Having in-house capability in evaluation and review methods is essential, both in order to conduct reviews internally as well as to oversee those commissioned externally.
The goal for public administrators should be to develop and maintain sufficient expertise in evaluation to enable collaborative internal analysis and intelligent external commissioning. This will normally require a “critical mass” of analysts who can work together and learn from each other, and hence help develop a culture of evaluation.
This need not involve special resourcing, as the skill sets relevant to ex post assessment of regulations are largely the same as those required for ex ante evaluation or RIA processes.
Capacity enhancement needs to be pursued through training of existing staff as well as through recruitment, with on-the-job learning an important element.
Some training in evaluation methods is useful for most staff members involved in policy or regulatory areas, since it can enhance their ability to identify and take into account various impacts and help avoid unintended consequences. It can also help build a culture of evaluation, which is conducive to evidence-based policy making generally. Such training can be imparted through special courses, or “on-the-job’, which can have the benefit of greater perceived relevance. For example, the Australia and New Zealand School of Government places emphasis on evaluation in its Executive Masters of Public Administration course and offers member governments special training modules in evaluation methods, and cost-benefit analysis in particular.
When capacity needs to be built up from scratch, recruitment of people who are already skilled in evaluation techniques has an obvious role to play. Such recruits can bring the further benefit of imparting knowledge to other staff.
An important complement is ensuring that guidance and training manuals are systematically updated to ensure that staff receive up-to-date training.
Consultants can usefully supplement expertise available within government, but how they may best contribute in specific cases needs to be carefully considered and they should not be over utilised to the detriment of internal capability.
External consultants, whether academics or specialist businesses, can usefully supplement government expertise where departments are responsible for reviews, particularly when specialised skills are called for (such as in quantitative analysis or survey design and management).
However, consultants should not be relied on to the point of degrading internal evaluation capacity. Certain reviews will generally need to be conducted internally (e.g. because of political or strategic requirements) and, as noted, it is vital for administrations to retain an ability to quality control externally commissioned work. On this and related issues see (Banks, 2009[1]).