Most Significant Change: Applying the evaluation methodology in practice

Most Significant Change (MSC) is a powerful, story‑based approach to understanding how programmes create meaningful change in people’s lives. Rather than relying solely on targets or quantitative measures, MSC brings to the forefront the experiences, insights, and unexpected outcomes that matter most to people and communities.

Nick Andrews is a registered social worker and researcher who leads the Developing Evidence Enriched Practice (DEEP) programme at Swansea University. Nick has extensive experience using this evaluation methodology, and in this session he will explain how MSC can be used to:

• Capture authentic stories of impact
• Support reflective learning within teams and across systems
• Strengthen organisational understanding of complex change
• Complement existing evaluation methods in meaningful, human‑centred ways

Nick will share practical guidance on collecting MSC stories, facilitating selection panels, and embedding MSC as a learning‑focused approach to evaluation.

Who should join?

This session will be relevant to anyone who is interested in:

• Exploring alternatives to traditional metrics or target‑driven evaluation
• Strengthening community voice and lived‑experience insights in evaluation
• Improving how teams capture, share, and learn from real‑world outcomes

Location

This session is online only. You will receive the Microsoft Teams joining link for the session in the confirmation email once you have registered. If you are unable to join us in real time, you can register to receive a recording of the presentation and we will send this to you via email after the session.

Please see The Big Evidence Fortnight full programme for other sessions you might be interested in.