Ipsos in the UK - Policy & Evaluation Spotlight Projects

At Ipsos in the UK, we cover an extensive range of policy areas to deliver robust evaluations for a variety of public and private sector clients. These evaluations provide evidence and insights into the impact, process, and value for money outcomes of programmes. Throughout 2025, our evaluations have influenced policy within the UK regions, at the national level and internationally. In this post we present some of our most impactful projects this year. 

PROJECT 1

Turning vaccine evidence into action for zero-dose children: Gavi’s Year 2 evaluation

Ipsos’ independent Year 2 evaluation of Gavi’s work to reach zero-dose children and missed communities involved seven country case studies (Afghanistan, Cambodia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, South Sudan), 50+ global and 90+ country-level interviews, and secondary analysis. 

The work received the highest overall score from Gavi’s external Evaluation Advisory Committee (EAC). Findings are already informing Gavi’s next strategy (6.0), helping ensure no child is left without lifesaving vaccines. 

What was involved: 

• Utilisation-focused design: We produced five concise thematic briefs of implementation, partnerships, primary health care integration, zero-dose immunisation programme in humanitarian settings, and advocacy. These answered Gavi’s priority learning questions for immediate decision-making and forward planning.
• Process tracing of delivery pathways: We followed funding and delivery flows from grant approval to sub-national implementation to pinpoint where support accelerates—or stalls—on the ground.
• Mixed-methods, triangulated evidence: Primary interviews were combined with secondary analysis to develop findings and we assessed the strength of this evidence to give decision-makers clarity on confidence levels.
• Meaningful co-delivery with local teams: Ipsos country teams (India, Pakistan, Sub Saharan Africa, Uganda) led in country work, ensuring contextual nuance and practical recommendations. An in-person kick-off with Gavi and partners aligned stakeholder buy-in and reduced transactional data collection.

Challenges we solved:

• Access and security in fragile/humanitarian settings: We pivoted to remote/proxy interviewing and leveraged trusted in-country Ipsos teams to collect robust evidence safely and efficiently.
• Fragmented, uneven documentation across grants: Standardised extraction templates, process tracing, and systematic triangulation reconciled inconsistencies and built a coherent evidence base.
• Complex stakeholder landscape: Early alignment via an in-person kick-off, clear interview protocols, joint analysis sessions with Gavi, and regular touchpoints kept momentum, ensured ownership, and sharpened recommendations.

Gavi’s Management Response commits to using the evaluation to shape Gavi 6.0 (2026–2030). This includes plans for bettering monitoring and learning by piloting enhanced implementation monitoring in 2025 and clearer measurement and learning requirements in the next grant cycle. 

Alongside this, more country led, streamlined support will be provided by simplifying technical assistance via country grants, with stronger partner accountability and space for local participation, and a joined up, sustainable delivery with closer integration of immunisation with primary health care, and use of pooled/joint funding where appropriate to sustain results.

There will also be use of agile approaches in fragile and humanitarian settings (including zero-dose immunisation programme) to ensure clearer, faster decision-making and delivery adaptations tailored to context, and coordinated advocacy with a coherent approach to keep zero-dose priorities on the agenda at global, national, and sub national levels. 

Access the report here.

PROJECT 2

From Early Evidence to Real-Time Policy- Our Evaluation of the Life Sciences Investment Programme

Ipsos's Policy and Evaluation team was commissioned by the British Business Bank to conduct a process evaluation and early impact assessment of its Life Sciences Investment Programme (LSIP). This pivotal £250 million programme was designed to address a critical funding gap for the UK's scaling life sciences companies by providing UK fund managers with cornerstone capital in growth stage life sciences funds. 

Our task was to assess the programme's early implementation and impact, providing insights that could shape its future. 

What was involved:

• Dynamic policy environment: As the study was entering its final phase, the UK Government launched its new ten-year Life Sciences Sector Plan as part of a refreshed Industrial Strategy. Given the prominence of the BBB as a key institution for realising the Sector Plan’s objectives, our findings on programme design and delivery were highly relevant for future policy. We adapted our analysis to this new context, aligning our recommendations with the Government and BBB’s new objectives and mandate. This provided the British Business Bank with immediate, actionable feedback, transforming our report into a useful evidence source for strategic policymaking.

Challenges we solved:

• Limited evidence base due to the programme’s long-term nature: Given the programme's early stage and challenges around deployment of capital, the pool of LSIP-backed fund managers and companies for interviews was smaller than anticipated. Our solution was to utilise in-depth qualitative interviews with a process tracing methodology, reconstructing the causal steps linking the programme to evidence or signals of key commercial outputs such as fundraising or effective use of capital. This allowed us to build a detailed, evidence-backed narrative of the programme's early influence, demonstrating how to generate useful and robust insights despite a limited evidence base.

