CAG Consultants were the Learning and Evaluation Partner for the five-year Climate Action Leeds (CAL) programme, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund. CAL is an ambitious, multi-partner programme, with the aim of working for a zero carbon, nature friendly, socially just Leeds by the 2030s. The other partners comprised Voluntary Action Leeds as the Programme Management Partner and accountable body, Our Future Leeds/Leeds Love It Share It as the City Movement Building Partner, Together For Peace as the Community Hubs Partner, and Leeds Tidal as the Sector and Campaign Support Partner.
As Learning and Evaluation Partner, CAG:
- Co-produced an evaluation framework, criteria and rubrics
- Deloped tools for programme monitoring and evaluation, including case studies, surveys and a carbon measurement system
- Undertook annual evidence collection and analysis and supported partners to do annual partner and programme level self assessments
- Produced a CAL video
- Produced annual programme assessment reports and an End of Programme assessment report, which document successes, challenges and progress across the five years of the programme.
Examples of case studies we produced include of the Alwoodley Walk to School Week and of Seacroft Forest Garden. These both showcased what the projects had achieved and also estimated the carbon savings for each project and what the carbon savings could be if these were replicated at a Leeds city scale. We also produced a detailed Climate Action Leeds Learning Signpost of the first three years of Climate Action Leeds. This was done as part of our work for the National Lottery Community Fund’s Support and Learning Partner for Phase 1 of their Climate Action Fund programme.
“CAG Consultants are highly valued as the learning and evaluation partner to Climate Action Leeds. Their considered approach to learning from activity across the programme, applying academic rigour to this learning and reflecting it back to partners underpins the ‘test and learn’ approach our project seeks to take. Particular highlights of CAG’s work include co-designing a framework for a distributed approach to carbon measurement and creating a flexible mechanism for end of year review. As lead partner VAL particularly values CAG’s focused analysis and role clarity in approaching their work.” Rich Warrington, Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL)