Catherine Hutchinson, Head of the Evaluation Task Force, shares her views on policy evaluation in government in the new “A Modern Civil Service” Podcast

A new “A Modern Civil Service” podcast has been released by the Cabinet Office’s Modernization and Reform division, and it focuses on issues related to creating a capable, creative, and aspirational civil service for the UK.

Sapana Agrawal, Director of Modernization and Reform, and host Catherine Hutchinson sit down to talk about everything evaluation in the first episode, “fail fast; fail small; fail smart.”

As she emphasises how learning from past errors is the key to how evaluations help the government give more effective and efficient services to the British people, Catherine asserts that “if you’re not failing, you’re not doing your job properly.”

Following a discussion of the distinctions between RCTs, counterfactuals, and adaptive evaluations, Catherine offers some helpful advice for enhancing your own assessment.

A Modern Civil Service’s debut episode is now available on YouTube.