Research and analysis

West Midlands Combined Authority: UKSPF summary evaluation plan

Published 4 April 2025

Applies to England

Summary of the local place

West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) comprises seven local authority (LA) areas (Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton). It consists of primarily urban areas with major conurbations and has a population of 2.9 million people.^{[footnote 1]}

Map of West Midlands Combined Authority

WMCA received £88.4 million of ‘core’ United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) funding, which is being used across the three investment priorities: Communities and Place (£25.6 million), Supporting Local Businesses (£46.3 million), and People and Skills (£16.4 million). The aims of WMCA’s UKSPF programme are to address the key challenges faced in the region: poverty, inequality and ‘left behind places’;^{[footnote 2]} skills gaps (including in basic digital skills), and low productivity. The programme also builds on some of the region’s strengths: its diverse range of local civil society and community groups, and its competitive advantage in certain growth areas (business, professional and financial services; creative and digital; and low carbon and environmental tech).^{[footnote 3]} Interventions are therefore aimed at improving investment readiness of firms and supporting firms to grow, and supporting inclusion and social mobility by:

• building capacity and supporting local civil society and community groups
• investing in volunteering and social impact projects
• providing employment and skills support (including soft skills and digital skills)

Unit of analysis

The place level evaluation of the WMCA will focus on seven interventions, with one intervention chosen from each of the seven LAs within the combined authority area. Alongside this, information available from the combined authority and each of the seven LAs will be examined to provide insights into UKSPF at the combined authority and LA level, as well as at a project level.

The more detailed focus on 7 interventions reflects the large and wide-ranging number of interventions taking place within the combined authority, meaning it is not possible to analyse all projects being delivered under UKSPF. It also reflects WMCAs wish for the evaluation to provide analysis on each LA. WMCA have adopted a democratic approach to delivery, whereby each LA put forward the interventions they wanted to deliver under the three investment priorities. UKSPF funding is then directed to the LAs to fund the chosen interventions. As such, while interventions are taking pace in each of the 7 LAs, delivery is not consistent across the region. Different interventions are operating within each LA, and a different number of interventions are being delivered in each LA.

A locally commissioned evaluation of activity falling under the ‘Supporting Local Businesses’ investment priority is taking place in the WMCA area. For this reason, this evaluation will exclude this investment priority. Additionally, while the Combined Authority does have some interventions taking place under the People and Skills investment priority, WMCA specifically chose to fund skills interventions through sources such as the Adult Education Budget, National Skills Fund, and Multiply, in order to focus UKSPF on interventions that could not be funded through other means. As such the seven projects chosen are in the Communities and Place investment priority, with one also falling under People and Skills. Interventions being delivered under the Communities and Place investment priority focus on providing holistic support to vulnerable groups, improving the physical space of town centres and high streets, and delivering art and cultural events and activities.

Methodological approach

Process evaluation

The purpose of the process evaluation is to answer questions on the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of fund design and interventions and the efficiency and effectiveness of processes used to manage and deliver UKSPF funding. The approach to the process evaluation will include:

• a review of the evolution of the local context at the interim and final stages
• analysis of MI to gather evidence on the progress of delivery of the programme
• stakeholder and beneficiary qualitative research to explore the set-up and implementation of the UKSPF investment in WMCA

Impact evaluation

Following detailed review and evaluability assessment, it is not feasible or proportionate to deliver Quasi Experimental Design (QED) approaches for the Communities and Place and People and Skills interventions in the WMCA area during the case study delivery period due to:

• outcomes associated with these interventions will likely focus mainly on perception (such as user perception of if a service/amenity has improved) rather than easily quantifiable and comparable outcomes.
• while different interventions are taking place in different LAs, all LAs have multiple interventions within the Communities and Place investment priority targeting similar outcomes. As such, it is not possible to compare a LA within the WMCA area to another LA within the area that has no Communities and Place, or no People and Skills, interventions.
• similarly, given the mix and scale of interventions within each LA, it would be challenging to isolate the impact of one intervention in a LA and compare it to another LA within WMCA that did not have that specific intervention. Furthermore, the scale of the activity associated with one intervention suggests that it would be insufficient to generate a large enough impact for the effects to be clearly seen in secondary datasets.
• where there is a defined population accessing support from multiple different organisations there are challenges in attribution. For example, residents supported by the Sandwell intervention focused on helping those with sight loss are likely to be accessing support from other organisations/services as well as the UKSPF funded organisation. As such, determining the contribution to beneficiaries’ outcomes that is purely due to the Sandwell intervention is extremely challenging.
• timing of delivery is a challenge, providing limited time for outcomes and impacts to be achieved and measured within the timeframe of this evaluation.
• as part of their internal monitoring, WMCA held a meeting with the What Works Centre for Local Economic Growth (WWCLEG), to get their input on whether a QED was possible. The advice from the WWC was that it could not be done, because of the above-mentioned reasons.

Contribution analysis will be used to assess what changes have taken place in the WMCA area, how UKSPF has contributed to outcome achievement and why. The research team will develop a contribution framework for the expected outcomes, linked to the Theory of Change. This will draw insights from:

• *management information will provide data on the progress towards and achievement of outcomes as outlined in WMCA’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 will allow more in-depth exploration of the outcomes achieved.
• secondary data sources will provide useful contextual information to support the evaluation, although there may be limitations, such as attribution.

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

Qualitative research will be undertaken with stakeholders (including strategic, operational and frontline stakeholders) and beneficiaries (including citizens and 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 as a whole. 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, and observations.

Key data sources to be used in the evaluation

Key outcome area	Primary data collection	Secondary sources
Providing holistic support to vulnerable communities/residents: including supporting residents with sight loss to live independently; providing holistic family support; supporting local needs	Stakeholder and beneficiary perceptions (via interviews) Feedback from any related UKSPF funded events (via interviews)	Management information e.g. numbers engaging with the funded project, numbers of volunteers Visitor numbers at funded project events (if available) Community Life survey[footnote 4] / ‘Your Community, Your Say’ survey Social media data Claimant Count data or Annual Population Survey*
Increasing community capability and engagement: including increasing community engagement amongst inactive residents; empowering communities to feel connected; building community capacity, capability, and networks in local neighbourhoods through community organisations; enhancing the accessibility and so reach of community services	Stakeholder and beneficiary perceptions (via interviews) Feedback from any related UKSPF funded events (via interviews)	Management information e.g. numbers engaging with the funded project, numbers of volunteers Visitor numbers at funded project events (if available) Community Life survey[footnote 4]/ ‘Your Community, Your Say’ survey Social media data Ofcom fixed connections coverage and performance data* Claimant Count data or Annual Population Survey [footnote 4]

1. WMCA (2023) West Midlands State of the Region 2023 – 2024 ↩

2. Research by Local Trust indicated that 21 wards in the WMCA area contain ‘left behind places’ with a lack of places to meet, lower levels of engagement and activity, and poor connectivity (in all respects) to the wider economy. ↩

3. WMCA UKSPF Investment Plan and West Midlands State of the Region 2023-2024. Available at West Midlands State of the Region 2023 - 2024 (wmca.org.uk) ↩

4. The scale and timeframe of activity in the WMCA may mean that changes are not detectable in these datasets. ↩ ↩² ↩³