Embedding Equitable Evaluation in Employability Provision (E4P)

Background to the work 

Young people frequently get asked to provide demographic information when they are engaging in youth provision, including employability opportunities. Demographic data collection has been built into England’s education and youth provision systems and structures for many years and, whilst organisations like the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and parts of the education sector have reviewed and revised what demographic data gets collected and how it is collected, at the time of the E4P project this had not led to a high level of consistency or clarity in practice.  

There had been no routine, formal review of demographic data collection to explore why and how we do this within the charity/voluntary sector specifically, and in the informal and non-formal education contexts, demographic data practices continued to lack co-ordination and oversight.   

Aims of the work 

E4P sought to begin to address this, with two key objectives:  

1. Explore knowledge, practice, and views on the collection and use of demographic data; and   

2. Co-create recommendations for changes that would result in better practices - with the definition of “better” to be first and foremost shaped by young people and practitioners.  
     

Project outputs and recommendations 

This work started in 2023 with a desk-based review and then, crucially, conversations with young people and practitioners directly. This work is brought together in an Insights Report (published September 2024) and a series of supporting resources, such as summary handouts. The perspectives of young people and practitioners are centralised in these outputs; highlighting some of the experiences, issues, and challenges that they raised, as well as their recommendations for improving the process.  

Following a period of consultation on the Insights Report, a series of final recommendations were published in March 2025, along with some additional Easy Read outputs that were intended to increase the accessibility of the key project insights. 

A final call-to-action is offered in this blog by Dr Peggy Warren and Catherine Mitchell. There is much work to do, and it is a complex task – partly because the charity/voluntary sector is so broad, with intersections across many other sectors such as healthcare, youth work, education, social care, youth justice, homelessness, and more – but it is essential if we are to improve the process for all involved and in line with our sector values.