Research and analysis

North East Lincolnshire: UKSPF summary evaluation plan

Published 4 April 2025

Applies to England

Summary of the local place

North East Lincolnshire is a borough in Lincolnshire, with a population of 156,966^{[footnote 1]}. The borough borders the Humber estuary and covers a mix of areas including the towns of Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham; the villages of New Waltham, Waltham, Humberston, Healing and Great Coates; as well as ports and beaches.

Map of North East Lincolnshire Council’s footprint

North East Lincolnshire has £5.3 million for core United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) activity on the three investment priorities: Communities and Place (£2 million), Supporting Local Business (£2 million), and People and Skills (circa £1 million). The area also receives just under £1 million in Multiply funding.

Interventions along the Communities and Place investment priority follow two interlinked goals: supporting place, tourism and heritage; and supporting voluntary and community groups. Interventions along the Supporting Local Businesses investment priority have been primarily related to investment in energy efficiency and decarbonisation technologies for local businesses, alongside support for entrepreneurship activities and business startups. Finally, the People and Skills investment priority has focused on reducing the skills gap in the area and supporting people to move towards the labour market.

Unit of analysis

The place level case study will be conducted across the entire borough of North East Lincolnshire, covering all three investment strands. The priority themes of interest for the evaluation have been drawn from the Theory of Change and in consultation with the LLA, and include:

• creating cohesive and thriving communities
• closing the skills gap
• creating environmentally sustainable businesses
• developing North East Lincolnshire as a visitor destination

Methodological approach

The case study will include process, impact and economic evaluation.

Process evaluation

A process evaluation will answer questions on the relevance and effectiveness of fund design and interventions, and the efficiency and effectiveness of processes used to manage and deliver UKSPF in North East Lincolnshire. This strand of the study will include both primary and secondary data collection and analysis, as well as local stakeholder interviews to uncover findings around funding design, implementation, delivery and monitoring. The approach will also include:

• a review of the evolution of the local context at the interim and final stages of the case study
• analysis of monitoring information (MI) to gather evidence on the progress in delivering the programme in North East Lincolnshire
• stakeholder and beneficiary qualitative research to explore the set-up and implementation of the UKSPF investment in North East Lincolnshire

Impact evaluation

Contribution analysis will support an assessment of what changes have taken place in North East Lincolnshire, whether UKSPF has contributed to outcome achievement, how and why. The research team will develop a contribution or performance narrative for outcomes expected to be achieved in North East Lincolnshire. This will link to the Theory of Change. The analysis will include:

• management information, which will provide data on the progress towards, and achievement of outcomes as outlined in North East Lincolnshire’s Investment Plan
• primary research with stakeholders to capture data on outcomes from the perspective of stakeholders and critically allow exploration of why outcomes have or have not been achieved
• primary research with beneficiaries to allow more in-depth exploration of the outcomes achieved
• surveys with businesses and employers to understand the impact of decarbonisation activities, and of activities to reduce the skills gap in key local industries

Economic evaluation

The evaluation in North East Lincolnshire 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

Stakeholder consultations and depth qualitative work will comprise research with stakeholders (including strategic, operational and frontline stakeholders) and research with beneficiaries (citizens, local business leaders, individuals accessing support). This data collection will capture evidence on the overall delivery and explore in depth the operation and outcomes of interventions and the investment. To engage the different stakeholder groups, we will employ a range of qualitative approaches, allowing us to offer flexibility in the ways stakeholders participate. This will include individual, paired or small group interviews, focus groups, surveys and observations. We will also survey local employers, and local businesses who received support on decarbonisation.

Secondary data sources

Case study themes	Data sources
Creating cohesive and thriving communities	■ Local data on footfall collected by the Local Authority (LA). ■ MI data collected by North East Lincolnshire Council (NELC) relating to cultural and creative events. ■ Case studies and data collected by relevant ‘Communities and Place’ interventions. ■ Community Life survey (key metrics: satisfaction with the local area, whether the area is improving or getting worse, feelings of belonging to the local area). ■ Social media sentiment analysis. ■ Your Community, Your Say
Closing the skills gap	■ Business Structure Database number of jobs (therefore, jobs created), turnover, productivity and potentially firm relocations into an area[footnote 2]. ■ Local data on business creation as a result of intervention. ■ MI data collected by the Supporting Local Businesses interventions. ■ Claimant count data or Annual Population Survey[footnote 3]. ■ Employer Skills Survey (depending on data release dates and alignment with intervention delivery).
Creating environmentally sustainable businesses	■ CO2 savings data collected by the Supporting Local Businesses interventions.

1. NE Lincolnshire Data Observatory– Population (2021). ↩

2. To note: There may be a small scale of Supporting Local Businesses activity in NEL that may not be detectable in this dataset. ↩

3. To note: There may be a small scale of People and Skills activity in NEL that may not be detectable in these datasets ↩