experience—telling us, rather than us telling them, what’s important. Crucially, they don’t just describe the change itself; they help us understand how that change happened. What made the difference? Was it a particular activity, a relationship, or the context created by being part of Family Group? Their insights help reveal the real conditions that enable meaningful, lasting change.

Creating a shared narrative of change

One of the key goals of MSC is to empower those who are benefiting from the programme. In this instance, since the children are the storytellers, their ‘Stories of Change’ were collated, then shared with other stakeholders who learn by reviewing the stories. These stories were also reviewed alongside other data, such as interviews and focus groups with school leaders, to build a clearer, more cohesive narrative of what constitutes the ‘most significant change.’ This approach allowed us to capture not only the children’s perspectives but also the views of everyone involved in the charity’s work.

The MSC methodology has proven to be a powerful way of giving children the agency to express, in their own words, the changes they’ve experienced. Applied to the Family Group context, it helps us uncover the real, personal outcomes of the work we’ve been doing—and crucially, why those changes have happened.

Beyond capturing what’s already been achieved, this process also generates valuable insights to help shape and improve the programme in the future. It strengthens our ability to work with schools, supporting them to understand the lasting value of adopting a whole-school, therapeutic approach.

The full report is coming soon—watch this space!