ABSTRACT
It is frequently claimed that we live in a post-truth era where politicians play little attention to research evidence (Economist 2016). At the same time, however, they also appear to want to claim that their policies are pragmatic, common-sense views of ‘what works’ (Davies et al. 1999). Policy-makers often appear to want to cite anecdotes rather than evidence as supporting their reorgansations, but even the term ‘evidence’ conceals a great deal, so it is important to unpack what our expectations are around evaluation and evidence so that we are clear about what we are aiming for.
