By Dr Alison Charles, Research Assistant, University of Kent and CAVEAT team
We know that community and voluntary organisations are under more pressure than ever to show the difference they make. Funders want evidence. Partners want reassurance. Communities want to know services are working.
Yet too often, organisations are asked to prove their impact without the time, skills or capacity to do so properly.
With funding from the Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey and Sussex, we were able to develop a free toolkit that provides organisations with guidance and resources to help them collect information and data to demonstrate the value and impact of their services. Launched in 2023, the CAVEAT toolkit generated significant interest among Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations. However, how it was being used was largely unknown.
So, working with East Sussex County Council, we recruited 4 VCSE organisations in the county to assess what happens when organisations are given a free, practical evaluation tool – and the support to use it.
What we saw was genuinely encouraging.
Evaluation is often seen as technical, time‑consuming or something only researchers can do. Our experience with CAVEAT showed us that this doesn’t have to be the case.
When evaluation tools are designed with community organisations in mind, they can be both accessible and useful. The organisations we worked with used the toolkit to better understand their services, listen more closely to service users and volunteers, and make informed changes to how they work.
In some cases, this led directly to service improvements – such as expanding food provision or strengthening volunteer training. Just as importantly, staff and volunteers told us they felt more confident collecting and using information. Evaluation stopped feeling like an added burden and started to feel like a way to learn and improve.
One of the strongest messages we heard was about the value of service‑user and volunteer voices. Using CAVEAT helped organisations put lived experience at the centre of their thinking.
When organisations took time to gather and reflect on feedback, it led to new ideas and different conversations – not just within organisations, but across the wider system they work in. They saw evaluation becoming a starting point for change, rather than a box‑ticking exercise.
Even the best tools can’t solve the capacity issues facing the VCSE sector. Half of the people who responded to our survey told us they struggled to find time to engage with the toolkit. Some organisations needed hands‑on support to understand how CAVEAT could work for them.
We don’t see this as a failure of the toolkit. Instead, it reflects the reality of increasingly stretched and pressured community organisations. If we want VCSEs to evidence their impact, we need to pair tools with support, flexibility and realistic expectations.
Despite these challenges, all 4 organisations involved in the project told us they plan to continue using CAVEAT. They described it as 'simple', 'flexible' and 'genuinely helpful' – feedback we don’t hear often when people talk about evaluation.
That tells us something important. When tools are designed well and organisations are supported to use them, evaluation can become a strength rather than a burden.
If we want strong, sustainable community services for older people, we need to stop asking organisations to prove their value without giving them the means to do so. From what we’ve seen, CAVEAT is a meaningful step in the right direction.
Next steps
Learn more about the CAVEAT-i toolkit project
View the short video about using the CAVEAT toolkit.
Register for and start using the free CAVEAT toolkit.
Find out about the experiences of using the CAVEAT Toolkit from Age UK East Sussex and Friends Altogether in Rother (FAiR).
To find out more about this project, please register and join the CAVEAT-i webinar on Tuesday 2 June 2026.
