Introduction

This Partnership Evaluation Tool (PET) has been developed to help multisectoral partnerships to monitor their development, to assess emerging benefits and to identify areas for further development. PET is based on research carried out by the Institute of Public Health from 2003 to 2006 as part of a research programme on measuring impacts of multisectoral partnerships on inequalities in health. The project was funded by the Research and Development Office of the Health and Personal Social Services in Northern Ireland, through their New Targeting Social Need research programme.

Based on in depth research with Health Action Zones and Investing for Health Partnerships in Northern Ireland, we have developed a conceptual model of how partnerships may impact on the determinants of health. A brief outline of the partnership model can be found here and if you are interested in using PET we would recommend that you read this section. You may also want to read a more detailed and theoretical outline of the model which can be found here. Even though PET was developed in a health context, we believe it is relevant to other multisectoral partnerships.

We propose that in the early phase of a partnership, the main benefits will be connections and relationships formed. Following this, benefits may emerge from the learning that happens which may lead to changes in the actions of individuals or organisations. PET can, by being administered at regular intervals, for example annually, measure these developments. As such, PET is designed to be of value both to young partnerships and to those that are more mature.

The feedback reports provided from using PET have been found to be useful to partnerships, allowing discussion of their development needs.