Research and analysis

Liverpool City Region: UKSPF summary evaluation plan

Published 16 October 2024

Applies to England

Summary of the local place

Located in north-west England, Liverpool City Region is a combined authority made up of 6 local authorities: Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral. There are 1.6 million residents in the Liverpool City Region, although the region serves around 3 million people who live, work and study in the area. The city region has a rich industrial, cultural and economic heritage, however, it also experiences high levels of deprivation, poverty and crime and challenges with low business growth and employment rates.

Map of Liverpool City Region

The Liverpool City Region funding landscape is complex, with funding being accessed through different sources, including Adult Education Budget, Transforming Cities Fund, Towns Fund, EU Structural Funds, Levelling Up Fund. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund investment builds on and supports the Liverpool City Region strategies and the regional allocation from UKSPF is £52.5 million which is being delivered across Communities and Place, Supporting Local Business and People and Skills interventions.

Unit of analysis

Given the size and complexity of the Liverpool City Region, the evaluation will focus on a subset of the interventions being delivered across local authorities. The focus is on interventions being delivered across the City Region, or where there is clear consistency in outcomes across delivery mechanisms at local authority level. The evaluation will cover interventions across all three investment priorities, but the focus will be on Communities and Place, and Supporting Local Businesses.

Most interventions from the People and Skills investment priority have been excluded from the evaluation. This is largely because interventions under this theme have only recently started delivery, and many long term outcomes are not expected to be observable during the case study research period.

Methodological approach

Process evaluation

Process evaluation will explore and answer questions about the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of UKSPF fund design and interventions, as well as the efficiency and effectiveness of processes used to manage and deliver the Fund. The approach to the process evaluation will include:

• A review of local data and documentation, including monitoring data submitted to MHCLG.

• Interviews with key stakeholders to explore the quality of programme processes and delivery.

• Analysis of secondary data to inform a context review of socioeconomic conditions in LCR.

Impact evaluation

Following consultation with MHCLG, Liverpool City Region and local authorities, it was agreed that impact evaluation will focus on selected interventions outcomes and impact, as well as expected future outcomes and lessons learned. An assessment of the opportunities for developing counterfactuals and quasi-experimental approaches to impact evaluation was also undertaken.

The approach to impact evaluation will include the following quasi-experimental approaches:

• Matching with Difference in Difference (Business Support) – comparing change in metrics across successful and unsuccessful applicants to business support interventions.

• Difference in difference (Communities and Place) – examining key metrics, such as footfall and reported crime, in secondary datasets across comparable town centres to determine impact.

• Outcomes comparison across matched groups (Communities and Place) – analysing survey answers from respondents in treated areas against a matched group of respondents from an untreated area.

• Interrupted Time Series (ITS) – analysing metrics where long-running data is available, to support conclusions about attribution.

Theory-based methods, specifically contribution analysis, will be used to further assess what changes have taken place in Liverpool City Region, how UKSPF has contributed to outcome achievement and why. The research team will develop a contribution or performance story for outcomes expected to be achieved in Liverpool City Region under each theme, linked to the Theory of Change. Evidence sources for the performance story include:

• Management information, providing data on the progress towards and achievement of outcomes as outlined in Liverpool City Region’s Investment Plan.

• Secondary data sources, which can be used to support QED approaches and provide contextual information.

• Primary research with stakeholders, to capture data on outcomes from the perspective of stakeholders and critically explore achievement of outcomes.

• Primary research with beneficiaries, to explore outcomes achievement further. The research approaches include interviews and focus groups.

Economic evaluation

The evaluation in Liverpool City Region 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

A range of primary and secondary data sources will be used in the evaluation, in line with the range of outcomes in this case study. These include:

Primary data collection

• Consultations with stakeholders
• Qualitative research with beneficiaries, including interviews, focus groups and surveys

Secondary data sources

• Data collected by local authorities (footfall, business creation)
• Data from customer relationship systems at Liverpool City Region
• Street level crime data (police database)
• Land Registry transaction data
• Community Life Survey at local authority level
• Business Structure Database (turnover, productivity, jobs)
• Companies House business survival database
• Annual Survey of Hours and earnings
• DWP Claimant Count data
• Annual Population Survey
• Ofcom Connected Nations data