Evaluation

What is the Let's Get Cooking evaluation?

The setting up of Let's Get Cooking's first 5,000 clubs is funded by £20 million from the Big Lottery Fund.  The success of Let's Get Cooking is measured against three key outcomes:

1. number of participants who learn a new food preparation or cooking skill
2. number of participants who use their new skill(s) at home
3. number of participants who increase their intake of healthy food.

Outcome (1) is measured via the activity reports that clubs submit.

A sample of 300 clubs are being randomly selected to take part in an evaluation, that measures outcomes 2 and 3.

How will clubs be chosen to take part in the evaluation?

Clubs are randomly selected to take part in the evaluation.  In order to make the research as unbiased as possible, clubs that are selected MUST take part. However, individual club members can choose to opt out.

Clubs are notified in writing that they have been selected to take part in the Let's Get Cooking evaluation and full details of their involvement are provided at this stage.

Will club members and parents/carers receive information about the evaluation?

Yes. All clubs must use the Template letters 4 and 5 (provided in the Let's Get Cooking Start-Up pack) to notify parents and carers that the club may be selected to take part in the research study.

Club members (or their parents or carers) may opt out of the evaluation if they do not want to take part.

How many clubs will be evaluated?

A sample of 300 clubs are being randomly selected for evaluation. A proportion of the total sample is selected in each year of the Let’s Get Cooking programme. For example, of the 500 clubs who start cooking in year 1,  50 (10%) of these are being evaluated. Only one cycle of activities in each club will be evaluated.

If our club is chosen, what will we have to do?

A researcher arranges to visit the club twice.  Club members individually answer a few questions about food and cooking.

After the club members have attended a number of club sessions, the researcher visits the club again and repeats the activity with the same group of club members. This includes questions about the skills club members have learned during the club sessions and then used at home.

More detailed information will be provided if your club is chosen.

Who will complete the questionnaire?

Every participant (in one club cycle) in the selected clubs is asked to complete the questionnaire twice – once near the start of the club cycle of activities and once after they have attended an agreed number of club sessions.

For example, a club may be planning a six-week block of club sessions with a group of 20 club members.  This group of club members is asked to complete the questionnaire at the beginning and end of this six-week period.

Will the questionnaire be simple to complete?

Yes, it will be a tick-box questionnaire or a card-sorting exercise. The whole group completes the questionnaire at the same time and this should take no more than 30 minutes.

Who will administer the questionnaire?

A researcher or trained fieldworker visits the club to administer the questionnaires. They explain briefly what the questionnaire is for, make sure that every participant understands how to complete it (some people will need more help than others, such as those with reading difficulties) and collect the completed questionnaires. The Club Coordinator or other adult helpers may also be asked to help some club members to complete the questionnaire.

Won’t it interfere with our cooking activities?

The evaluation takes place either in club time, or you might like to organise a separate session, for example, during the lunch hour. The whole evaluation exercise should take no more than 30 minutes per session.

Will any other research be done?

Focus groups are planned to further explore the effects of Let’s Get Cooking clubs. How this is done will be determined by emerging results. Not all of the clubs selected for evaluation are asked to participate in focus groups; this is an occasional extra for a smaller number of clubs.

What if some club members don’t want to take part?

If your club is chosen to take part in the evaluation, individual participants still have the right to opt out of completing the questionnaire if they wish. This is explained to them during the session. Let's Get Cooking provides a letter to parents and carers which includes information about the evaluation and a chance to opt out.

Will club members’ names be published?

Club members are not named in any report or publication. Each participant is assigned a unique number so they can be matched up to their two questionnaires. This enables the evaluators to compare the answers and measure change anonymously. Data is not available to anyone outside of the evaluation.

When will the results be known?

Data is being collected over a five-year period, but interim analyses are being conducted. Information about individual clubs is not available, but all clubs receive evaluation updates based on all available data.

How will Let's Get Cooking measure how many people learn a new cooking skill?

After each club session, the Club Coordinator (or other club member) completes a simple activity report. The activity report contains around 15 questions including the question ‘How many club members are attending a session for the first time?’ This can be a quick ‘hands up’ from club members and helps us to record how many people take part in Let’s Get Cooking (and avoids counting people twice). They are also asked what skills the club has focused on and how many people learnt a new cooking skill.

Activity reports are then submitted via the Let’s Get Cooking website.