Our evaluation provided the British Business Bank with insights that are helping to shape LSIP's implementation as well as the Bank’s thinking about future programmes. The project showcases Ipsos's ability to conduct rigorous analysis in challenging contexts and adapt to shifting policy landscapes. Our evaluation approach shows how we can provide clear, evidence-based insights to guide our clients’ strategies even in the early stages of a project.

Access the report here.

PROJECT 3

Evaluating Economic and Social Impact: The Domestic Energy Affordability Support

In response to the escalating energy costs affecting UK households, the government implemented a £36 billion Domestic Energy Affordability Support scheme in 2022. Ipsos, collaborating with London Economics, conducted an extensive impact and economic evaluation for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, providing crucial insights that shape future energy policies.

What was involved:

• Advanced Economic Modelling Techniques: We used advanced price elasticity modelling (AIDS/QUAIDS models) to explore the interaction between energy costs and household consumption patterns.
• Social Cost-Benefit Analysis (SCBA): Adapting frameworks used for the Covid Job Recovery Scheme, we assessed the overall value of government interventions, emphasising an inclusive approach aligned with DWP guidance.
• Value for Money (VfM) Analysis: Our evaluation incorporated findings across various energy affordability schemes, quantifying impacts on both households and the broader economy. Distributional impacts on lower-income groups were measured, alongside health and environmental implications through QALYs and carbon costs.

Key capabilities we demonstrated and further developed:

• Delivery of complex economic evaluations of large-scale government interventions.
• How to adapt and apply SCBA frameworks to assess the value of emergency interventions outside standard Green Book guidance.
• Quantification and monetisation of the social, health, environmental, and economic costs and benefits of policy interventions.

The findings from our evaluation provides actionable insights for policymakers to guide energy affordability strategies, highlighting Ipsos' ability to deliver robust evaluations supporting informed decision-making. 

Access the report here.

PROJECT 4

Navigating Regional Solutions: Insights from the Foster with North East Interim Evaluation

Ipsos is evaluating Foster with North East- the pathfinder of the regional foster carer recruitment hub model which launched in September 2023 to improve the recruitment and retention of foster carers on a regional level. This expands on Ipsos’ portfolio of previous research on foster care. 

The recently published interim report led by Ipsos UK provides insight into the on-going impact, process and Economic evaluation. What was involved:

We utilised a mixed-methods framework: 

• Theory of Change: Co-design of a regional Theory of Change with engagement from the pathfinder hub and local authorities.
• Implementation and process evaluation: Gathered qualitative insights from local and national stakeholders (including approved and prospective foster carers)
• Impact assessment: Carried out a Difference-in-Differences (DR-DiD) evaluations using Ofsted Local Authority data and published full annexed diagnostics providing DfE and the region with an established, robust methodological foundation. We also triangulated these DR-DiD findings with qualitative insights from stakeholders and with quantitative trends found in the Hub’s monitoring data. 

Economic evaluation: Used a ‘break-even’ analysis to look at the financial benefits of the Hub. This analysis looked at ‘how much would the Hub need to improve the number of approved foster homes so that the money saved equals the money we spent on the Hub in the first year.’ Challenges Addressed:

• Inconsistent Data Reporting: One challenge was the inconsistency in definitions across local authorities regarding ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ enquiries. A ‘soft enquiry’ usually involves a person asking for information about fostering with no commitment to foster, whereas a ‘hard enquiry’ usually involves somebody intending to formally apply to become a foster carer. However, what constitutes a ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ enquiry varied between LAs, meaning enquiry trends were reported descriptively. We adapted to focus on descriptive data to ensure that these variations did not obscure analysis and that insights into fostering trends remained clear and concise.

Outcomes and Insights:

The interim report informs policy at both a regional and national scale. The report explores the importance of ‘readiness’ to apply, word-of-mouth referrals, myth-busting communications, the monetary value of shifting away from a reliance on residential care, and cultural shifts towards collaboration when competing with Independent Fostering Agencies to recruit foster carers. This sits within the policy challenge of a growing demand to meet the needs of children in care across England, with respectively declining rates of approved foster carers.

This evaluation is part of a broader policy initiative, as the regional hub model is now being scaled nationally. Market shifts towards fee harmonisation across Local Authorities remains a focus for the Hub, and continues to be explored as part of the multi-year evaluation of Foster with North East. The final report is due to be published in 2026.

Access the interim report here.

Explore further Ipsos in the UK research in this portfolio.