Building the evidence on what works in SOC programming

Measuring what works in terms of SOC programming is notoriously difficult because of the hidden nature of SOC, and the ability of criminal groups to adapt to responses. Yet, there is an urgent need to increase our understanding of what is and isn’t working to inform better programming. Itad is currently delivering the Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning contract to support the Home Office Global SOC Portfolio. Through the contract, we have developed more innovative ways of evaluating programming, including through thematic evaluations. Focusing on types of programming rather than specific projects, thematic evaluations are learning focused, aiming to generate evidence and insights on the effectiveness of different approaches to feed into decision-making on future programming. To maximise the value of these evaluations, the focus has been less on interventions that have been implemented for some time, instead engaging with areas of intervention that intuitively make sense as ways to tackle SOC, but have little evidence of effectiveness, particularly indirect programming.