aes26 International Evaluation Conference: Full Schedule

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12:00pm ACST

Evaluating ‘value for the public’: Public value as a framework for assessing impact

Thursday September 17, 2026 12:00pm - 12:30pm ACST

Waterfront 3

Authors: Danielle Thornton, The Social Research Centre, Stephen Cuttriss, The Social Research Centre
The concept of value is at the heart of evaluation, yet conventional approaches to assessing value tend to focus on effectiveness, utility or efficiency as defined by commissioning agencies and governments. Realist approaches can help push back against the insistence that programs meet narrowly conceived outcome metrics or return on investment but may still fail to capture the range of social benefits generated. The invisibility of these forms of value to policymakers and economists can lead to perverse outcomes: to the recommissioning of ‘effective’ programs of little obvious benefit to participants or the broader community, and the defunding of initiatives that may meet community needs but not policy agendas.

This disconnection, between the types of programs communities want and need, and the programs that get commissioned, feeds into cynicism and distrust of the political class and government as a whole, and left unchecked, risks weakening the social contract on which democratic governance rests.

In this context the concept of public value, that is the social value generated by governments when they act in the public interest, offers an alternative framework grounded in democratic values. Whether as a practical means of accounting for value where impact cannot be quantified, or as a form of evaluative practice which centres the lived experience of citizens, public value asks that we assess programs not only on the terms set by governments, but also the extent to which they contribute to our collective wellbeing.

Drawing on lessons from an evaluation of a program designed to promote respectful sexual relationships among young people, this paper explores the applicability of public value as a framework for accounting for a wider range of social impacts and a method for making an assessment not of ‘value for money’, but the benefits generated for and on behalf of the public.

Speakers

Danielle Thornton

Senior Research Consultant, The Social Research Centre

Danielle is a qualitative research and evaluation specialist with over a decade of experience in evaluation and applied social research in the university and not-for-profit sectors. She has worked across a broad range of policy areas including indigenous health, early childhood, child... Read More →

Stephen Cuttriss

Research Director, The Social Research Centre

Social researcher and program evaluator passionate about epistemic justice, relational methodologies, evidence translation and program design.

Thursday September 17, 2026 12:00pm - 12:30pm ACST
Waterfront 3 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Roots and routes

Format Short paper
Audience Level Intermediate, Advanced
Industry Public administration and safety, Community and social services
ID 318

aes26 International Evaluation Conference

12:00pm ACST

Danielle Thornton

Stephen Cuttriss

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