Research and analysis

Hastings: UKSPF summary evaluation plan

Published 4 April 2025

Applies to England

Summary of the local place

The borough of Hastings is located approximately 53 miles from London, on the southeast coast of England with a population of approximately 91,000 in 2021. The borough’s main hub, the town of Hastings, is a popular tourist destination and the area is known for its rich maritime history and its connection to the historic Battle of Hastings. The town is facing several challenges, falling below the national average with respect to labour market participation and salaries and experiencing a demographic shift towards an older population.

Map of Hastings

Broomgrove, an area in the Northeast of Hastings, is one of the borough council’s most deprived areas with 67.6% of households facing at least one of four major dimensions of deprivation: work, education, health, and housing conditions.

Unit of analysis

The evaluation will focus on impacts seen in Broomgrove and cover all interventions funded across the three United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) investment priorities. Hastings Borough Council sees all its interventions as complementary, contributing to the same overall impacts. Several of the interventions also target the same groups of people. As Broomgrove residents are likely to have received support from multiple UKSPF interventions, it is appropriate to include all funded projects within the evaluation scope.

Methodological approach

We will adopt a mixed-methods approach that combines primary research, secondary data analysis, and a quasi-experimental approach, underpinned by a contribution analysis framework.

Process evaluation

The process evaluation considers the four main elements of UKSPF delivery and management in Hastings: fund design, fund implementation, intervention delivery, and data collection and monitoring. We will collect evidence through reviews of local data and documentation, interviews with local stakeholders, and secondary data (including analysis of ward-level data on indices of multiple deprivation, and Claimant Count data). We will analyse evidence using a process evaluation framework with 22 process evaluation questions, including questions tailored to Hastings.

Impact evaluation

In developing this evaluation plan, we have considered the potential to use robust counterfactual groups to help assess additionality. The unit of analysis in Hastings offers an opportunity to treat the intervention as a natural experiment and measure its effects by potentially comparing Broomgrove with other, similar parts of Hastings that are not subject to similar interventions.

This approach is most appropriate for the interventions under the Communities and Place investment priority. These interventions aim to have community-level effects, whereas the training and business support interventions focus on a more restricted group of individual people and businesses – a proportion of which is expected to be from outside of Broomgrove.

We will use a range of qualitative methods, including contribution analysis, to provide additional evidence and narratives around the impact of the intervention.

Economic evaluation

The evaluation will include a value for money assessment following the National Audit Office 4E’s approach, assessing the economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of the UKSPF interventions.

Data to support the evaluation

Primary data collection

Beneficiary and non-beneficiary surveys: This will be one of the most important evidence sources of the evaluation. We plan a survey of Broomgrove residents and potentially residents in a comparable area of Hastings, that captures evidence across multiple outcome and impact areas, and across multiple investment priorities (given that interventions are neighbourhood-specific). We will use one of the following two survey options:^{[footnote 1]}

• Custom questions added to the regular residents’ survey implemented in Broomgrove by Southern Housing. This is our preferred option.
• If using the Southern Housing survey is not feasible, modules from the ‘Your Community, Your Say’ survey relevant to green spaces and local facilities and the “Pride in Place and Life Chances” part of the survey will be delivered through that survey.

Interviews: Semi-structured interviews with a variety of key stakeholders will allow for more in-depth research around process and impact issues. Interviews will include Hastings Borough Council representatives / UKSPF project delivery team, other delivery partners, as well as external stakeholders such as non-UKSPF service providers in Broomgrove and local employers.

Delivery observation: A number of Hastings’ interventions involve public facing events and engaging directly with members of the public, and volunteers (e.g. support provided at the community centre, support at the training hub). We aim to make use of these occasions to have informal conversations with individual beneficiaries or groups where appropriate.

Collaborative working with stakeholders: We understand that some stakeholders and delivery providers already collect information that will be relevant for our evaluation such as client testimonials, and monitoring data on some outputs and outcomes. We will therefore maintain close working relationships with key information gatekeepers connected to UKSPF in Hastings.

Secondary data sources

Secondary and monitoring data: we will use this data to understand the extent of local challenges and how Hastings Borough Council compares to other regions across the indicators of interest. Analysis of secondary data will also allow us to identify the communities most in need of support. We can then compare with programme monitoring data to help determine how far Hastings Borough Council has been able to reach its target beneficiary groups. We will draw on the following:

• Analysis of ward-level data on Indices of Multiple Deprivation to help understand which areas may be need of greatest help.
• Analysis of Claimant Count data, to determine which parts of Hastings may be in greatest need of employability support.

1. See section 5 for details ↩